a natural crisis in half a century with the single currency threatening to bring down the very union that created it. international news and comment live from moscow this is good to have you with us this hour a deadly explosion targeting police has rocked a residential neighborhood in damascus getting up to twenty five it's believed to have been a suicide bombing with most of the casualties civilians syrian t.v. says the blast happened near a primary school it comes as the leader of the country's biggest opposition group has reportedly called for president assad's regime to be overthrown by military means a former high ranking army official who defected to the opposition has claimed the government was lying when it said the violence was caused by gangs aided from abroad. and get some more analysis on the latest syrian violence author and middle

east expert ali has told me that he believes the opposition of the sponsible for the attack and they're laying the ground for a foreign intervention. some of the opposition are saying there are certain regime organized this last themselves but i think it's unlikely the fact is that the national alternation committee in istanbul which is being coordinated itself to a certain extent by nato. is not in control of all the forces on the ground so i think it's quite likely that the suicide bombing was carried out by an opposition force and western governments like france saying that even if they did it the conditions that been created for them to do it something they never say about suicide bombs in. israel or concrete is which they are supported so i think the indications are that the bombing was carried out by the opposition to

create havoc and to create reprisals and a response we truly make foreign intervention more possible i think there any calls for nato in under whatever disk i o. occupying syrian airspace i don't totally unjustified intruder to be supported by anyone we've seen what the six month bombing of the libya has done on the ground the figures being touted now are between twenty five and thirty thousand libyan people died in both bombing raids we do not want the same thing to happen in syria. well let's talk more on this with dr he shall see he's professor of political analysts from princess to my university in jordan joining me live now from the capital amman an explosion targeting a police pass at the entrance of a police station and this comes as the leaders of the armed opposition call to topple president assad's regime by military means is is that what is happening now

. well you see what is happening now has been happening all along as the syrians have been claiming events have proven them to be right they've been claiming actually that right from the start the demonstrations were not truly peaceful and there were many incidents of. gas perpetrating crimes against the army against the security forces against the civilians and of course there were denying it the so-called opposition denying it for a long time but now everything has become clear these terrorist acts these shameful terrorist acts are a clear indication that there are armed gangs and there are terrorists working in syria to disrupt life in syria they're not aiming their aggression only against their regime but against the whole syrian people and against the whole syrian homeland so that is what is happening what is happening is that there are that the

conflict in syria is no longer an internal conflict it is actually a geo political conflict and there are geo political aims it has nothing to do with democracy and freedom and that there are certain forces international forces and local forces as well which are actually trying to change the situation in the area for geo political reasons. respective of the costs that will actually be imposed on the syrian people and on the whole area so what are the political reasons what what are those geopolitical reasons you are talking about well the geopolitical geopolitical reasons are obvious i mean the united states has been pulling out of iraq and it wants a compensation for pulling out of iraq it's as simple as that secondly doesn't want this alliance between syria and. iran to consolidate its influence in the area so it wants to dismantle it and of course there are also certain well let me say

a religious confessional. reasons they don't want to. class and if you want to be coherent they want to dismantle this. class and so it seems to me that these are some of the geopolitical reasons for this aggression there may be other reasons as well of which i'm not aware but i am aware of these reasons you know obviously what we are where we are witnessing in syria is not that evolution but actually it is a very ugly conflict to dismantle not only the syrian regime but to change the whole area and not a revolution are you saying let's just quickly ask you not a revolution perhaps we could be seeing the start of a fully fledged civil war bearing in mind this latest incident with the explosion and the response we're getting from the syrian government syria's interior minister indeed saying they will strike back with an iron fist a strong reaction there from the government what's going to happen then as

a result of that. but but what else would you expect i mean such a terrible act terrible terrorist act i would expect the syrian government to do have this response but i wouldn't go so far as to say that there is a civil war in syria it's not actually that the syrian people are divided. between themselves and they're fighting each other no it's actually a conflict between the and the so-called opposition which has. all over the world particularly in the gulf states the united states and france what we saw a similar situation when we saw a similar situation in libya did we where they had allies from outside of libya which of course led to the no fly zone being imposed in opposition military leaders there in syria are asking for the same could that happen would that be acceptable given the fact that assad's forces have not been involved in their operations. yeah well you see. it is similar to the libyan scenario and the libyan scenario was

a clear aggression by nato forces against the libyan people not only the previous regime and it was the devil devastated libya has been devastated for years to come now we hope that this will not succeed in syria syria is a different case the syrian regime is much stronger more coherent. the situation in syria is different from libya so i hope that this scenario this libyan scenario will not actually succeed in syria because that would be disastrous not only for syria but for the whole area and even for the whole world and i hope that russia and china will hold steadfast in. very positive. attitude. response dr very interesting talking to you thanks so much for time political analyst from the princess summer university there thank you very much indeed thank you thank you well we've been following developments in syria since the very first sparks of the uprising ten months ago and we'll keep you up to date

on all the details of that suicide blast in the capital as they emerge you can also follow your twitter feed an r.t.s. facebook page for the very latest. if. the u.s. military is in for a facelift after president obama announced america's focus would fall on establishing its dominance in asia the plan calls for a shift to special forces operations improved surveillance and cyber warfare capability long sought a slight reduction in ground forces but got to reports there are still plenty of

unanswered questions. the new 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 is 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.'s pull troops out of iraq would feel 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 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. will only we spoke to our military analyst who sees the overhaul is the result of a power struggle between branches of the u.s. military contract. this is a pseudo strategy that was lauded by the us military industrial complex this is where they're going to make money the united states has failed with 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 the classical fashion against china a bomb is just a talking head for god's sake he's only signed up whatever has been done under the intense battle between the us army us marine corps. navy and the air force so for the u.s. navy and for the u.s. air force they're the main winners in this they knew war for the shrinking you as budget. just after it's on veiling the plan was already drawing the 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 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 teachers laid off nurses laid off firefighters laid off but the pentagon will get more than its fair share. coming up later here on the program. in the middle east to washington is sending thousands of troops to israel for a planned training exercise the move sparks worries of a possible buildup to an attack on iran. that's still to come but first 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 and means that what began as

a project to establish an economic european superstate is now quickly becoming its very young doing. reports from brussels. the birth of an ambitious project a common currency celebrated with no less than a big bang. theory the beginning of a strong european you're. better for the war better. yet ten years down the road the euro is not in the best of shape. the spiralling sovereign debt crisis credit downgrades rising interest rates tens of millions unemployed budget cuts and violent protests. the euro's growing undergoing the worst crisis it 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 the leaders scrambling to keep it together. euro skeptics have long argued 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 all 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 back every euro zone and the 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 but this exhibit shows the journey of the

european union and the creation of the single currency with documented events in 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 my answer 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 or cilia r.t. brussels well coming up here a little later in the program here on. this but it is an example of a failed meeting between an outside culture and a native people. party offers you a view from the inside at how ancient communities in russia are struggling to keep their traditional way of life a life. that's still to come for you the u.s. is moving thousands of its troops to israel for a planned joint exercise it comes against the backdrop of increasing tensions in

the persian gulf over iran's threat to block the crucial strait some analysts have voiced fears it could be part of a build up to a military strike on iran. who's in jerusalem is following developments. well certainly people here are concerned by the latest developments they come at a particularly sensitive time in the region as the american president barack obama has signed into law sanctions that will make it very difficult for countries to buy oil from iran and what we're hearing from the israeli military is that it will reportedly be holding its biggest military drill ever with the united states and what's important to note is that we're not talking here of only a military exercise we're talking about the deployment of thousands of american troops into israel what we're hearing from both sides is if they will be testing various missile systems against rockets and against missiles what we're hearing though from the iranian officials is that they believe that this is the latest and most blatant sign that israel is planning to attack iran and attack at some time

soon the israelis of course denying this their announcement comes just ten days after the iranians held a military exercise near the crucial strait of hormuz but the israelis say that this announcement that they'll be holding this joint exercise with the americans is unrelated to the iranian exercise tensions certainly are running high here in the region what we're hearing from tehran is that they believe that the european union is waging an economic war against it and this is in light of the e.u. constituting imposing sanctions against iranian oil exposed exports and indeed if this goes ahead it could be implemented by the end of january what we're hearing from iran is a threat that they in turn will close and block the oil trade through the crucial for moore's strait and they've also warned the american naval presence in and around the persian gulf certainly tehran is feeling the pinch of these sanctions

that the international community has imposed and looking to impose against it the currency dropped to a record low after the american president signed into law those sanctions so what we're hearing. from iran is also that it's preparing its own naval exercises that these exercises will go ahead soon they are part of a series that has been dubbed the great prophet so certainly that has people both here in the region and in the international community concerned paula slither jamaal lobby of the national iranian american council in washington claims the actions of america and israel indicate that they are preparing for war against iran which could descend into a massive middle east conflict. we're getting closer and closer to war with iran. anybody who argues that this kind of extraordinary confluence of events planned exercises by the u.s. and israel the exercises that iran was doing in the in the persian gulf we have sanctions in place with no diplomacy the only way that that is through

confrontation back in september the u.s. actually provided israel with an advanced radar and for the first time actually deployed. permanently deployed u.s. troops to israel that was a small contingent of couple hundred troops what we see now though is this much larger exercise not unprecedented but definitely something that is going to have an impact right now as we see this sort of tit for tat in confrontation between the u.s. and iran the idea is that were there to be a massive war in the middle east presumably with iran that we would be ready to set up command within israel and actually have israel set up a command center in europe at the u.s. european command iranian officials have said this they're going to consider any strike by israel a strike by the united states. now let's see what else is making headlines right now and world updated very nearly twenty three minutes past the hour here in the russian capital in turkey

a former chief of staff has been arrested after being accused of leading a terror organization and planning to bring the government. is the most senior official in the dock in a series of investigations into alleged anti authority plots in the country the rest comes after three elections reshuffle the power structure in the country's government. thousands of people taking to the streets in the capital of yemen demanding the president steps down opposition leaders say they have strong doubts that he will resign despite a deal being struck back in november that agreement stipulated that president saleh should have handed over power to his vice president in exchange for immunity from prosecution. now time for a close up series as we continue to explore russia remembering its most spectacular corners close to you and this week our team is ventured to part of the country's far east the region.

this is russia's melting pot of cultures with all sorts of customs and traditions mixed into an amazing blend but as tom barton 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 pre russian culture. to the fullest 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 now and i and that's helped conserve some of the traditions of the central to the nano way of life has always been fishing the russians brought with the new technology and culture most of the eight hundred thousand and eight c. 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 fry them boil them smoke them and dry them we are all sorts of fish. but 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 their native ways the orit's were also a native fishing people now their fishing boats lie broken and unused on the shore . at that hour 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 orit's children soon drop out of school unemployment and alcoholism are rife you think that if we tore away 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 watching does he want to walk he wants work but there's no jobs and in the nearby town he would need to go there every day but it's not far she 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. . well folks christians all around the world are celebrating christmas believe is in moscow have already started getting outside christ the savior cathedral on the banks of the moscow river very close to the kremlin and preparing for an all night vigil and it will be marked with a special religious service and that will have more on this in the next hour for you because the live pictures from the heart of the russian capital. well sports update just ahead for you later this hour but first though

a recap of our main stories after a quick break stay with us for that this is all to. true.

white stream cascading from mountain slopes the view is midsomer rising. this beauty brings death at a speed of more than two hundred kilometers from. stepping down i'm a long one on. the close up team has been to docu stuff birthplace to the most ambitious football club. the world. lead naldo r g goes to the far east where the timber industry attracts the legendary siberian tigers where the ancient native community loses its way in the modern world. and where the country's mineral wealth starts its way across the ocean. comes to the boss creature russia blows up.

the world with the true science technology innovation hall the list of elements from around russia we've got the future covered. live from moscow this is a top stories now this hour a suspected suicide bomb attack targeting a police bus routes for a residential part of the syrian capital comes amid growing opposition calls for the overthrow of president sat by military means. shifting strategy barack obama says i'm into iraq style capacious to focus on increasing u.s. influence in asia thanks for emphasis on an unconventional war plan. and israel is preparing for join.