markets lead america's plunge off the fiscal cliff while the republicans and democrats heigl to pull the safety court. as the number of dead in the moscow plane crash rises to five and investigators speak in the painstaking process of being to be accident we take a step by step through the sequence of events. plus from painful a stereotype in europe and up people across the arab world to the rise of political awareness in russia as the world turns a new page to two thousand and thirteen our t.v. captures all the twists and turns of the outgoing year.

and i welcome thanks for watching this is r.t. coming to you live from moscow. the united states has all but begun its plunge off the fiscal cliff at least on the marquee sun with last minute talks between republicans and democrats falling apart yet again america could be in for a hard landing wall street is in full retreat saying five straight days of selloffs is panicky investors jump ship or knees day six hundred billion dollars worth of tax hikes and federal cuts are slated to come into force in america and a deal to avert that is still no way inside though is. reports the makings of this crisis were there for all to see now the u.s. congress created this cliff situation when they failed to agree on a budget that would help the country reduce its deficit and its you mongers debt

and what they did was what they usually do they put off those important decisions until a certain deadline that deadline is now so we came up with this scary word cliff to create lots of drama around what should be the ordinary maybe somewhat boring working process of any congress or parliament that is to agree on a budget the need to deadlines so the cliff which actually describes the mode in which the congress is working their inability to make decisions until the very very last minute the cliff that u.s. lawmakers have artificially created could become very real for the american people the vast majority of them over one thousand government programs would be cut it would hit the unemployed very hard they would stop getting unemployment benefits there would be other automatic cuts and tax hikes that would mostly affect those who are financially insecure but everyone knows even if the lawmakers don't need the january first headline they can pass measures retroactively and at the end of

the day they will decide something but congress seems to love the drama of the whole cliff situation they have all the attention in the world and literally the whole world the media of course helped them hype it up and was. the countdown they started two months ago and while politicians here are enjoying all that attention turning last minute trick scoring political points the hype around the scary word cliff is already hurting the economy experts say it's affecting business and consumer confidence if wall street is any indicator stocks have been falling for a fifth straight day on friday they called it a fiscal cliff slide other markets are reaching signals uncertainty coming from the you way as oil prices have soared in the asian markets ahead of a last minute effort in washington to reach a deal on fiscal cliff that's what you read in the news so this whole charade in washington could have implications i'm many levels on the fiscal cliff which some

call a product of u.s. lawmakers imagination could become a self-fulfilling prophecy now as if trying to find your way through a complex tax system isn't bad enough in the u.k. millions have been paying through the nose for telephone services to help them navigate it this story coming up later. another crew member has died after a passenger jet crashed at one of moscow's busiest ports it brings the number of dead to five while three others are still fighting for their lives in hospital the redwings plane skidded off the runway and planted into the embankment of a major highway on saturday experts believe bad weather brake failure or simply pilot error could have led to the tragedy of an ocean and now looks at how the events unfolded. the twenty ninth of december the last working day of two thousand and twelve in russia four pm businesses closed offices forgotten until the next

year families friends employees jump into their cars and escape the busy capital he's got highway heads to the west a region where most of the luxury states and country houses are located traffic jams a common with a song with a day and this time of the year with want to lock the road is almost empty. passengers come out of the car to see what the sound was a big stack to see anything but not this. just minutes before that and simpler to know for what number ninety six i think is wendell to acknowledge the first times it's unsuccessful the plane makes a wrong over the airport and begins to send in for a second time when they sign the plane touches down but can stall the experienced

crew at that moment very slightly knows already they will not make it the jets reaches the end of the runway runs into the fans but still continues moving and it finally stops after overrunning the asteroid by four hundred meters the plane breaks into three parts and tail is lying over the whole year the road people can easily see its number or a fix for four seven the middle paul just bog misses the way the cockpit is already partially damaged after the crash with a science falls right at the edge of the highway it's a miracle indeed the road is empty at that time this is a ten lane highway the wreckage is only on one of the lanes traffic continues on at least three here even after the tragedy does fashion by slowing down to see what happens they notice and measure and possibly find on the run the very roads they usually drive every friday and everybody sings

a sad moment course if i've had call minutes earlier or was eve i'd have been on that airplane people come out of their cars and try to help out those in the cockpit how pretty that. weather conditions technical failure and pilot error are among the investigators main causes of the incident was most likely a combination of reasons behind a fatal crash however a plane hitting a busy highway in one of europe's biggest cities could have left a much motiva satan trail of destruction there wasn't enough luck for everyone on that saturday evening. marie for national party law school region and if you want to expert opinion on what may have caused the crash or you want to find out more about the plane itself head to r.t. dot com all that much more is lined up for you there. there are lots of

things you might want to spend your hard earned cash on this holiday season but finally your tax return probably isn't among them however millions of people in britain are doing just that and are having to pay a premium rate for official telephone help lines polly boyko has more. your annual tax return of herself that many adults find utterly daunting and perplexing luckily for the british public the tax man has a whole array of telephone helplines to help and advise people on how to fill in the piles of forms needed for it getting through to someone might be a bit of a problem though britain is spending watchdog says that last year some twenty million phone calls went on answered by the government tax office and of those lucky enough to get through between the months of april and september over six million people had to wait for over ten minutes just to get an answer from someone and i've decided to give him revenue and customs premium priced phone line

a call to find out how long it would take me to get through to them. i've spent over three and a half minutes waiting for someone to pick up the phone. last year customers spent an estimated thirty three million pounds in call charges just waiting to get through to somebody at the tax department experiencing what critics call a shameful level of service him revenue and customs have released a statement saying that they've lowered the cost of calls to one of their premium phone lines the most popular one they also say that they're aware that they weren't able to deliver the standard of service that they're committed to in the past however they're now answering over ninety percent of the calls that are made to them but ultimately critics say that it's the complicated u.k. tax code that spans over seventeen thousand pages that british citizens find it so hard to get their head around and it's the telephone providers that are responsible

for the helpline is that a cash in on all the tax confusion but we've got plenty more coming up for you including a look back at the events that shaped the year twenty twelve all that coming away after a short break. so how much does it take to get into russian politics how many hours of hard work and how many patriotic deeds does it take to become one of the people who make the decisions in the world's largest country well i'll tell you how much it takes exactly seven point five million euros russia's federal investigative committee has a stablish that allegedly hey of and constantine should shoulder from fear russia and the commies part respectively promised for a fee to get a businessman on to their party's electoral lists giving him a spot in the lower house of the duma the investigators have forwarded the state

duma an official request to strip the two m.p.'s of their parliamentary immunity and you're darn right they better street have their parliamentary immunity stripped i mean what's worse than government corruption some people in the government being so corrupt they can actually sell the government itself to someone for a fee so positions in parliament corruption on this high of a level needs to be punished severely breaking rocks in siberia or worse sounds pretty good to me tolerating flagrant corruption does not a great civilization make but that's just my opinion. very.

good speech. lucky. to slum it good luck. plays. out run a fairly. cool .

more news today violence is once again flared up. these are the images the world has been seeing from the streets of canada. showing corporations are the day. alive again. from the arab spring together with the desperate freight battles and that hate europe plus heated presidential races both in russia and the us is the new year is knocking at the door when i look back at the uneasy legacy of twenty twelve. by now what critics have to point it while has reached its and along with the nine member calendar. but it looked more like

this year a decade of war is a. search for a new. well we're still here and when it comes down to it the world not only didn't end but very little changed in twenty twelve we have the same challenges facing the globe the same conflicts preventing peace the same policies hampering solutions and many of the same people in power as we come into twenty thirteen so what will twenty twelve be remembered for let's take a look back. at some in gaza their world did and when israel launched a short but deadly campaign in response to rockets fired by hamas after one of your leaders was the front leading us solidly backed israel the critics claim the use of

disproportionate force has become too common a practice for your trail a defense force journalist also being targeted and children becoming casualties it has the same policy if you like as the united states with regard to collateral damage that it's happy to injure dozens of palestinian men women and children as long as they can kill one person who might have helped fire a rocket into israel shortly after a cease fire palestine celebrated gaining u.n. nonmember status but it's still a long way from statehood as is the region from a peaceful two state solution israel and palestine this was conflict continues to rage in neighboring syria you know that russia trying to possibly stay running his country be. he has to go assad must go but charlotte said the demands and predictions that syria's president would fall in twenty trials went on for fulfill

his sat down for an exclusive interview with r t well into the year insisting he would not give up as the push for regime change continued and terror reigned in his country of i'm not popular in me but with the with for twenty other countries i'm sick and i mean. i may be in syria and i have to be visiting him but it's going to be deemed everything from civil war to sectarian fighting to terrorism to genocide syria stay the center of a media war through out twenty twelve with unconfirmed atrocities on both sides haunting the web and only one side taking the brunt of the blame for assad is crazy he's a brutal dictator reese killing his own people this is the same narrative that we heard about gadhafi. but we didn't hear much about libya in two thousand and twelve on most networks or from western officials not until the aftermath of regime change there and the terror that ensued went too far u.s. ambassador and embassy staff were killed in benghazi in september the most

significant event two thousand and twelve is the failure of nato to follow up on its on its libya momentum to create a forced regime change through proxy. mercenaries in syria and the fact that russia and china and iran stood firm on. the entire time table that nato had in mind to run this destabilization. and now the entire arab spring scenario is it's not disintegrate it's becoming a nightmare one that spread to western allies in the region like bahrain for mass protest arrest and even death haven't provoked much global media coverage or any push for democracy. and there are. instead provocations like the film the innocence of a muslim made headlines and incited outrage across the arab world funded in the u.s.

and considered highly offensive to islam the movie didn't go over well in states now run by islamist after post revolution polls in egypt and tunisia. u.s. embassies were left in shambles as flags burned and freedom of speech was back on the debate tonight the film was banned in some countries like russia and defended by others like the states as a protected light of expression a right not awarded to whistleblowers like julian assange who had a busy year and. he was granted political asylum by ecuador after being released on bail while the awaiting a british court's decision on his extradition to sweden for most of twenty twelve assigned to remain under house arrest but still managed to find a way to leak and change the world tomorrow his groundbreaking exclusive interview show premiered on r t why some sat down with guests shunned by the mainstream media like has the last house on the throne law here and internet freedom activists the

cyber monks the future of the internet i think it's no journalist with the salt in the world working today has not used a wiki leaks cable whether it be at the lowest level of covering their local health center to the idea of schools and education let alone geopolitics still many journalists slammed the songes work on r t and he continues to be a man the west and mainstream media love to hate while he remains holed up at the ecuadorian embassy in london fearing u.k. officials will grab him the moment he steps outside. the. protests ripped across europe in two thousand and twelve as the euro crisis worsened leaving many no choice but to go out onto the streets so many people are becoming desperate people of god getting. angrier and angrier spain had millions on the street at a time demanding the government stop cuts and demos continued in greece who got

a forty four billion euro bailout masses were met with heavy handed policing in most countries across the e.u. which was awarded a nobel peace prize in twenty trials. they ultimately if there are too many protests won't even be able to afford the policemen on the streets and therefore we could actually end up not so much with a violent reaction from government but there's actually a danger of an arcade because government itself may break down but it is. not the case in the u.s. where the occupy movement lost momentum this year corporate backed media and authorities managed to dull demonstrations demanding economic equality and responsibility is one of a party there do you know you wait for occupy to expand from its needs and from that. you know usually you write it by the elites as a bunch of anarchist story or students who know how to sing better to do it is to organize themselves politically something the group is promising and twenty

thirteen with some predicting the old ws movement might have better luck in europe . russia saw protests this year leading up to and after vladimir putin was elected for a third time as president but not nearly as big as what we saw at the end of twenty young levon i think the demonstrations in russia what motivated by frustration the demonstrators had the care political goal which was to discredit the reputation of president putin or even to russian knowing that those plans could be continued russian going to win the election they had no choice they had no possibility of beating them in an election so they tried to their strategy was instead to discredit at least in the eyes of the west just before putin's inauguration protests in central moscow turned violent for the first time since the recent. position movement began to rally against arrests were made in both protesters and police reported injuries several demonstrators face court hearings on charges of

and finding mass public disorder and a dozen more trials will carry on in the new year with the opposition claiming this is all part of a kremlin clamp down on their movement but putin's reelection and protests didn't get nearly as much attention as this. was the riots rocked riot on the altar of christ the savior and the scandal that followed made world headlines took over the blog a sphere and had celebrities like madonna defending them for the russian orthodox church she was outraged. there is no defense in this case it's simple p.r. lawyers uncorking up on ali fear they're working towards the brand in order to capitalize on it in the future and it's worked some of the groups girls got two years in jail for the stunt which was criticized by the west as too harsh the story made in the headlines for weeks on end leaving little room for stories like this.

thank you very much the way u.s. presidential candidate jill stein and her running mate arrested for protesting outside a debate for top party only candidates obama and romney the american system is designed to eliminate political opposition like some of the you know dictatorships that we criticize the debate makes a mockery of our democracy despite being on the ballot in a not states to technically win stine and other candidates were not allowed to debate and got almost no coverage in the lead up to elections on u.s. networks instead third party candidates only chance to debate live on television here was for marty's washington studio i think our founding fathers would be spinning it in their graves if they could see this. in line with homes and projects . and obama won the election but his work is cut out for along with other world leaders to be here to come a rough economy growing discontent and conflicts either standing still or raging

wild and he's in our way r.t. . so come on what's gripped your attention this year you can tell us via twitter if you like just make sure you catch tag your messages with r.t. recall to share your highlights of twenty twelve that's it for me this hour but stay with us because sport is next with kate. you just laugh a man often knows that to ride a horse you've got to catch it first. for him it's a daily routine that you're soft as

a horse breeder on the island of bohol and at the heart of biker all his life on an isolated farm is about blue sky green grass and his horses were there sometimes it gets lonely here but horses have become part of me now i've fallen off so many times sometimes they bite as well it's part of my every day life. i horns minho me to ignore the rats locally just laugh for centuries most still live off the land cattle and fish every evening local villagers place their nets and in the morning the catch is always good. we always have enough here. or. by coal is often called the pearl of siberia and horn is said to be the pearl of by call it's

a land of think forests. and vast stops. in seoul so a place of traditions respected by locals and travellers a like. an economist turned adventurer has crisscrossed by called shores and learned its customs well. you see pillars like this and thought to have supernatural powers every traveler who comes here asks the spirits to make the journey easier give them strength and fulfill their dearest wishes i knew virtually undiscovered by tourists until some twenty years ago i was cornish quickly becoming a magnet for nature lovers and if you will sic others but those used to five star pampering maybe in for a surprise the island's infrastructure has yet to catch up with the growing demand you're quite some way from civilization here accommodation on the island is very basic so you can forget about a t.v.

or even running water for most people a tent is the on the eruption but for those who come here it's exactly what they're looking for. you and your need to buy coal can be unique trip of a lifetime and the local say once you've seen it you'll be coming back again again and . hello welcome to the r.t.e. sports show with me partridge and here are the stories making headlines. clash of

the titans inspires there's got to be scarring over time in a close sport are we don't be in soon petersburg. plus one of the strikes islands are going to have netted this beauty in tennis got three to win it walda but isn't the best gold in the first half of the season we have the top ten. and the ice king returns a figure skater yevgeny pollution goes shrugs up a back injury to secure a stunning ten russian national crown in sochi. and let's start on the ice where captain bubble that suit grabbed a vital goal is to beat scar in overtime in the army dhabi instant petersburg to avenge last october's defeat robert father has more. some of you will discover a side by the about soup you've never known before. father's just sit back and

admire. the man with out of this world but control produces a clean vote a check on one of the league's giants to him that's how this army darby kicks off ten minutes in scout open through better on the ball play. here for a second on the host's qualities the suit was in control and then and faces. moments before the seconds are mission oleksandr a. home side to the fans and please that super scores his down the field in the case one zero. and in overtime when the shootout looks inevitable with just six seconds to get there are doing.