new year's day. before. it's americans. begin ruling out possible causes for the deadly plane crash. a correspondent. from the rest of. europe's. major.

you're watching. trying to pull the u.s. from the brink of the fiscal cliff couldn't get much closer to the wire and a few americans will be hit hard by billions of dollars of tax hikes and spending cuts which will automatically come into effect on tuesday but republicans and democrats just can't agree on how to avert it and time is running out on his own washington correspondent. 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 monger's 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 they 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 and 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. blind 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 with the countdown they started two months ago and

while politicians here are enjoying all that attention turning last minute 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 of certainty coming from the u.s. 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 on many levels and the fiscal cliff which some call a product of u.s. lawmakers imagination could become a self-fulfilling prophecy. well congress has trouble sorting out a deal to prevent americans slipping into a tax black hole some agreements just seem to breeze through this china growth from

wide awake news explains. welcome to united states of america this is where we govern by crisis we don't have representatives in washington d.c. we have political prostitutes that will go before a camera and say that anything that they have to say is to keep this massive government rolling and you can take sexual interest influence in washington d.c. for that when the cameras are on you know if they're on the red team they're going out there saying it's the welfare folks as well that's the people on food stamps or the people in extended unemployment benefits if they're on the blue team they're coming out and trying to get their base fired up that it's all about the corporate interest and that this is why we can't come up with you but isn't it me is it when the cameras are off and it's time to pass a trillion dollar nearly trillion dollar quote defense bill they have no problem whatsoever coming to coming together and holding hands to put that kind of a deal together i think ultimately the hammer is going to fall on the people of this country it is called austerity nobody in washington d.c.

wants to own up to that austerity but eventually it's coming to this country. crash investigators have ruled out the condition of the runway as a cause for saturday's deadly plane tragedy at one of the busiest airports the red wings' plane skidded off the runway and plowed into the embankment of a major highway five people who were on board have died while the other three are still fighting for their lives. to unfold it the twenty ninth of december the last working day of two thousand and twelve in russia. business is. the next year. jump into their cars and escape the busy capital. highway heads to the west region where most of the luxury states and country houses are located traffic jams are common this time of the day and this time of the year but want to lock the road is almost.

passengers come out of the car to see what the sound was a big sack to see anything but no fish. just minutes before that and similar to all for what number ninety six i think is when the little i posted this one is from the czech republic the plane touches down but can't talk as three to one with the runways they had but still the airline is moving too fast to experienced crew at that moment very slightly nose already they will not make it the jets reaches the end of the runway runs into the fence but still continues moving 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 stick for four seven the middle paul just bog misses away the cockpit 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 there is passing by slowing down to see what happens they notice and left lane called street lights on the road the very road they usually drive every friday and everybody sings a sad moment was eve eyes had come minutes earlier or was eve i 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. one of europe's biggest cities could have lived a much more devastating trail of destruction there wasn't enough log for everyone on that saturday evening. party moscow region. well for expert opinion on what to may have caused the crash as well as details about the plane itself you can head to r.t. dot com. at the end of the year in britain also means that ploughing through tax return forms before the penalty deadline many people though are already being penalized in the pocket simply by asking for help in filling out the forms solti's plea bargain. your annual tax return of percepts 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 helplines that of cashing in on all the tax confusion. oh the new year just around the corner for us here we prepared a special farewell to twenty twelve. special coverage with two cars from several countries as well as spectacular festivities and some support to expect. us to come before midnight that's the way we recap the major events of. the brain.

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 he of and constantine should show from faire russia and the commies prospectively 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. wealthy british style.

markets. find out what's really happening to the global economy with. the no holds barred look at the global financial headlines kaiser report. twenty four. it's already a twenty thirteen in some parts of the world including australia japan and three of russia's nine times so liberations are in full swing in russia's far east and parts of siberia the rest of the country catching up in the coming hours as the world gradually welcomes in the new year we look now at the events which twenty twelve will be remembered. my. point it while has reached its and along with the nine colander. but it looked more like this. a decade of war is an.

hour. was it when you. 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. for some in gaza their world did end when israel launched a short but deadly campaign in response to rockets fired by hamas after one of their leaders was assassinated u.s. solidly backed israel but critics claim the use of disproportionate force has

become too common a practice for your truly 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. 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 a pilgrimage if you had 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 in terror raid in his country of them i'm not popular in me but with a quick political point of the country i'm sick and i mean. i may be in syria and i have to be visiting him but it's going to be very 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 onto the web site and only one side tricking 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 twenty 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 libyan 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 at that in mind iran this destabilization. and now the entire arab spring scenario is it's not disintegration 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. 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 table where tonight the film was banned in some countries like russia and defended by others like the states as a protected life of expression a right not awarded to whistleblowers like julian assange and who had a busy year and here he was granted political asylum by ecuador after being released on bail while the weighting of 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 the right to leave the can change the world tomorrow his groundbreaking exclusive interview show premiered on our teens and always on sat down with guests shunned by the mainstream media like has the last house on the front and internet freedom a user base neutral site where 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 education let alone geo politics 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. protests ripped across europe in twenty twelve as the euro crisis worsened leaving many no choice but to go out onto the streets so many people are becoming desperate people are gaga. 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 i am right. they ultimately if there are too many protests won't be to 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 arche because government itself may break down the crowd is. not the case in the us where the occupy movement lost momentum this year corporate back media and authorities managed to dull demonstrations demanding economic equality and responsibility is one of a party there where 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 skewed in schools though how do they seem better to do it is to organize themselves to to something the group is promising in 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 love and i think the demonstrations in russia were motivated by frustration the demonstrators had the care political goal which was to discredit the the reputation of the christian community but you don't. know if those 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 the east in the eyes of the west just before putin's inauguration protests in central moscow turned violent for the first time in three . an opposition movement began to rally against the arrests were made in both protesters and police reported injuries several demonstrators space court hearings on charges of inciting 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. week 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 just sending them to the russian orthodox church she was outraged. there is no defense in this case it's simple p.r. lawyers uncorking out on ali feel 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 the 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 part. obama won. his work cut out along with other world leaders here. growing discontent and conflicts either standing still raging why he's there now

a part. you can tell us what's great to your attention most on our team this year. recall in your message look forward to hearing your thoughts and reading some of them out. as we approach midnight here in moscow also online right now britain. doctors are being told to take a taste of their own medicine on our web site now. example by having gastric bands and. the british. king of the carbs the french fry. i don't want to see whose most convincing.

one hundred thousand more people could die in syria over the next year if the government and the opposition don't start talking. international peace envoy lakhdar brahimi also warned that the country would become a failed state ruled by warlords and this diplomacy is given a chance as proposed peace plan involves forming a transitional government based on agreement between the authorities and the rebels the opposition is dismissing the initiative. join any talks president. mohamed a member of the syria dialogue organization lose their position is being instigated from abroad. what should be mixed is a wide dialogue between all syrians but as we see some of the superpowers in the world are still up through the two to pressure the opposition for dialogue and this

mean more and more forms of scale eating violence the opposition of power because of the big well for law who are friends that we have gone there for a long while and it's being called in there after they and it's quite clear where they are coming from the borders with turkey in the borders of living on the borders with jordan are slightly off it is well and it's obvious that the international powers the western powers are interested in allowing this work in smuggling and they are looking boxes like turkey or some part of the another not doing that is the job for them. one more news for me in just thirty minutes time the sport with kate of the great.

indian legal of russia is no far away from civilization and history are one helicopter treat from the nearest village. they still one family have been living here for a long time in tents and they don't bring d.s. keane's thank. you. so obvious that. lodging runs in a single nail and minutes they are also grew up in the two but left it at the age of six and never returned they now live in the city in apartment building but still room and their regions was.

was flooded here is a dancing teacher. was a and to his dances he tells the stories about his motherland. lives in europe to now has a one thousand strong reindeer herd when the enemy saw the light can and most around brood is gathered it turns and moved to another posture they travel hundreds of kilometers in winter women and children for them. but the two families have less of a chance to come across each other they belong to different worlds even though there is sometimes a similar. hello

welcome to the aussie sports show with me take partridge and hear the stories making the headlines. clash of the titans inspires discard to beat scarring over time in a close sport all the dolby ensuite petersburg. plus one the strides islands are going to have netted this beauty into his guthrie to win it involved up but isn't the best goal 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.