militants and all those who are crossing attacks for the christmas period that's all specs are being linked to international terror organizations and chechen militants that are bushels of following developments for our city. police here in brussels say they busted an islamic terrorist cell tied to russia's republic of chechnya which is planning attacks through three throughout europe so it is swooped on fifteen people suspect of recruiting jihad is to fight in iraq and afghanistan that comes just hours after all sorties launched pre-dawn raid on homes of another eleven suspects who were tied to a cicily are linked in its work the belgian prosecutor's office said quote there were an international terrorist group using a stream internet site and saw al mujahideen to plan an attack it comes as part of massive coordinated raids across europe in countries like the netherlands denmark and germany where thirty one year old russian of chechen origin was arrested

suspected of training jihadists to fight in terrorist campaigns those arrested or belgian moroccan and russian origin this is seen as among the first top level links that police have found between russia's chechen. rebel organizations and the worldwide al qaeda network also to say those arrested are suspected of gathering recruit some money to finance a chechen terrorist organization called the caucasus emirate in effect to found a separate islamic state based on the surreal law in the cells of russia and it comes in the wake of horrific attacks in russia from those moscow metro bombings that we saw earlier this year two increasingly but bloody suicide blasts in russia's southern republic of dagestan and chechnya of the one of those attacks russia's foreign minister sergey lavrov said that those chechen linked groups were based and was standing very much in line with al qaida but after that the united

states put chechen rebel leader dog on the most wanted list of terrorists but it's really taken this set of events in the past twenty four hours to show that russia's chechen terrorists networks are standing shoulder to shoulder with some of the world's most dangerous terrorists. russia is that leader says the country's democracy is only the right path but needs improving it to avoid stagnation is the main message from president that is latest video blog which is just been posted online. been watching it. in his address russian president dmitry medvedev mainly spoke about the need to modernize russia's political system with the help of gradual but still reforms but also to make sure that a stable political system doesn't mean that it's the naysaying. zelig national political system or we simply want to make our political system more fan more flexible more dynamic and more open to renewal and development he must enjoy the

confidence of our lecturing it is no secret that for some time now signs of stagnation have begun to appear in our political life because to pretty has threatened to turn into stagnation was. russian president also spoke about the freedom of speech in the country the need to improve the quality of popular representation have stronger opposition forces and to simply have a better political competition and more rights for political minorities. if the opposition has no chance or tool of winning a fair fight it degrades and becomes law and you know if the ruling party never loses a single election it is just coasting ultimately to degrades just like any living organism which remains static for these reasons it's become necessary to raise the degree of political competition with a question president has also said that the ruling party in russia should not act

simply as a supplement to the executive power list here a list of bills have been completed that made major amendments to the multi-party political system on a nationwide scale and the key points of those amendments were decreasing the human factor in those counting providing more rights to political minorities and minimizing the risks of elections money relations politician this is still my. hope that our political system has been improved quite significantly as a result of these adjustments i am absolutely sure that it has become more open and flexible because of them. ultimately it is also become more fair and there are more points i made. and democracy is imperfect and we are absolutely worth this but we are still at the beginning of the route the most important thing is that we are not standing still we are going forward you. will of course this address comes at a very important sign for washer is there let true period is approaching

parliamentary elections will take place in december two thousand and eleven and this is when all the amendments that have been introduced this year will be taken to the test. telling that to watch president medvedev full video blog on russian democracy will self do you had to call here's a quick taste of what also is waves if you will on the websites everybody song from the rigs set between russia and the u.s. we look at whether it's really working in getting expert paul calls on war that lie at. last the world's most infamous nuclear power plant gets a new safety count twenty four years off to a new year with radiation we reported on the deadly dangers that still lurk within china.

south korea says it has discovered the bodies of two civilians on one of its border rylan shelled by north korea pyongyang claims the attack which took place on tuesday was in response to seoul firing weapons during military drills near the front here well two south korean marines were also killed by the shelling so hit back with artillery file of its own details about casualties on the northern side have not been revealed the international community is demond in the two countries remain. and maintain that cool to invent a new war breaking out on the peninsula bob pillin yeah warns that will strike again if the south validates the border by so much as a minute me when i. think the south korean president did these only incidents for his own best interests. we've got the korean peninsula those two countries north

and south are still in a state of war there was only an armistice signed until russia and china king talked to the north to get them to back down but we also have to have the united states put pressure on president lee myung bok of south korea because he's been very warlike he unlike his predecessors who were trying to open up to the north in a policy of sunshine diplomacy cross border visits special economic zones this particular president of south korea is very aggressive very right wing and very unpopular at home and the only thing he has going for him is to boost his image by getting into a military showdown with the north. now the rights of journalists just one backing from a major european security watchdog the o.s.c. e sent a letter to the american secretary of state condemning the detention of an r.t. news team there with the is calling on the hillary clinton for an independent

investigation into the case accusing american parents of going it's too far in their attempts to maintain order the r.c. crew was arrested while compering a peaceful protest against the military academy dubbed the school of offense since in the state of georgia the teen crew member spent around thirty six hours in jail . protests against austerity measures have flared up once again in cities across europe a twenty four hour general strike is underway in portugal over public sector pay cuts and tax rises two days before parliament votes on severe new budget while the strike is said to cause the biggest disruption in the country for over two decades meanwhile addresses building in the u.k. over the government's proposal to increase university tuition fees let's cross drive down to london where we're joined by john gaunt referendum campaign money that is joining us mr gore do you think that these austerity measures that we're

seeing at the mobeen which of course the unrest across europe all the best route to recovery and if not what is. well i think the problem is that it's ordinary people who are going to have to pay for the mistakes of the bankers and the actually lation of politicians of all parties right across europe and across the western world ordinary people opposing for these whether it's students here in london good demonstration today who are the retraining workers or whether it's people who work in the public sector the simple fact that the bankers and the politicians seem to go away scot free there's a major poll in today's newspaper the biggest tabloid here in britain that is. says the british people forty seven forty eight percent of them didn't feel we should bail out ireland and nearly eighty percent are now saying that britain the united kingdom should not be allowed to other countries like portugal or spain these are

difficult difficult times and this is why people are protesting on the streets because it's them who are going to lose their houses their jobs you mentioned ireland that of course that is just the latest. crisis that we're seeing seeping across europe bubbles followed by bailouts greece ireland is portugal next in line for an e.u. bailout. each surely looks like portugal are going to go pop today and they're going to want the bailout but are say there is an outcry here in the u.k. for we're not in the euro zone of course we've never even had a referendum which is why we're part of the referendum campaign dot com we want a referendum on whether we stay in europe but at the moment the euro itself which of course we're not part of the single currency is crashing and burning and after giving the u.k. taxpayer giving ten billion pounds to ireland who still keep their tracks ational corporation taxation twelve and a half percent not sticks not call it a little bit and it certainly looks like as you say portugal are going to go the same way and they have a general strike today if they're go their way there's

a danger for all iberian peninsula. spine of the weekend and there's a real recession happening in spain because of course their economy is based on construction and at the moment there is no construction going on many many swades and swathes of houses completely unoccupied brand new housing in spain and the euro in freefall argued only see these protests getting worse and you say you have to come back from spain but i do day that you are of course speaking to us from the u.k. what is your view king with regard to the feature of the year is there now on the single currency is it going to survive if we have to see a bailout every time that a member economy fail. well the bottom line is the euro was the mistaking the beginning thank goodness we never joined the single currency it is going to crash and burn and also you know i would argue that that is why we need a referendum on the because as to say that the british population of never being

consulted on it in any real shape or form she's why we in the referendum campaign want a full referendum on should we stay or should we go i think the euro as a currency is doomed whether the you can survive is another issue that is certain and a major pressure the moment the german people as well thought of providing our economies like greece like ireland and indeed now portugal as well i think spain will be the it will be the straw that breaks the camel's back i mean it's just isn't sustainable i don't see how you can tie the economies of somewhere like greece with an economic powerhouse like germany for that's the fundamental problem the euro here here in new the u.k. view forty eight million pounds a day to brussels out of church with the man and woman industry and it's not just has to say here in the u.k. the students are protesting today but in portugal is a general strike the strikes planned in spain in the next couple of weeks as well my friends were telling me while i was over there and of course we have seen sharks

and even riots in places like france and the euro experiment is beginning to disintegrate i caver he is to blame for the bank but is that simply easy is that simply become a favorite game to point the fingers that the think will bank is he that the. bubble bailout crisis that we're seeing seeping across the entire european continent well there the roots of it is the fact that the banks gave out loans willy nilly and the root of it is there was lax regulation large commercial globe and that's down to the politicians isn't it and you know for example ireland you know we've been told a law at the moment in britain we've been told we have to bail out our interest we trade with them so much and also that ireland is such a close neighbor the truth is. we're bailing out the our response because we're trying to save r.b.s. the rule bank of scotland well the british taxpayers already failed our but particular bank out once about twelve months ago and we're being asked to do it again we're being asked to give intent give ten billion pounds to ireland we're not

even a member of the eurozone others a lot of people in great britain who feel we shouldn't be bailing out ireland and i say this poll in today's tabloid the sun the biggest selling newspaper in britain says that nearly eighty percent of the population will not sugary chose paling out any other countries and i'm sure that's going to be mirrored if they did a similar survey in similar germany our friends at the moment are blamed i blame the politicians mainly for the trouble we're in at the moment in europe ok from the e.u. referendum campaign many thanks thank you very much. let's bring up to the international stories this hour and twenty nine workers trapped underground in a new zealand coal mine been declared dead after a second gas explosion police saying they one could have survived what was described as an horrific whilst we think gas have been swirling in the pike river connery since the first blast last friday which prevented rescue attempt the

country's worst mining accident in the central. cambodia and investigators are trying to discover what started a stampede that claimed more than three hundred seventy lives during the country's under water festival tragedy struck when thousands of people panicked as they tried to cross the bridge causing a huge crowd surge most of the victims were crossed one of those drowned because they have been declared a national day of mourning. after. the recent nato summit in lisbon was not only about talking politics it seems after a long day's work out the meeting french president nicolas. was kept up an excessively noisy party at his hotel well it turned out with a delegation from georgia which isn't even a native member threw a sizzling social with no less than eighteen prostitutes at least that's what it would g.'s newspaper is claiming the party reportedly came to an abrupt halt after

the and several other officials complained to his health trial for banning the noise it's not clear whether the georgian president himself was there although he was present at the summit mikhail saakashvili and is a yet to comment on the alleged scandal. over the last whole century is central asia trying to test the hall for its original size of the full of it irrigation pond so you drained what was once one of the world's largest lakes the receding waters it devastates with the region's prosperous fishing industry bringing all the appointments and economic hardship. that nancy france reports today the sea is returning and with it some hope. it starts with sun up these men fish in one of the worst manmade environmental disaster areas ever no i don't think the city just sort of wrote and then a trip turned brought to see back to us. when central asia became the center of the

soviet union's plan for cotton cultivation it nearly drunk dried the rivers feeding the erroll see what covered sixty eight thousand square kilometers in one nine hundred sixty around the size of southern california shriveled to a tenth of its size by the mid one nine hundred ninety s. nearly disappearing by the year two thousand here where the greater and lesser seas split there's just enough left for modern technology to make a stab at regenerating it in two thousand and five the cocoa brown dam was constructed to trap what little water still flows into the lesser sea from the searing river locked safely inside the water is growing to witness the results you must drive hours over rough sea that then there it is bright blue the fishing villages might be ghost towns now but groups of men in numbers of about twenty to thirty camped out at the newly rehabilitated beaches and catch these

about one hundred kilo's a day until they've earned enough money to survive and they go back home. they live in dugout hats even in the coldest of winter but this new career means food on the table for young ahmad he was born long after commercial fishing had ceased. i've been fishing for two years my grandfather was a fisherman but he died right now we all work for a month straight living at the shore then have a week off that's when i go home to our ask we don't get a salary we had piece work payment twenty species of fish now wriggle out of the water and into the hands of the grandfathers of this industry still around to pull out the nets once again cart bring them pike catfish one more fisherman are returning to their home or foreigner overseas providing us with work and profit again they even say it will come back to our disc in around the silent

still stuns the locals no waves no boats yet there's been one after a serve my term in the army i came back and the water was no longer here that was nine hundred seventy three zero people said that it wasn't the first time they will see had gone they see the sea will be back and maybe we will live to see the good times and life will be even better we do hope. the water has twenty kilometers to go until it's back. it's impossible to restore the entire erroll sea or to make it the way it used to be if it pleases the northern part remains it will help solve many problems in central asia but while the industrial mind of the prosecutor will be restored and. will once again become a full term it may never be what it once was but the air all seen now boasts two thousand men who now fish for their living for them that's enough when de france

r.t. kazakstan. a summit in russia which aims to save the world's tiger population is heading into its final day and one hollywood topcat demonstrated his dedication to protecting the elements from extinction and the stablish supporter of the tigers plight leonardo dicaprio enjoyed a rough journey st petersburg playing catch fire and another always run out of fuel well his first lives in russia had to turn back to new york when an engine shut down in a flame at the start then switched to a small private jet but strong winds over the atlantic meant the airplane used up too much fuel and was forced to land in finland or one of the moving stop mates around the hollywood hero eventually made it to say in his titanic to join us and let him praise from russian prime minister david peter. bergen decoupage mr de caprio not just came to us but simply burst through the front line excuse me if i

may but in our country people usually that's what we call a real. and i think that of people with such character would be responsible for defending nature or a tiger in this particular case were destined for success but. now almost four hundred million u.s. dollars will be spent on saving a tigers from extinction is the key result. on the conserving the animals the world bank is to be one of the main sponsors unfun races and its president robert zoellick spoke exclusively to r.t. out the forum. the nature of the bank is it's a network player and this allows us to bring different parties together for tigers which are a wonderful species in and of themselves but also known as an umbrella species so if you protect the tigers you're protecting a lot of other create the most and then part of the biodiversity since we launched this in two thousand and eight we've worked with the tiger range countries themselves try to learn their lessons in terms of preserving the habitat dealing

with some of the enforcement issues and what i think is distinctive about this process is that each of them have come up with tiger recovery plans you know where the past couple days they've been blended into a global tiger recovery plan which will then need the support of the bank and the global environmental fund in different donors to try to finance it. like that president of the bank was cops how with the latest news in the world of business now with kitty now on the russian government on sunday having a state and many big companies why. well actually the government thinks the market situation is favorable enough to reduce its holding in many of these state companies and we'll hear what the finance minister thinks about this in a moment but first germany's it all may sell its stake in russia's gas giant gazprom commerce and then it would put the potential by is beg the on cards he owns three and a half percent of gazprom world's largest utilities selling off assets in order to

compensate for falling earnings early in the company's chief said the stake in gasp almost non-strategic with a company aiming to spend in china and brazil finance minister sequences b b supervisory board supervisory board hasn't discussed the deal yet. and staying with gas moscow and beijing on life as you agree on the price of russian gas supplies to china before the middle of next year then you can use comes up to russian and chinese foreign ministers help talks on tuesday in st petersburg where energy relations top the agenda i do caution the house on that. the latest round of energy dialogue between russia and china hasn't brought what many analysts were anticipating a pricing policy both sides find suitable on tuesday prime minister putin sad that negotiations between gazprom and china national betrayal and company are going according to plans. as we were at the energy between our countries developing quite

successfully we have finished construction of the pipelines go to you know that scene starting from the first of january two thousand and eleven with supplies of russian oil will arrive in china the negotiations between the sea are going on successfully we are also thinking to develop nuclear energy corp but the main focus is future gas trade gasp roman stand to see signed a framework agreement last here for shipment of natural gas to china the deal could see seventy billion cubic meters of russian natural gas sun to china annually this size haven't disclosed the price at which they want to sell and buy but their differ by one hundred dollars for one thousand cubic meters of gas both parties think that they can tackle the pricing dispute by the middle of next year meanwhile a distant transportation system is needed to successfully sent russian gas to china one future route could be the old type light line construction is supposed to start

in twenty eleven it will start from russia's western siberia and x. breed gas to northwestern china next summer. supply demand picture in europe a lot more visible will have a lot more time to forecast from will have a lot more time to commerce reality of the new market is going to be even more dick copland retreat for a price of gas prices in the european markets and i think chinese have to get stronger for this on some gas from once again stressed that china is the focus. sufis future growth and it seems the asian pacific region is wary of future anarchy co-operation will grow between other global oil and gas players. business on. the russian government may sell a controlling stake in most of the big companies can be planned for profits ization at the moment the state is planning to retain fifty percent plus one share in the

ten large companies from the list but if the market situation is favorable it may decide to reduce its holdings in many of them to twenty five percent plus one share retaining just a blocking stake although even that is not enough for the head of russia's m.d.m. back. if companies looking to live in markets with which is. completely completely different. business is really a company full of because in this case efficiency of this company. state is a chokehold are. just going to let you go for fair competition is a country where you can produce is a. little. let's have a look at the markets now in europe stocks are following heavy losses in the previous two sessions both of footsie on the dax are trading over half a percent higher among shares on a move u.k.

food service company called that's up three and a half percent after lifting its dividend payouts by bank of ireland talk to around six percent after a report that the r.'s government will take a majority stake in the lender. and russian markets have reversed from earlier losses and are trading in the black this hour all the blue chips are trading. in the black on the r.t.s. with noise clinical the biggest gain it's up one point two percent bucking the trend to be a ross telecom and a trading half a percent lower on my. balance of the tax profits at large and medium russian. companies grew by more than fifty percent during the first nine months of the year that's according to a report by the state's statistics service wholesale retail and real estate companies show the strongest performance. that's all we have this hour but you can always find most stories on our website r t dot com slash business or watch.

the official. called touch from the. video on demand. money old girl. on the registry now with the palm of your. machine on.

the back of home fall down i am ok this is tape bells in all the rest twenty six before allegedly plotting terror attacks for the christmas period the suspects the members of a radical islamic now kind of said to have links to international terrorist organizations and check ten minutes of. the russian president says he recognizes the country's an affection for them is vowing to reform the political system and is online blog to meet him in bed of acknowledges the signs of the fact. democracy but purpose is to develop a fairer more dynamic model for the future. i don't see change in central asia the dried out desert used to be one of the world's largest bodies of also is slowly coming back to life a soviet irrigation plan the srong decades ago severely damaging the fishing.