joined below to. the gateway to the grand imperial truly the socialists. you can a little socialist good to see don't need to go and. run this in the kennel was such as a treat. the. latest news in the week's top stories here on our what should have been a day of commemoration for a football fan and his as thousands riot in moscow and st petersburg to. exit polls in kosovo as part of the parliamentary election suggests the democratic party of kosovo headed by the current prime minister has the lead but observers say most of the serbian minority boycotted the vote and. the minorities. divisions running suits to build and pretend it's. just a few moments from. a winter of discontent rises up in protests over fees and financial hardship. plus online payment giants donations to wiki leaks

but continue to accept payments from radical groups including the ku klux but. it's two am in moscow i'm giving you today's main stories and a look back at the week's news here on our team football fans in moscow and st petersburg turned a march to commemorate a spar tac moscow supporter into a riot on saturday he was killed in a mass brawl last week russia's interior minister says nationalists incited the violence because one of the suspects arrested over the killing is from the north caucasus party's caterina's are always at the center of the capital when the fighting broke out. anger mismanagement thousands of football fans took their aggression to the streets of the russian capital with

a small field riot transforming quiet central moscow as flares and bottles flew overhead riot police detained instigators of the clashes at what started out as a peaceful commemorative rally know that. some people have reacted very violently to the death of the spartak moscow fed with i do believe that some of their dissatisfaction is understandable but it is unacceptable when we have aggression with firecrackers that burst into flames and ordinary people suffer police have already arrested those responsible for the murder of your spirit over and will arrest others everyone is equal before the law the fan in question was shot dead last week during a mass brawl most of those gathered in a city's main your square simply wanted to pay their respects and demand a full investigation into the death of one of their own but take into account the fact that the suspect in this homicide is from the north caucasus and the story gets an ugly nationalist twist according to officials members of the country's

various nationalist movements and not football fans instigated the violence. but. we saw that radical protestors joins those spartak fans honoring the dead men and incited mass protests and fighting the police must act tough but within the law and they did everything they had to act in as the situation unfolded. the clashes didn't stop with just the capital either st petersburg rally in memory of city the quickly turned into a fight between protesters and riot police with many injured and over fifty detained so is this nationalist violence for violence sake or is there had an agenda. for the nationalist far right is. working very hard to move. into different nationalists and the new nazi groups

doing a lot of propaganda with a lot of success the fans who over are not exactly blameless themselves just a few days ago spar tech supporters disrupted their team's match in slovakia a new way for cup management is already considering serious punishment for the team . in the next match a scandal held with no audience in the europa league and on through as their think next day after the match head coach of their carbon so that it's not accepted founds to behave like that sans clane they want justice for a friend who had been killed but violence is not the answer saturday's clashes prove that both the story and the aggression are not really about football to the instigators however it's all fair game tensions are on the rise deaf people to speed up even though there are some call doing nothing to offer tempers police managed to restore order to the streets of the capital and st petersburg but many

are still afraid this is the pm the file. cabinets are about r t. exit polls suggest that prime minister hoshyar in touch is democratic party of kosovo is leading in the region's first parliamentary elections but his argues alice hebert reports many from the serbian minority boycotted the vote. well polls have now closed in these historic elections and cost of ns will be breathing a sigh of relief that for the most part the vote seeing a pulse spike incident three that were force of a few very minor disturbances in the north and serbian enclaves of course this is still a region deeply divided along ethnic lines no to be between the majority albanian community here they make up some ninety percent of the population and the much smaller minority serbian community here the expectation is that some fifty percent of the electorate would have voted in today's elections but the votes majority of

them will have been albanians serbs have been divided on the issue many want to vote to make a change but they don't necessarily want to engage in the cause of an electoral system they say they see daily persecution here high unemployment they're not free to travel around the territory they suffer very poor standard of living and of course there was the record from belgrade to boycott these elections are supposed to language than used in previous elections of course ethnic divisions and the only problem facing cost of overall employment is a romp it's here some reports put it up between forty and fifty percent of the economy here is one of europe's weakest but many say that institutional corruption is the biggest problem here and these are all if you could have been identified in the main policies a manifesto the expectation is that the largest party will take the majority of votes here that is a prime minister how touchy is democratic party of kosovo the p.t.k.

followed by its former coalition a posse the democratic league of course of the k. then there is traditionally the third party here the alliance for the future of course of a the a but all of those a major policies cover referred to these problems here in the country within the framework of achieving what they perceive to be the ultimate goal of e.u. . and nato membership but as i mentioned many here consider corruption to be the biggest problem facing costco in recent polls showing the cost of it have a soft foods a real as a client in their faith in public institutions here rating from the judiciary to the parliament and they can do that this itself that was put forward for these elections were just helps says a number of key candidates from across the main policies currently under investigation for a variety of crimes ranging from abuse of office to corruption and most worryingly of all the leads are all the a k how to deny is currently in the hague always in

reach trial for war crimes but what that doesn't mean is that said this is the allowed some new of policies to emerge on the sea to make some quite serious inroads in these elections most notably that even though see a meaning self-determination and fed it meaning new spirit both these policies expected to take some votes today and i'm like the bigger traditional policies they've stayed away from talk of nato and e.u. membership and having said prefer to focus on the bread and butter issues affecting people's everyday lives here balkans political expert michigan says kosovo's ethnic serbs are being treated as second class citizens. you have to bear in mind that about two thirds of. this we used to living costs a lot to need to the bone being themselves in some eleven years ago no longer in kosovo but they have been effectively i think he claims and no provision whatsoever

has been made for them to participate either in these or any previous elections this is of course a major problem for the remaining. population in kosovo because participation in the electoral process can be easily interpreted as an agreement to the conditions that are prevailing in that we know that with legitimizing that process with which the very unhappy with so i expect there will be very little to them out months that speak close the whole issue of. many of them see kosovo as a failed state and that is certainly not going to encourage them to come out and put to support in the elections analysis for michigan balkans political expert weighing in on kosovo election. on the way when war is out of sight it's out of mind. americans struggle to keep up with where their soldiers are deployed and

we'll tell you why shortly. but first u.k. authorities have released the photographs of fourteen people wanted for instigating violence during tuition fee protests in london a total of one hundred seventy five people were arrested during the four demonstrations that paralyzed the capital and left dozens injured the riots erupted after westminster approved if the refold hike in university tuition protesters vandalized government property and a car carrying prince charles and his wife camilla came under attack from protesters labor m.p. jeremy corbyn says the fees hike will impact the less privileged families what we see is the end of access to higher education for people. of average and below average incomes it's going to really preserve the wealthier in the future the trend will be we'll have a less well educated less skilled less qualified population i see education as an investment for the future we're investing in young people reinvesting in skills we're investing in knowledge we're investing in our future that where is the

economic growth of the future where the advantages of to more aware of the writers and the artists and musicians of tomorrow this is cutting at the core of society those that created this economic mess that we're in are the ones who should pay for it a transaction tax a wealth tax a tax on the very wealthiest people in our society would help to close the gap there is no need to basically hit the poorest people in our society in order to pay off this debt in march in time we need a more sensible more rational more humane approach to the whole issue we're not getting there from the government at the moment that's why the students are on the streets that's why the seventy occupations and crucially that's why so many others trade unions and people work in the public sector and people are worried about their services are also joining the students in the demonstration commentary from british opposition party labor m.p. jeremy corbett. further west ireland's minimum wage is being cut but so are the

salaries of the country's leaders to try and soak up some of the anger over the latest set of deficit slashing measures people there face the harshest welfare reductions in the country's history after its banking system all but collapse the pains not helped by seen bankers itching visit here massive bonuses once again which is why the european bank regulators are in to impose strict limits on awards as the eurozone battles to stop the euro disintegrating it's hoped the second series of tough bank tests in february well ease the pressure new leaders are set to get back around the table to get a firmer grip on the continent wide debt crisis next week but richard boyd barrett from the people before profit alliance says ordinary workers are being made to pay for the mistakes of the rich and powerful. europe clearly has a big part to play particularly in its you know pursues of neo liberal policies of deregulation of lowering taxes and well to privatization all of those have certainly contributed very serious these the current situation but it's important

to stress that our own government our own rulers have been very much into zero stick champions of those same policies and indeed many irish senior irish political figures have ended open senior positions within the european union because they are of a mind with that body in pursuing these failed policies that have done so much damage to this country and we are being a commie if the european commission european central bank want to save the euro then they should pay for it on the phone told us on the speculators who calls the crisis they should play to save the euro not poor. poor people and working people who have no responsibility no hand or part in creating this crisis in the first place and frankly i don't care one way or another whether the euro survives but i care about as is that there's fairness for ordinary people that they aren't expected to so for hardship and poverty as a result of the mistakes of politicians bankers and financial speculators. more on this in everything we cover a click away at our. on line right now singing

a song for. killing human life we told me because it was find out about the middle eastern musicians who are reinventing the protests . and going that extra mile for the adrenaline rush to see a russian base jumper take on an antarctic mountain all that and more put away. the founder of the whistleblower website wiki leaks says the pentagon is planning his prosecution in a documentary aired in sweden giuliana songe says he's disappointed with how swedish justice has been abused the thirty nine year old is in british custody after stockholm issued an arrest warrant in connection with rape allegations which

assad firmly did a lot differently denies earlier in the week supporters of the website that has published hundreds of thousands of classified u.s. wires staged a cyber war on financial giants mastercard visa and pay pal all came under attack when they stopped taking donations for wiki leaks meanwhile authorities got an agency on discovered the firms are happily accepting payments for hate groups. the u.s. government has presented no charges against julian a song but that hasn't stopped government officials from reportedly putting pressure at the highest level to cut off weiqi leaks money supply a senior executive of america's money transfer giant pay pal said the state department had written to the company claiming the online whistleblower was involved in illegal activities so pay pal along with massive card and b. so are no longer accepting cash donations for the controversial website but it's the threat of this has some impact on national security and when you say that in

the united states everybody. you know what's their parents and they do what they're told. and so i think that it's a misconception in some cases that people think that the u.s. is purely a money driven society it's not the government has certain parag it is particularly over national security no court ruling no legal procedures were needed to crackdown on the media organization later pay-pal backtracked on its statement it had acted upon a government's request mastercard and visa were most the face of on the subject but the general explanation they gave for not accepting donation payments for we kill it says that the site quoting courage is. promotes facilitates or instruct others to engage in illegal activity but on the other hand neither master card more said i have any problems processing donations for say nuku clark's clan racist movement and his to the history of extreme violence with the goals of racial

segregation and white supremacy and yet it takes seconds to make a donation to the klan a number of senators including the chairman of the homeland security committee joe lieberman were quick to pat those companies on the back for cutting off cash to weak elites but americans cracked down on the organization that appears to be fighting for transparency and freedom of speech leaves many asking what happens to american values of freedom of expression these are very difficult things for us to face as americans this is not what we believe in a country we believe it's a country that respects the markers you lot are going to be shown where the accuracy is not easy but u.s. politicians do not shy away from flashing their democratic values when rooting for a chinese fighter for freedoms he won the nobel peace prize so there you see the governor standards of western and of the so-called international community. is

targeted for having released information knowing what's what you should be doing and you have got a case where the same people will be pushing for a candidate which is a dissident within the people's republic of china so they are playing double standards with that regard some even suggest why not give the prize to juliana sarge i mean she is freedom of speech will surely. be a rational explanation for giving it to wiki leaks others can't help asking if u.s. officials are sold down and we kill leaks why aren't they after the new york times in the same way or the british newspaper the. already in our german is there speak it those are the we kill its partner papers one other incredible thing about the prosecution is that so many people are falsely reporting that we can leaks has dumped two hundred fifty thousand documents that's not true at all they only were putting stuff up on their web page when you have the new york times or der spiegel

. or the guardian or by us we're putting up. so that what could possibly be the legal rationale for going after we can leaks and not going after the new york times there are a lot of unanswered questions about we kill leaks one thing is on the surface the us shows it can interpret democratic values however it wants depending on its games ganesh check on our t.v. washington d.c. . lattimer putin rebuffed the leaked u.s. criticism of russian democracy saying the arrest of a songe exposes the west for not following the democratic rules of preaches the russian prime minister's comments came at a media briefing alongside his french counterpart scene from about the informational not renowned site wiki leaks did you really think the u.s. diplomatic corps is a transparent source of information as finished as some if you're pushing for democracy push all the way why then did they put mr solution jail is that democracy

at work there is a saying about the public calling the kettle black that would be my response to our u.s. counterparts. two militants in a suspected accomplice have been killed by police in russia's southern republic of dagestan one policeman was wounded during the gun fight militants barricaded themselves in a house which was taken by storm by special forces after negotiations failed authorities say one of those killed was how the head of a local tearing the lives on the most wanted list is believed to have taken part in at least one major attack in two thousand and nine in which four policemen and seven civilian women were killed authorities are cracking down on militant groups in russia's south but the region remains volatile prosecutors say a number of terror attacks have doubled this year they're. turning now to some of the other stories making headlines across the globe swedish police have launched a terror investigation into saturday's twin bombings in stockholm the first attack saw a car explode in a busy area that was packed with christmas shoppers although there were only

a handful of injuries one man was killed in the second blast he's thought to have been carrying explosives a warning given prior to the bombings to now sweden's military presence in afghanistan and a swedish authors controversial cartoons depicting the prophet mohammed. nato says six u.s. troops have been killed by a suicide car bomber in the southern afghan province of kandahar insurgents targeted an army checkpoint in the zari district the alliance has been stepping up its fighting in the south of the country in recent weeks in a particularly hostile region the taliban strongholds near the pakistani border. a suicide bomber has blown up his car outside government offices in the iraqi city of ramadi killing up to seventeen people many more were injured including children police reportedly found a second bomb in a nearby parking lot which was safely detonated the attack comes as the country's prime minister attempts to form a new cabinet to try and end months of political impasse. tensions remain

high on the korean peninsula after seoul washington in tokyo held negotiations excluding pyongyang earlier this week both japan and south korea have also carried out a. military drills with the u.s. in the area the exercises prompted pyongyang to accuse seoul of provocation vowing to turn the islands near the border with the north into military fortresses situation remains fragile after the two neighbors exchanged fire late last month the attack killed two south korean marines and two civilians u.s. anti-war campaigner sara flounders says the u.s. is deliberately working to push the peninsula over the edge. stephanie a provocation unintended provocation as are the past military maneuvers both last july and again in november the united states government may really be orchestrating a confrontation we should never forget the gulf of tonkin incident as it was called that led to the vietnam war the united states is no longer in the position it was

sixty years ago when it was the great power in the region it is today an empire in serious decline and decay and attempting to do to military many aircraft carriers what it no longer has a productive capacity to do it really is an attempt to get out of the economic crisis globally with more military expenditures and more military confrontations and it's a great danger for the people of the whole globe but especially the people of the region a poll of american the shows that concern for the country's wars in iraq and afghanistan has hit a new low many were stunned when asked basic questions about the conflicts but maybe it's not entirely their fault as artie's lauren lyster explains some blame the u.s. media for putting celebrity gossip ahead of what's really important. an average day on the streets of the big apple an urban metropolis of lights cameras and action these stars and stripes preside over it all. they're the same ones seen here that

come marching somberly home from us wars overseas though they seem a world away so too do the wars in afghanistan and iraq for the american people who know only this black innocent. and i'm sure don't know if it's the. confusion of bounds over who the us is fighting and where with no defense of the losses how many u.s. troops u.s. soldier is would you say have been killed in a war and i. ghana stand oh far too many obviously and it's and it's terrible and i i hope it can be resolved i hope that how many would you say. gosh more than forty four hundred u.s. troops have been killed in iraq more than thirteen hundred in afghanistan. and along with lives those missions together have cost the american taxpayer a lot of cash i would say probably about ten twenty billion the wars together have

cost more than one trillion dollars and counting money spent since the u.s. invaded iraq back in two thousand and three and afghanistan when. one question because unlike that afghanistan was two years the u.s. has been there since two thousand one hundred years the responses we've gotten here in the heart of new york city's times square aren't that surprising when you look at a recent poll it found public concern with the wars is very low just seven percent of americans consider the wars in iraq and afghanistan to be the biggest problems facing the united states now why this is the case is up for debate but some point to the role of the u.s. mainstream media which focuses more attention on sensational news even entertainment headlines than on coverage of the war stories when it's hard to dramatize our successes and you know our heroic accomplishments you know people

tend to look the other way it's something that's sort of more engrossing if you will a preps less important the news was it would say and rehab has been cut short focuses more on something like this court ordered rehab coverage of the rehab stints of a young hollywood actress morning network shows they definitely like to focus on the fluff and in turn people searching to come up with answers to questions about the wars their country is fighting have no trouble answering this lindsey lowe in issues still in rehab. no i think she's out. they should be we have more of these are headlines they can recite even if they wish they couldn't who cares no we're more worried about the cops out there but for now the stork reality beneath these stars and stripes is lost in the urban chaos the frivolous media mayhem beneath these ones a world removed and far away from the consequences of u.s. foreign policy on an average day any given day on the streets of the big apple

lauren lyster r.t. new york. stay with us here at r.t. i'll be back with a wrap up of our headlines after a short break. we

use special old french and excess requests meant. they are ready for christmas. to gin up for the air became their gravity. as it should and those people were birds in the previous leaf. and much to so many in a free flight they live not only next to the border of the gulf of egypt but also on the border of peace and war. they are responsible not only for themselves. but also for their loved one. they are ready to take any risk.

for the full story we've focused on the biggest issues get a human voice face to face with the news makers. wealthy british. markets. find out what's really happening to the global economy. financial headline news to report on our.