have a chance to talk to our correspondent policy here who is on the ground and who will bring us the very latest and get us a feel for what's happening there that will be later in the program in the meantime though the u.s. is reported to be in talks with hosni mubarak about him resigning immediately if it was numerous statements from american and european officials calling for the transition of power to begin now but many are questioning the right of western leaders to meddle in egypt's internal affairs our correspondent in london laura emmet reports. president obama starts today's my belief that an orderly transition must be meaningful. it must be peaceful and it must begin now and then faithfully one after the other one the other governments followed suit. to show these democratic change has to start now. it needs to happen now the growth of freedom and democracy in egypt and it seems the theme was contagious as the call for a new egypt spreads uncontrolled across the western mass media there were one hundred

and fifty thousand people in the streets of cairo protesting for democracy this is how democracy happened but what right do u.s. and european leaders have to get involved in what's essentially domestic unrest about dissatisfaction with a ruler who cares what they want in egypt certainly not these demonstrators at the egyptian embassy in london they supported the egyptian regime for such a long time but they are made you feel regime and now they are talking about developing a serious with the from the right side of this into obama's speech. because you see it on the fence so much. i mean it is not the same going on what are you just saying that's the appearance for a transition where is this a peaceful transition there are shades of past conflicts in the world's attitude to the situation in egypt according to william spring he campaigns against nato

aggression is a sovereign state but what they have always done the west they've used this humanitarian or good moves they've said oh we can intervene in yugoslavia we can intervene in byelorussia we can put sanctions for example this week so i put sanctions on. the grounds that they in directions were in some way invalid or there was some irregularities well there are all sufficient irregularities in the british elections without your knowledge you opinion putting sanctions on. it's a complete turnaround for the western world. which is always supported hosni mubarak is a force for stability in the region the us gave him one and a half billion dollars a year for his armed forces alone and it was western support that kept mubarak in power betraying an inherent misunderstanding of the way society operates according to chatham house and the way regimes like mubarak survive. is by making themselves

useful to the west so they have to convince the world that. if they leave it'll be the muslim brotherhood and you have to. it's the worst case scenario so the. minute you can see beyond the over the fall of all of which suggests that western countries should stand back and let the egyptian people exercise their sovereignty the president of the united states would call to move immediately and. to make changes as if we are the fifty first state of the united states we are not trying to play a role in egypt's future is a dangerous game for western leaders hosni mubarak enjoyed strong support from america and co for many is that now at the first sign of trouble their support is conspicuous in its absence it sends a message to friends and foes alike in the region when the going gets tough they

don't count on us a message that's likely to further destabilize an already deeply unstable part of the world. a majority. you know saddam hammad who's a chief analyst at islam policy dot com says the u.s. seems to be afraid of losing its influence in egypt. if we pay attention to the rhetoric of the u.s. they'd like you to believe that they're not doing anything but somehow the mubarak regime gets their hands on an awful lot of excess cash to buy one point five billion dollars worth of weaponry and all the weapons the tanks the tear gas that you see used against the egyptian people to try to quell this revolution is in fact funded by american tax dollars not to mention the fact that the pro mubarak counter-revolutionary force that just happens to appear from the most egypt's thirty million impoverished people probably was paid off with dollar bills so we have to really look at the fact that egypt has been a functioning american empire a client state for our well over thirty years and the simple fact of the matter is

is that there is no more you know polar power in the world america is going to try to bargain away whereby they have until september to adapt to influence to try to use propaganda to try to use covert and overt operations as they have since one thousand nine hundred eighty three in the middle east to shape sayings in their direction but it apparently seems as though this strategic blunder of entering into a war of attrition in iraq and afghanistan is now starting to weigh on the world and the world is going to have to let people in the muslim world decide for themselves of this regard the government regards economics with regard to the way that they live their lives. while we have more reaction to this and phyllis bennis from the u.s. institute off policy study says that whoever forms egypt's next government its policies on the middle east conflict will change. we've heard from a number of people that are in the leadership of this huge coalition that is carrying out the anti mubarak protests who have all said look we're not going to

renege on the camp david accord we don't want to go to war with israel we don't want to change that and of course we should note although they don't all talk about it the want to have billion dollars of u.s. military aid is tied directly to the terms of that agreement if the agreement is abrogated they may not get that money what will change is the inclusion of egypt in israel's effort to isolate gaza i think we will see very quickly with any new government if it wants to maintain the credibility of its people and then to egyptian collaboration with israel in the siege of gaza. while we continue here in r t to monitor the situation in egypt and right now we're showing you the live pictures coming out of egypt's capital cairo this is the main square there we can see a lot of people gathered to protest while this has been the eleventh day of protests and today it was hester's this friday are calling it the final friday as they are hoping to make a major break through in an attempt to force president hosni mubarak out of office

but we're trying to get in touch with our correspondent in your who is on the ground but she. told us about the difficult conditions the journalists are working there and she will of course bring us the very latest from what's happening there in fact we can talk to her now paula can you hear me. it's a candidate to call it tell us. yes tell us what's happening where you are the moment bringing us the mood from the tahrir square there. well thousands of protesters are converging on tough square the mood on the street is very much that today is d. day they say that this country has seen a standoff of one and a half weeks in the situation cannot continue for much longer now the demonstration is due to begin around noon off to midday prayers the army are bracing themselves there are hundreds of soldiers are deployed on the streets much more than we've seen in recent days they are forming around the perimeter of the square there

brandishing automatic weapons they're dressed in white uniforms although the official word from the egyptian prime minister is that they will not get involved but the role of the army today is crucial and this is what everybody will be watching the mood is calm there's certainly a lot of uncertainty the government does not want to be embarrassed any further the pictures that has been beamed around the international community have embarrassed this government and that is why journalists working here have come under attack by many of these probiotic supporters the latest figures to be released from the committee for the protection of journalists says that in the last twenty four hours twenty four journalists were detained twenty one was salted and there have been five cases of equipment seized now we know that there are negotiations happening behind the scenes and we understand that there are divisions within government circles themselves some ministers saying that they should listen to the protesters demands they have the support of the international community and they've shown that they are paid and willing to hold on to tough here square i mean other members from

within the egyptian government saying no we are defined and we're not going to stick down a short time ago i did speak to a member of the muslim brotherhood who is into the square right now he denied that there were any kind of negotiations between the muslim brotherhood and the egyptian government and we iterated this stance of defiance they stance that they will do nothing short of accepting the resignation of president mubarak. just as we were looking at live pictures there coming out of tahrir square in egypt tell us what's been the international reaction to the most recent developments there. well the united states has been in direct consultations with top egyptian officials and what we understanding from those talks is that they're calling for the possible immediate resignation of mubarak and also for an interim government to be put into place that would set the scene and fair elections at the same time we've heard from the egyptian president himself saying that he does want to step down but that he believes now is not the why time because it would leave the country in chaos he has

blamed the muslim brotherhood for this violence in iraq now he is holed up in his presidential palace this is the final destination of today's protest not yet clear if the demonstrators in fact will make their way to the presidential palace or not but what i can tell you is that the whole road to that pedis is secured with soldiers with tanks with armored personnel vehicles the the u.s. the u.s. secretary of state hillary clinton as well as the u.s. vice president joe biden have been talking to the egyptian vice president and most of them and they have been talking about possible scenarios they have been talking about the need for an urgent end to the crisis these kind of dynamics when they filter down to the egyptian public create a lot of anger and discontent in the streets the mood here very much is that the united states and other international players need to stop meddling in internal affairs and allow egypt's ones to decide the future and their fate for themselves. or a paul thanks very much indeed for the sub date from rome and stay safe there paulus

leader reporting live from cairo. to other stories now the u.s. congress is trying to renew the patriot act which allows law enforcement agencies to search telephone and e-mail records lawmakers insist the aim is to defend the public from the threat of terror but many say the cost to civil liberties is just too high artist reports. major provisions of the patriot act about to expire are due to be extended by lawmakers brought in by the bush admin to. gratian as an emergency anti terror measure the act gives sweeping powers to these orders to spy on people but the u.s. senate's judiciary committee is in a real hurry to rubber stamp rather than discuss and debate the far reaching measures they expire in three weeks and i think there is not time really to go through. a major change in those there

was no time either for real debate back in two thousand and one when the patriot act was adopted weeks after the nine eleven attacks according to congressman dennis close senate lawmakers hadn't even read what they were passing what happened once the patriot act was passed the fourth amendment rights to. reasonable certain to be protected from unreasonable search and seizure just thrown out the congressman was one of the very few who openly oppose the act we have a challenge to the essence of our democracy with the very existence of the patriot act and of course its name the patriot act who would want to oppose the patriot act because it makes it sound as though you're a patriot if you're for it but actually. the idea of tying patriotism to destruction of cherished constitutional privileges needs self to be challenged although lawmakers insisted that the patriot act would be

used just for anti-terrorism federal authorities have used its powers far more broadly the senate's intelligence watchdog found that without any judicial checks government employees journalists anti-war activists and others had been spied on over the last six months more than twenty anti-war activists around the country have been subpoenaed after the f.b.i. raided homes in chicago and minneapolis reportedly using patriot act powers to round up american citizens there's ample reason to believe that when you create massive databases of politically potentially very useful information about both innocent and guilty people eventually someone with access to that information will misuse it and we see all the time how people who become politically engaged politically threatening are subject to disclosures of sensitive information about them the patriot act allows security services to lawfully spiny by wiretapping large groups of phone numbers and monitoring e-mail addresses in ball instead of

meeting a warrant each time the national security agency has even intercepted bill clinton's private e-mails later said to be an inadvertent mistake among millions of other pieces of correspondence snooped on a privacy watchdog suggest that since two thousand and one the f.b.i. has intelligence investigations have compromised the civil liberties of american citizens far more frequently and to a greater extent than was previously assumed supporters of the act say it's needed because of the terrorist threats that we've had thirty six stored in terrorist attacks since nine eleven well do you know for a fact that it was thanks to the patriot act that the attacks were prevented it's difficult to say that for sure because when you look at court records and other documents that are available you can you say in these cases. there were cases where patriot act like tools would be useful and so we can suspect that they were

useful and some of them congressman could sanish says the act is supported in congress to a climate of fear so you have a whole nation of fearful people promoting fear you cannot have a democracy if the democracy rest upon fear you cannot walk in faith in freedom and fear at the same time americans have a great deal of respect for their founding fathers and one of those wise men benjamin franklin said quote those who give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety and of quote it seems that piece of advice is largely ignored by today's america reporting from washington i'm going to check out our team. and you can have your say on this or any other story at our website r t dot com there's also plenty of news blogs and feature stories for you and here's what else is online there. and russia's prime minister tackles the country's opposition find out what he thinks of his opponents and their criticism of the country's leadership. and russia resumes black caviar

export to europe after a long term ban so what led authorities to once more give it the green why get all the answers at r.t. dot com. now let's take a look at some other stories from around the world an opposition movement in syria for a day of rage against the government have been inspired by the protests unfolding throughout the middle east the country shares many similarities with tunisia and egypt including rising prices unemployment and poverty analysts believe that any protests could unleash bloodshed and chaos or even civil war due to the cunt. six tarion divisions. afghan man held without charge for eight years ago

on top of a baby has died in custody reportedly while the exorcising the military said he's death resulted from natural causes but it's still under investigation the forty eight year old was suspected by the us of being a recruitment officer for the taliban he is a seventh detainee to have died and gone total since two thousand and two. from frying ags ad war memorials to mass rallies ukraine's ultra nationalists want the world to hear their message of hate but the new government has made it a priority to fight extremism starting by stripping nazi collaborator of the hero of ukraine award and. found out nationalism as a growing threat in some parts of the country and ruling out its darker side is proving far from easy. an innocent joke or deliberate disick race shown recently activist of a ukrainian radical nationalist party cooked eggs and bacon on the eternal flame in

caves memorial park a monument to the red army soldiers who died liberating the country from the nazis rather deputy. sees little surprise as to why this happens in more than day ukraine but because of it their nation was brainwashed by five years of you should as a rule actions like these are an attempt to write off the sacrifice this country made to be liberated from the nazis in the resulting pro fascist propaganda like the rehabilitation of nazi collaborators like you keep it and been there the two nationalist army leaders to ban man there and that man should give each were made heroes of ukraine by former president you sure there are groups are seen by many as nazi collaborators first they fought the german invasion then turned against the soviet troops at times using gruesome tactics against civilians the former president's decision split open ukraine ideologically now with victory on the court which in office the author proved in court that been there had no right to bear the

heroic accolade or the loss that only a citizen of ukraine can become a hero and been there wasn't a ukrainian citizen but the law doesn't matter to some people here they believe the really crane is in the west of the country and they don't want to find any compromise here. the court's decision caused a massive public outcry in the west of ukraine and the nationalist hot bed from renaming the streets after been there to raising funds for new monuments people in this part of the country stressed that their loyalty to been there will stand firm . on darryl walls is and will be our hero this is what we believe in and no court decision will ever change. but at some point words turned into actions nationalist wings organized a series of extremist attacks this summer during russian patchy arcs visit to ukraine they bombed the church and have also vandalized soviet era monuments and

the country is left to wonder what reaction would follow should an other controversial world war two ukrainian be deprived of his hero status on february the sixteenth accord and key it will decide whether i'm on strike a which will also be stripped of his medal and while experts say he is most likely to follow been there as footsteps they say no matter their decision ukraine will still remain divided over its perception of the past let's see russia ski see reporting from kiev ukraine. well it brings us up to date and time now for the business news with karina. welcome to business rushes to begin selling grain from state reserves in a move to cope food prices and support the domestic market the plan is to sell two and a half million tons of grain within five moms of the next harvest the state's current stockpile stands at nine a half million tons authorities found cereal exports six months ago following the

country's worst drought in fifty years that devastated the harvest industry the harvest industry watchers say prices have now started to stabilize thanks to positive expectations of the growing trade. the u.n. food and agriculture organization says food prices hit at historic high last month the rising cost of staples was among the triggers behind the protests in egypt and tunisia have a hugh handy c.e.o. of eclectic asset management says the world has not yet seen prices peak. i can coach is the one section in the world which was on call relate to the banking sector to the modeless of credit to modernise of the u.s. economy. and it's no having its turn to some dispute that we're seeing all time high places where no we haven't seen all time high prices yet in the heat of the biggest are because reporters just corn. give us six months we might see them.

now let's have a look at the markets asian shares were mostly higher with japanese stocks leading the way sony has added one point nine percent and softbank climbed over in a half percent in the wake of their earnings reports markets in hong kong shanghai seoul in taipei among others have closed the losing your holiday. and you have been stocks open high on friday as markets await key u.s. non-farm payroll data later in the day the footsie is up over a quarter of a percent of the dax is point two percent higher shares of where hennessy louis vuitton fell to the half percent after a full year results while she has a truck make a volvo fell one point two percent after fourth quarter results all stocks are also weak across the board. here in russia markets climbed for the third day this week advancing over half a percent of the first hours of trading energy made to the early game as ross taft is the biggest gainer up two and a half percent all the r.t.s. was gas giant gazprom shares are up point seven percent state levels burbank is

also trading in the black half a percent economics and geopolitical risk may take turn and driving the market sentiment today tell monday at says investors will continue to keep an eye on the situation in egypt. the market state's going to be focused again i don't want softening in egypt is this. protest in egypt going to spread you know is the oil price going to spike that's going to be a big driver for the restraint on the other side we've got some we expect some news coming out. russian numbers for. problem roster of markets can be very focused on those particularly on rosner strategy especially in the context of b.p. deal that's going to get a lot of attention on the third point is we've got u.s. non-farm payrolls u.s. employment report this is always a big trading day when we have those numbers coming out from the u.s. and the market we're looking for any evidence of economic recovery in the u.s. and star economist nouriel roubini dog to do forecasts wusses inflation will hit

double digits this year in the first in the first month of two thousand and eleven consumer prices and russia saw a two point four percent hike topping market expectations meanwhile the government's official inflation forecast for two thousand and eleven is still set for six seven percent will be explains why inflation is on the rise how russia needs to pursue economic growth. so far the growth rate of russia in the rickover has been disappointing you probably because there was excessive amounts of that the leverage in the financial system or parts of the corporate the world so while china india brazil are growing six to eight nine percent last year that are called growth in russia was only around four percent i think that not only that is a low growth but compared to other emerging markets inflation dizzy and my reach double digits of ten percent or more and the central bank has been cautious in raising interest rates and inflation might be gold also higher i think that the way

that russia has to deal with the fact that they want to grow but they need to limit the inflation is to make sure that potential growth. and if you make structural reforms if you free up private enterprise if you make more efficient state than other enterprises if you have more incentive to enter banerjee then potential growth can be higher. and inflation is going to stay on their control. that's all for now stay with us for headlines.

we use special old french and accents recruitment. they are ready for a replay. taken on one of the air became their nominee. is it shouldn't those people with merge in their previous life. want to so many in a free flight. the more people we killed the happier our officers were you know it's got to be like a game like to see who can chill the most people and the different ways you can prove me keep the skill to be i can you know here's

a few brought back some serious you know where we had the most years they would get the most beers in trade you should be rich overnight you women children and five men around the circle over know on full automatic whether i'm sixty. she was talking about rape by six or seven people in her family. the most of the interim. the news today violence is once again flared up. these are the images the world has been seeing from the streets of canada. trying to corporations rule the day.

welcome back here with our team here is a look at the top stories protests and violence are expected to play are up again an agent as the opposition calls for yet another million strong march to push president mubarak from power and while the u.s. calls for a smooth transition of power in egypt many points to the hypocrisy of its decades long backing of mubarak's regime. nationalism and vandalism intensify in some parts of ukraine as the authorities strip wartime nonce a collaborator is of the or a national hero titles the conover posthumous awards were given by the previous ukrainian president. and as u.s. lawmakers rush to expand the patriot act before it runs out some congressmen say represents the growing violation of civil liberties under the pretext of fighting terrorism the act was hastily adopted after the nine eleven attacks and unable to

forty's to spy on american citizens. as they had lines here in our margin andrus explores the rich tapestry of russian culture in great britain that's coming up next. hello welcome to the saturday visiting different cities exploring russian life history our culture we begin with one of my favorite cities in the world. london one of the most visited cities in the world and the cultural scene here you see how in many areas russia has been a huge influence fifty years in the past bush on the west may have battled it out.