now on sunday the vice president almost sort of meant meet with various opposition groups and within those groups were representatives of secular parties who were representatives of the muslim brotherhood were independent legal experts as well as a number of representatives for mohamed el baradei and he of course is the former head of the international atomic energy agency who has indicated that he will be prepared to head an interim government the muslim brotherhood really is the focus of the discussion and the debate here in egypt because before yesterday they said that they would not meet with the government if there was not agreement on president hosni mubarak stepping down the brotherhood has been at pains to say that they have not changed their stance they have to afford it when these kind of discussions and not negotiations and what we do understand is that it will be through the day monday but what is noticeable is that the opposition voices on the north that unified they certainly do need somebody to bring them together to keep

the momentum and to represent the point of view because by and large every day that these kids meet with the government despite this call from the bar to step down immediately it is indicative that mubarak has no time in history to see just winning this battle the longer he has to negotiate with these opposition groups the muslim brotherhood poses the question for the international community then it goes on says they have to be egypt and and they raise alarm bells to observers of what is going on it has it's increasingly it is felt these protests and these demonstrations have taken and is an honest and almost extremist trond on the streets of cairo i explored this phenomenon earlier in this package. it didn't get more than a passing mention in the mainstream media is boehner and muslim brotherhood members in a jail break. here and one time i've been on there's no way to go to lebanon from egypt to go through this. so you help them in. one of the thousands of protesters on

egypt streets was support for the demonstrators has faded fast and although the muslim brotherhood the country's largest opposition group with an islamist agenda got involved only on day three that says mom do ramsey is part of the plan the muslim brotherhood will appear when they're sure the presidency will fall and when they have the support and power to control everything they work in every arab country there they're below the surface and there they're now talking with the government and its supporters are here shouting on the streets in two weeks of demonstrations they are rallying call hasn't changed step down mubarak has moved and eleven of his friends traveled for forty eight hours to get here they've come all the way from eritrea to be part of what they believe is the new revolution sweeping the middle east i was in eritrea i know watched everything on to i wish i was here before but coming here now is my contribution i am asking all my brothers in egypt to express their opinion without fear it will never leave the blood of our

martyrs who were killed in this revolution with a vengeance. the brotherhood gets some of its funding from the ran and tehran is already cashing in its foreign minister says the protests show the need for an overhaul in the region and ayatollah ali khamenei has called the protests an islamic awakening there's an opportunity for an increased role for muslims in the international arena from a political and economic perspective for the first time in quite a long while six years ago the american national intelligence council which is linked to the cia warned of exactly this it mapped out of a port in the global future it consisted of a caliphate one big muslim state created through social unrest a slowdown in the economy and fueled by religious movements if such a pan regional union did genuinely come into being such a regional union would necessitate the breaking of very strong very resistant bonds that exist between the u.s. and many of the. in such

a putative arab muslim world and the us is already feeling the heat with confusing messages coming from an administration that's unsure what to do when the protests first started president obama was careful not to abandon his old friend hosni mubarak but his loyalties soon shifted and he sided with the protesters to try and keep on top of things for sure of the muslim brotherhood reach the top of egypt's though impose those special agenda they'll go ahead to establish a religious state and despite them saying they don't want to be in the government they do they want to rule egypt and it's not just egypt many fear much of the arab world today saying if it can happen in the streets of cairo but it can happen here so democracy does seem to be spreading so as the brotherhood sits down for talks with the government it despises it's not just egypt's future that's at stake but so to that of the region two weeks ago if you would have asked anyone here whether they could envisage there was a brotherhood sitting down with the government and talking it would have been and

thinkable that just gives you an indication of how far this country has come in a fortnight. founder julian assange has to appear in a london court to fight extradition to sweden over alleged sex crimes he's a fan says that if handed over to stockholm he faces the risk of being eventually sent to the us where he could get the death sentence a songe outrage washington by publishing tens of thousands of its military documents and diplomatic cables sweden denies any intention to extradite him to the u.s. but as any so now we have found out stockholm may be far from impartial in this case . so we didn't a quiet little neutral scandinavian nation the current foreign policy establishment in sweden has a remarkably close relationship with the united states the country that gave us our flat pack furniture for dollar meatballs top models and lawn bombshells may not be

so neutral after all american influence is everywhere from food to feature films but in sweden it seems to be supersized just the other day the deer hunter film was shown again on swedish t.v. for the. sixtieth time it's an awful film it's the worst propaganda in politics through the back door like sweden's times with nato you have the military and some politicians pretty intensively with the united states and with nato and the large mass of the population being totally unaware of the stuff going on but it's not just what swedes are taking in it's also what their leaders are ready to give from julian a son to terrorist suspects to nato support when america wants something they get it but why and what's in it for this so-called neutral nation they get. all the benefits of being an intelligence partner of the united states without the baggage

of being in nato it's a partnership decades in the making there is. a willingness to. do the ariens of the united states over many years from. questions have. making asylum seekers in sweden. both to the cia buddies is particularly strong now with a raid leaning government in sweden and with the us wanting him for spying and sweden wanting him for sex crimes julian a song is wanted by quite a team and the assigned to wiki leaks case seems to be just the next continuation of this intelligence relationship here's some other relationships we dug up julian assange just ticks off the us with fierce reaction from one of the country's most notorious neo cons is not a particularly credible source and mobile and he is going to know in my mind as it is a criminal only ought to be out of bed and grabbed and put on trial for what he used

earlier these words from karl rove who claims he's part swedish and just happens to be advising the country's pm while the former swedish minister of justice is a partner in the firm who filed charges against a songe for sex crimes with another link to the us thomas von stroheim is claimed to have handed the cia asylum seekers from sweden who were then tortured the questions about neutrality became even even clearer thanks to some of the documents from exactly wiki leaks and if the u.k. can secure asylum for bodies because of ski and ahmed zakayev both wanted for serious crimes in russia it could be argued there's another room in the british justice system to protect julian assange from the united states of sweden merica and let him keep blowing his whistle and using now a r t stockholm sweden. so i

have a program losing teams exposed under-age alcoholism in russia will by the lack of stringent laws to prevent youngsters from being able to buy booze without need to show id. and with the recent signing of a start treaty it is now the task of russia and the west and minimize the threat of terrorists getting hold of a nuclear arsenal. as the u.s. president's impending budget announcement looms there are some would say will slash going to poverty reduction programs but with many u.s. cities are running on threadbare service levels already it's a cut they can ill afford artie's lauren lyster has more. right it's the reality america cannot escape with the city's roughly two hundred eighty million dollars debt more and more people are talking about bankruptcy news of debt like that hitting cash strapped cities and states all over the country altogether it could amount to two trillion dollars and

a bill many may not be able to pay the problem of the state and local debt is more serious than the real estate bubble serious because with millions of americans still unemployed and losing their homes there isn't enough taxpayer money to pay creditors local governments which aren't allowed to operate in the red must come up with the cash this means some may be choosing between default or devastation in many cases it will be fairly simple for cities to cut services before they actually default on their cities and states coast to coast seem to be trying this route and the toll it's taking on the streets of america is undeniable. camden new jersey is the second most dangerous city in the country you didn't see many cops on the streets to begin with and now you may really see any the city's had to lay off nearly half of their police force in detroit a city where people have been too broke to bury their dead the city's too broke to

repair dying infrastructure to fix roads or lights in the desert state of arizona cuts have been a matter of life and death. governor jan brewer taking a lot of heat over the death of another transplant patient after the state cut funding for the operations here in new york city huge piles of garbage like this one are all over city streets just cities behind on picking up trash after getting behind clearing up after our snowstorm public officials blame that on any number of reasons but one accusation that keeps coming up is this is the result of budget cuts cuts have consequences you can't just sort of cut and there isn't enough wasteful spending so to speak to cut you're actually do have to cut services that people depend on analysts say the slashing will amount to an increase in unemployment and a lowering of wages dragging more americans down and the economy with it while the prospect of bankruptcies threaten the pensions of public workers and may cause

a run on municipal bonds so that will push the city counties over the over the cliff if it's not a solution either scenario seems to be causing a widespread decline in the american city once relegated to ancient history it's a feed back towards economic shrinking downsizing and the urban ization exactly the same thing happened in the roman empire when in the end broom was left almost a deserted city and all of the production shifted back onto the land that's faced here although the land in this case looks like it will be broad rather than in the united states as investment flees to other countries threatening to take with it the american dream lauren lyster r.t. new york. has never been easier for teenagers and russia to buy booze was being asked for id fueling under-age alcoholism was no stranger in punishments many store owners turn a blind eye to selling alcohol to minors or geezer renegotiate went in with hidden

cameras to uncover in the scale of the problem. these teenagers just may be russia's future and it's looking rather bleak go. the problem is that kids start drinking around fourteen fifteen years of age regularly dependence it takes a few years to form so when they are brought to us the process has already been formed and not always we can pull them out of this tough situation according to n.g.o.s there are anywhere from twenty to sixty thousand in the country and many blame the fact that it's far too easy for a teenager to buy alcohol legal drinking age in russia is eighteen years old so how easy is it for a teenager to get his or her hands on some hard liquor we're going to follow a couple of enthusiasm russian youth organization into that liquor store right across the street which is one of the largest supermarkets selling hard alcohol to find out whether or not they will be successful in getting their hands on a couple of bottles of whiskey we've been in with

a hidden camera but the experiment didn't work the first time around so no go here the teenage girls were not sold any alcohol they were else for them to the case and when they didn't provide it they were refused service but we're going to go to another place just down the street and see whether they will be able to get some vodka or beer there was. sure enough each of them had no trouble getting a beer from this kiosk. when confronted this serious woman got defensive but didn't seem too fazed with breaking the law oh not that way though you know how many times did we tell you not to sell alcohol to the under-aged and you still continue to do that. unfortunately practically every second or supermarkets sell cigarettes and alcohol to adolescents and we have to mark positive tendencies to russian parliamentarians have been trying to implement stringent punishments for those who sell alcohol and cigarettes to minors but so far there has been very

little progress parents are responsible for the children until they turn eighteen and i think if we make parents pay a fine when the kids smoke or drink we will raise the level. responsibility because presently teenagers do all these things practically with a parent's permission as me it's clear a century of use of this drug and alcohol became an intrinsic part of the russian culture after world war two we have a tradition to drink for any reason and that's a huge problem we need to tackle fortunately many youngsters themselves realize the scope of the problem parts of us life they want to relax to feel grown up but i don't think if you drink two three bottles of beer you automatically become an adult as things stand there is little consequence or punishment for kiosk or store owners willing to cash in on minors health but it could be the country's future at stake it even goes court mosco. there's always more news and analysis on our website or to here's what's online right now. and then to islam march has been

staged by wanting less far right groups prime minister david cameron spoke of failing multiculturalism in modern day britain. thousands of russian athletes gather skis on an annual cross-country race and find out more about the savannah head to our web site r.t. dot com. former u.s. president george w. bush has canceled a visit to switzerland citing security concerns and came after human rights groups threatened protests and called on the swiss government to tame bush for authorizing the torture of suspected terrorists journalist option returns he believes it's like it's unlikely bush will be held to account by an international court. it's difficult to know where to start with george w. bush because it into a car drove people dick cheney it's call romas filters dick cheney's chief of staff we don't have rumsfeld's memoirs this is about illegal wars and so on but this case i think centers around two individuals in particular one of whom i've met

a cameraman for a qatari satellite t.v. channel who was incarcerated in guantanamo for years and we mustn't forget forty eight year old guy a few days ago after being going to her for nine years also without charge of course and tortured by the international law has proved pretty useless when it comes to torture will any of these come to pass to actually indict all these people including of course tony blair here in britain very doubtful in the hague won't touch the people that really are responsible for torture in such a major scale and for training torturers at the school of americas and of course we must remember that the obama administration still is going to open so people are being tortured to this day. and arms reduction treaty was finally given the green line by moscow and washington russia and the u.s. will now start slashing their nuclear arsenals by assert but as are his military contributor currently getting herself explains it's now their task not to lead the nuclear weapons fall into terrorist hands. the latest certification of the start

treaty is not the end but just a beginning of the r.t.o. spro says to declare arise and to minimize the nuclear threat both from the rogue state and known state actors especially from bellew's nukes that might wind up in the hands of terrorists who are enjoying the hospitality in the badlands of pakistan in fact on obama administration watch pakistan slowly but steadily has significantly expanded its nuclear arsenal both in its first strike capability and the amount of fiesole material that could be easily employed for yet another one hundred nuclear warheads now the united states has a unique opportunity to exonerate its shattered image in the muslim world it has to persuade its most indispensable ally pakistan to stop sub but dodging the

known fee cell material cut off treaty and to become a signatory of the us to help pakistan to shed that image as an international parea and to prove its ability and willingness to share their full responsibility as a respected member of the international community in that endeavor i'm sure the russian federation we will do its best to aid and support the united states effort in full accordance with the letter and spirit of just recently signed up and ready fide start treaty. let's now take a look at some other stories from around the world and shots have been traded along the border line and from bolivia for a fourth day in a row the conflict is centered around a temple internationally recognized as belonging to. dispute this but clashes have so far claimed five lives since friday and forced the evacuation of thousands of

villagers a time military source reportedly described the latest skirmish as a misunderstanding. two bushfires driven by hot summer winds are raging on the outskirts of perth in australia west coast fifty nine homes have been destroyed or more have been damaged the strong winds are hampering efforts to contain the blazes with water bombing aircraft affected meanwhile the cleanup from floods and cyclons of the country's east coast continues the floods have been the country's worst in decades killing thirty five people causing an estimated five point six billion dollars in damage. towcester is demanding the resignation of italian prime minister silvio berlusconi have clashed with police outside his villainy in the land demonstration turned violent when some members of hundred strong crowd tried to break a security cordon around the residence the protest calm as the scandal plagued leader of fans off accusations that he can sort it with prostitutes mr berlusconi strongly

denies the accusations and is about to continue to govern. cross-talk is just to have the first is the latest business news with kareena to go away. welcome to business thanks for joining me russia's state owned bank is starting a road show later on monday the country's second largest lender is offering a ten percent stake worth around three and a half billion dollars it's the first big sale and rushes out a vicious privatization program the roadshow is organized by merrill lynch bank and b.c.b. capital and will be held in the united states europe and moscow analysts name middle eastern sovereign wealth funds among the potential buyers with the stake metals the

daily also reports that about half of the ten percent stake may be acquired by italian and group generally. the price of brant crude oil went beyond one hundred dollars mark this market this latest rise was reportedly due to the tensions in egypt. christophe chief economist and vice president of b.p. says the growth was mainly due to tightening oil markets. what has happened already over the last few months with more stable supply and more demand the majority. but it was invisible and the reason for this is we had so much floating storage oil stored over the sea that us disappeared didn't show up in official statistics no it was december of your purchase of just to see the initial report and all of the end of the third is the summary of that is that by the beginning of this year we will have to see will be reacting in majoris we continue to fall very sharp the prices will start to rise. after increased production we. have

a look at the markets asian stocks are mostly higher extending the benchmark equities best week this year bends the accused trading half a percent in the black among stocks getting a lift on the weaker yen are nineteen and a little post that were up two point seven two point one percent respectively hong kong shares move in a range close to breakeven level early monday as trader trading resume for the first time since moving holidays and here in russia markets are trading mixed this hour the r.t.s. is hire is losing a quarter of a percent energy and banking shares are weighing on the indices busy bees shedding half a percent although my six the weakness of the banks current share price is seen by alice as a buying opportunity ross we have to is with positive outlook for this year and good fourth quarter results and gas promise again point four percent. now russia's largest independent gas producer expects to increase output by up to fifteen percent this year in january it perform better than gas from ways decrease

to production by about three percent compared to last year is currently building a plant in the gas rich arctic. the first c.e.o. is expected in five years time the company says it's investing one hundred million dollars into the liquefied natural gas project this year in addition the gas producer is looking for strategic partner to take a forty nine percent stake. there is shell there is all there is there is. exxon mobil has looked at a conoco phillips smaller companies i've looked at a couple japanese firms to look at so we're looking at a series of foreigners who have studied the particular geology studied the concept we're finishing the exploration side we're drilling three wells this year there's already been fifty five exploration wells are drilled and then we'll engage the contractor who which was c.b.i. lomas to start with what we call the feed study and so we've completed the initial

work and now all the infrastructure activities are underway in the mall peninsula. stay with us for headline news. well when one deals with war for us to realize that this tremendous amounts of damage that have done not just human damage but damage the physical environment in

which the battlefield takes place tremendous amounts of damage done by aerial bombs by napalm boy chemical sometimes whether it's a sonic boom say factory or in mammals or it's the burning oil field syria or iraq or are idiots destroyed. in the pacific for ramming purposes the list just goes on and on the geneva conventions of nineteen forty nine states that they are shall be taken in war to protect and by against widespread long term and severe damage the united states although it is accepted almost all of the provisions political one has taken exception to that.

is he used to. eat.

this is r t coming to live from moscow a look at the top stories an edge of the government has offered new concessions to ease the tension in the crisis hit country while the opposition is holding firm in their demands for president mubarak's immediate resignation after two weeks of violent protests. we can leaks founder julian assange prepares to find his extradition to sweden but stockholm's cozy friendship with washington mind see him traded to the united states where he could face the death penalty. and as u.s. president barack obama implements a new budget some say it'll money go into poverty reduction programs but struggling with massive debts many american cities are already you running on threadbare

services. because they have lines here in r t up next join peter allen his guest in a debate over whether the west should be aware of the growing muslim community and whether it's still willing to stand up for multiculturalism cross-talk is next here on our team. well. the latest in science stem cell culture from around russia. we've dumped a huge earth covered. welcome to cross talk i'm peter lavelle the.