after weeks of antigovernment unrest the egyptian president prepares to address the nation the cia says it expects him to step down within hours fuelling further criticism that the u.s. is pulling the strings. new exodus christians in iraq fear they're being driven out of their country with constant sectarian attacks targeting the minority groups. a surprise visit by the president renews concerns over transport security in russia and to me personally discovered major lapses at one of moscow's main train stations . u.s. politicians are famous for the bloopers they make when advising the world on democracy it seems the american people are being turned into the object of ridicule .

from our studios here in central moscow this is r t with you twenty four hours a day so the egyptian president hosni mubarak has to address the nation later tonight in the cia says it expects he will resign it's been more than two weeks since the mass uprising in the country which has been accompanied by a wave of violent clashes between pro and anti-government protesters these are pictures coming to you from cairo central square where massive crowds are staying put these are recent pictures we're seeing here on r.t. refusing to leave until the president stands with immediate effect one more on this story now we're joined by michael douglas he's a professor at the u.s. naval war college thanks very much for joining us well we've just been hearing from the cia saying that will be stepping down what many people perceive this to be egyptian people speaking in these protests some may say well the fact the cia is

saying this does that mean that actually all of this and they're putting the strings. i think the record shows with egypt especially during the last decade of the so-called war on terror that us preoccupation with iraq afghanistan and the general sense of threat. made the us very ineffective at leveraging the mubarak regime in fact i think some of the excesses that we've seen over the last decade are due to the fact that the u.s. leverage has declined and mubarak sense so in a sense ran for example in two thousand and five when we. slapped him on the wrist as kind of lisa rice tried to do and took exception to his brutal put down the muslim brotherhood and other political dissent. he said oh so what you have no control over me and i think this is been one of the pernicious.

developments for the u.s. certainly a negative development over the last ten years we've had very very little real influence on how mubarak behaves within his own but if the u.s. had been happy in the way he's behaved and we're seeing all this happening this instability and if he does resign today who will replace him will that be a u.s. decision. there are lots of precedents for this in similarly sized sort of core muslim countries and the question i think that we have to be mindful of right now is whether egypt pursues the kind of transitional that turkey did several years ago toward democracy where the army was essentially a midwife rather than continuing to to run the country and actually help set the stage for the moderate islamist government that we see in turkey today or do we go

down the path that we've seen so often in pakistan's history or you see the military a centrally come in claim that it will usher in a democratic age and then just stay in power. egypt is not in the kind of crisis that it was in when saddam. assumed the reins of power from nasser with all of the turbulence in seventy three war in the lead up to camp david. egypt seems to be in terms of the spirit of its people prepared to enter into a kind of democratic phase of its history and egypt is a very democratically inclined society the demonstrations that we've seen over the past several weeks here really similar to the mass demonstrations that took place against british rule in one nine hundred ninety and forced the british to grant egypt independence so i think the army at this point can see i should say the whole

military in egypt can see. the tremendous determination tenacity and. effectiveness of egyptian mass democratic expression and i would suspect that they would want to accommodate that so but that did not mean that the us would lose its influence then if you see more people power democratic decisions being made and that the people's voices being heard are you saying in fact foreign policy the u.s. foreign policy is failing and it won't have so much influence not only in egypt also in the rest of the middle east. well u.s. influence is sort of a thumb magic or rhetorical trope i mean it's an expression that's used in washington and what i've been suggesting is that the u.s. has actually had less actual influence in the region than it has sparked and this is now being exposed and it is probably good for the u.s.

to have less influence the u.s. has been engaged in trying to explore everything that goes on in that region especially since nine eleven when the entire region is seen as a threat to you know states and the u.s. cannot orchestrate that and in fact the harder it tries the more its influence way if you do have a democratic succession in egypt this will translate into a cascade of change and pressures for democratic change throughout the region but especially in the most were repressive societies like saudi arabia some of the gulf states jordan. algeria and when that happens then you could see a kind of revolutionary sentiment that initially at least will be quite unhappy with the u.s. and at that point it probably be wise for the u.s. to step back and certainly try and engage the new forces. like the muslim

brotherhood in egypt which the u.s. has not engaged and that's really hurt the u.s. now because if we had stronger relations with the muslim brotherhood and other opposition groups in egypt we'd be in a much better position now can i quickly ask you as well as we've been talking we've been showing pictures of the situation there in cairo it's interesting to see that the the army has been a far more assertive now what why is that do you think why is it stepped in at this moment now when we are expecting some sort of speech from mubarak. the army has to to assert its authority and it has to be able to show that it is willing to assert its authority but it's a very delicate. line to walk because of the army does anything that looks like a crackdown or suppression of this democratic movement then they will lose legitimacy so essentially the army has to posture itself and i'm talking about

you know visible behavior in such a way to retain its authority but not to a bridge the trusted relationship the army still has with the egyptian people are again i get back to my earlier comment about a democratic transition it's in the army's interest to have a democratic transition because the army is authority will grow in egypt as it has in turkey if the army is seen as the guardian of egyptian democracy and not as a a new successor tyranny and in the line of pharaohs there may be many wondering that also i suppose been an open secret the way that america has funded the regime which has turned out to be corrupt by all accounts why do you think america really has poured so much money into is it more than just making sure that it has a friend and an ally in the region to pursue its policy in the middle east or is there more to it than that well that the u.s.

got. in a sense step by step it got sucked into our. approach to the middle east where the middle east became the greater middle east including pakistan the most important focus of american foreign policy and in the case of egypt there were two dynamics at work one you had. the camp david accords and that sort of locked in a year early by another word egypt was being egypt's peace with israel was being paid for every year and if you look at it that way that helps explain why the u.s. has been locked into this important financial transfer year after year after year but also egypt became something of a substitute for the loss of iran and being one of the anchor core countries in the arab world maybe the cork this was seen as a great triumph for u.s.

. foreign policy and so we were almost immediately heavily invested in maintaining the cost ability in the third element was there was a sense in washington that the muslim brotherhood was the source of instability in egypt and therefore suppressing it was was all right and as the muslim brotherhood has evolved especially in the ninety's and into the last decade we didn't pick up the cues that this in fact is a core part of egyptian. civic culture and that may be the most important element in in keeping stability in egypt for the things it does in terms of social welfare health care legal education education the brotherhood has been an anchor in and civil society in egypt and we somehow missed that because i think

there was a period of hysteria after the. eleven that hasn't begun to recede and well it's very interesting to hear what you have to say particularly at this time the moment . with regard to what's happening there in car at the moment michael voss professor at the u.s. naval war college there in washington thanks very much indeed for joining us and showing us your analysis on the situation there from washington thank you. sectarian violence has forced iraqi christians to seek haven in the relatively calm northern region of kurdistan hundreds of thousands of the minority group fled there in the years following the two thousand and three u.s. led invasion and as sebastian my reports from iraq those who stayed are a continued target of extremists. every night miriam gets ready for bed with her family but it's not her bed it's not even her house miriam and her family are christian iraqis who have been forced to flee from baghdad to the semi autonomous kurdish region because they become targets of extremist groups in the country in

two thousand and seven miriam was hit by a bomb that was planted outside her house they lack i went out with my arm just to buy some chocolate and come back and went out and didn't see anything i just heard the bomb and i fell to the ground miriam was lying in the street with her foot dangling from her leg her father i had rushed outside. i saw my daughter lying groaned it was a live and. my daughter was lying me growing and people were running. everything was covered in dust and a shortage of glass so i picked up my daughter with her leg dying i almost lost it i was shouting my daughter. has been hit by a bomb but. luckily i had was able to get her to a doctor who could repair her leg but others have not been so lucky in october last year fifty six people were killed by militants when they attacked the our lady of

salvation church in baghdad in the following weeks dozens more were killed in attacks across the country many fear that eventually christians will be driven out of iraq completely of the eight hundred thousand christians in the country before two thousand and three almost half of fled in the past month alone four thousand have moved to the comparative safety of the northern kurdish region here they can worship and live in peace but in leaving their homes they've lost absolutely everything many like miriam's father and are forced to make a living cleaning toilets in bars and restaurants these are mostly i served first seven years in the military under saddam hussein i'm an iraqi christian and i don't have a square switch of land in my name why what's my crime many in the church feel that countries in the west are responsible. americans are liars we don't trust their reputation is terrible because everywhere they've been they have light the us train the sunni and shia and they just watch while they kill it is impossible not

to see all these murders but they don't get involved. it's the end of a long day and time for the family to go to bed everyone gets ready and eventually the lights are switched off in the darkness and uncertainty miriam and the rest of her family are left to dream about and hope for a better tomorrow sebastian meyer r t so i'm in the iraq. and there's an investigation has been launched after the russian president personally discovered major security lapses of the wrong way station in moscow it came when dimitri medvedev paid a surprise visit to one of the capital's main stations. with the details so this i'm sure jal visit course some major red faces then today. it certainly has yes but a start and the passengers. train station. extremely surprised today by the arrival of president meditative unplanned spot check to check out the security systems at

the train station we know that he was extremely displeased with what he found when he entered the station he couldn't see any police officers though in a metal detectors now he was accompanied by the heads of the federal security service and the interior ministry we know that he addressed the staff and the son of the police officer here and he was actually quite angry over his questioning then as to why exactly these measures were in place. but as for the order i haven't seen a single policeman at the railway station i understand that there are c.c.t.v. cameras but still what about. their standby duty in ruwi station we've walked around the whole together with the minister but i haven't noticed a single priestman. now transport security has been the talk of president medvedev as agenda since. the date of the airports and today carrying out

the spot check he's showing that he's extremely serious in ensuring that the measures and now up to scratch now when he visited here is he said he spoke today stuff and we've heard him speaking at the crime instead of course the finger of a play pointing a number of authorities that he really highlighted the federal security service as really holding top responsibility and what he was saying to them is they really need to be making sure that they're doing their job not just immediately after the attack but they're putting these merged in place that will stay in place. from now on the federal security service will be responsible for coordinating security measures on. the railways must be protected exactly the same as you must know what your offices are exactly doing at that moment but they must. they must.

present the date of again in the wake of the attacks we had to talking very seriously about what he calls a system fadia really they need to get this up to standard now and they're going to be very serious about implementing this and if people on such the job we've had in say they'll simply be replaced by people who are we've already seen a number of high profile firings among the of the chief of the federal transportation security says again today with highlighting the major security lapses possibly the firings to come but the essential message now is that the security system needs to be tight it needs to be solid and uncompromising and the shakeups going to continue until that. sara thanks for that reporting live from central moscow. this is live from the russian capital with the twenty four hours a day remember there's always more news on our website common his. online. despite the tempting side of one hundred twenty thousand dollars a bus driver in russia takes the on this road to finding bags of cash.

and customs officers in russia get into hot water after appearing in an i want to run video showing the side of the job find out about these stories and plenty more on our website dot com. us politicians don't often hold back when it comes to their views of the world but it seems they haven't always check their facts he's gonna chicana reports it's the american people who are becoming the butt of the joke. advising other countries on democracy seems to be a must for any u.s. politician and some of them get so carried away that they confuse what countries exactly they're talking about i also want to thank the president of lithuania a group of our members of congress visited with her yesterday in choosing

a great leader a but we also had the opportunity to meet with members of the opposition many of whom have fellow countrymen residing in prison have been beaten and tortured art bell roof. during the same conference the former presidential candidate down one of the most influential republican senators referred to russia as the soviet union we all know that our missile defense rather modest. earmark. we are proceeding with it because of the threat we face from iran not from the soviet union but senator mccain's gaffes don't stop there i'm afraid that it's a very hard struggle particularly given the situation on the iraq pakistan border probably only in mccain's mind did pakistan share a border with iraq but he's not the only u.s. politician who's quick to share their expertise in world affairs without checking

some facts george w. bush will not prides himself on having pushed democracy in egypt during his presidency thought africa was a nation africa's a nation has suffered from incredible disease the winner of hearts and minds of millions of americans sarah paling true thought africa was a country some two years ago but now nothing seems to stop her from handing out advice on how to deal with egypt this is pale and has further contributed to her credibility in foreign affairs when commenting on the u.s. stance with regards to north korea obviously got to stand with our north korean allies were bound to create by trees and worry about by well the paradoxes is that politicians who really know nothing about these things have to appear to know something they have to speak out on all of these issues to be considered credible sig years so sarah palin you know who could see russia from her door in her window you know is now an expert on russia or whatever else the reason why us politicians feel free to make bloopers on international issues could be that many of their

audience is can't catch the inconsistences well it's very easy to manipulate people when they don't know anything so they generally americans. indifferent they don't pay attention to world events and you can easily manipulate them cussed. yes after waging wars in iraq and afghanistan for years figures show most americans still have difficulties finding the countries on the map. if the public is not able to notice the ignorance of their politicians they won't be able to hold them accountable for their decisions something that is one of the biggest threats to democracy in america and our reporting from washington our team . when our time for a brief look at some other major headlines from around the world before we get the business update of the tree at least six people are being killed and six injured after a small plane crashed at cork airport in the republic of ireland the commuter aircraft

overturned in court far were trying to land in heavy fog the mancs two plane had made two previous attempts to land it had been travelling from belfast in northern ireland the accident is the deadliest in aviation since one thousand nine hundred sixty eight. the teenage suicide bomber dressed in school uniform was struck at a military facility in northwestern pakistan killing at least thirty soldiers and wounding over forty others the attacker detonated his explosives laden during an early training session in the city of moore down the incidents described as one of the worst against pakistani security forces in recent months militants have carried out scores of suicide bombings and other terror attacks in the past few years in the region killing thousands. the german chancellor angela merkel is due to face questioning as part of the probe into a military airstrike which killed dozens of civilians in afghanistan's province almost two years ago after hundred forty two people were killed as a result of the attack on fuel tankers which have been hijacked by taliban militants it's part of political storm in germany claiming the jobs of several top

military officials i'll be back with a summary of our main news stories for you in about seven minutes from now in the meantime as promised business is next with dmitri. thanks very much bill indeed the government's intervention and fuel pricing has already led to a reduction in the cost of diesel for consumers that's according to russia's anti monopoly watchdog now the watchdog group and a formal investigation into three of the country's top producers for price fixing up to prime minister putin questioned why fuel prices were rising faster than through the two years ago the watchdog impose fines of nearly a billion dollars against the likes of ross never lukoil deeply for fixing prices but as constantin suman of general director of the national energy security fund leeds fines are not the right way to ensure competition.

the problem is that we cover nor when the band refrain there is a rush all serious or foreign that is there but all this we have to integrate to the ground and in my opinion if we really want to struggle for law with all prices across the wall we are we must simply not about fines we must think about structural reform of our industry we must have independent refineries and only i think this is the only one way to struggle with high oil prices if we want to press on but we must have real complete the mission of our market if we will have no independent why there is there will be no competition. gas promised post of the first quarter net profit of five point four billion dollars that's down nine percent from the previous year the figures were in line with expectations russia's biggest company of servitude the declines in long term debt interest payments and a decrease in demand from supplies around a quarter of europe's gas needs though its market share has dropped in the last two

years due to the inflow of al turn to benjie sources. has increased gas exports in general two thousand and eleven year old mom but that was only due to favorable supported his market conditions to recap in january sports the gas prices the new war gas progress prices so basically bed how guest room in general but i'm afraid this is a temporary measure and i don't think we will see you again as expert from gazprom more than one hundred fifty billion cubic meters in two thousand and eleven. so the market's now in the u.s. they're lower despite a strong jobs report and come only technologies felt sixteen percent at one point on the nasdaq is now down around seven percent after the company said competitors are forcing it to offer lower prices for its web streaming services european stock markets are also led by heavyweights banking stocks. shares are down

seven point seven percent of the close after the airline issued a profits warning and its head said there was excess capacity on some routes and managed to recover losses of the russian stocks and the session in negative territory third session of losses in a row investors are shifting their assets out of developing countries concerned that inflation will hurt growth in emerging markets and the majors on the main drag as it will drop to eighty six and a half dollars a barrel is the sixth day of decline for the west texas crude gas from nafta is therefore down around two and a half percent investors are worried that their final will suffer most of the washington of the russian forces fuel prices no draw. it may come down around two point seven percent of the close despite reporting twenty ten revenue rising nine point one percent. this is not been the best of the week for russia and again i think it will turn out to be have indeed one of the worst performing emerging markets story here is be one of the best performer markets so far this year it's

easy to profits when you when you when you made some so i think what we're looking at is profit taking having basically been on the forefront for this week. in other news to now been planted child by stopped an upcoming initial public offering due to unfavorable market conditions the company had planned to sell about thirty percent of its shares on the my six r.t.s. and london stock exchange in a bid to raise up to eight hundred twenty eight million dollars and as predicted the i.p.o. would have valued the company was going to and two point seven billion dollars. twenty one million euros from its involvement with the russian carmaker after last year. that it expects along with its alliance partner nissan to acquire a controlling stake enough to go after that as by the end of the year i am back in one hour's time with an update bill is next with a headline stay with. are

close enough to stop we are going to come back.

we'll have a rally we'll sell lots of beer lotion on the face will wear uniforms that will damage is the black man moving but very little damming the white. and they are the key to our problem are all right. we'll. bring you the latest in science and technology from the realms of russia. we've got the future of coverage.