tell me what your group the original agree how would. a visit. in the u.k. . between the two countries. practical steps towards improving. towards developing a strong. security at the forefront of. the government looks more efficient ways to.

a very warm welcome to you this is. what both sides expressed hope the trend towards more positive. the russian foreign minister. let's get more on this from. following the trip at this point. this is the first visit of a russian official. deteriorated following the killing of former federal security. that was in london in two thousand and six but off to today's talks tell us what are the issues at this point that have been agreed upon. well we have seen a series of meetings today which is really focused on the positive. it has become

a rocky relationship between russia and the u.k. and because of that a lot of what was talked about were economic ties and trade ties of course trade between russia and the u.k. amounts to around seventeen billion dollars and russia is one of the u.k.'s most important trading partners they said that economic ties are on the rise of course recently we saw this huge the deal see signed between b.p. and the state oil giant ross nafta so those kinds of things were high on the agenda and foreign minister lavrov outlined six priorities for improving the trade relationship he talked about finance he talked about working together in the nanotech sector energy efficiency of course one of the big projects coming up for russia is the olympics so cooperating on olympic infrastructure strengthening the small and medium business sector in russia and also improving the business environment in general they also talked a bit about modernizing communication links between london and moscow this is

obviously love rovs first visit to london in this particular official capacity let's hear what he said about those communication ties are they looking to improve . the. visit to london invitation if you could government symbolises and you can see of them relations based on partnership interest economic cooperation between countries on the rise since the strategic b.p. rose new. litter example we're happy to look at the agreement on establishing a direct line between the british prime minister and the criminal it's an important new elements of our communications that's moved to take it to a more. and taking that relationship to a more high tech level is really symptomatic of how important and the u.k. are as partners together that lavrov talked about how important that u.k. was its partner in its dialogue with the e.u. and also the partnership that it has in dialogue with nato and on improving

european security and william hague the british foreign secretary also underlined the importance of that relationship let's hear him speak to those countries continue to see a patient steady improvement in relations it will take time there will be no giant leaps it is a very measured practical steps and this welcome visit is an important part of the steady improvement in relations which we initiated on our side when the coalition government came into office and as a working practical relationship on bilateral issues and on global issues it is undoubtedly on an improving trend. and alongside the bilateral relationship that these two countries have and are trying to improve there's obviously that cooperation on the international stage and in terms of that they have issued a joint statement on afghanistan which talked about the transfer of power in

afghanistan also talked about troop withdrawal set up assessing a sort of loose timetable for that and also the fight against the production of drugs in afghanistan which is a huge problem with russia in terms of transport. now they also talked about iran and the nuclear issue nuclear issues russia has been an important negotiator with iran in terms of its nuclear program lover often said that while there than introducing further sanctions iran should join the nonproliferation treaty and should also try to become part of the i.a.e.a. that and only that will convince the world that iran has no hostile nuclear ambitions that it does indeed want to nuclear program merely for domestic use so no new sanctions for iran but that it should push to try and join the i.a.e.a. and other nonproliferation organizations and or so it was interesting that our circle of rough suggested that iran joined the nuclear nonproliferation treaty in accordance with the you know a very positive showing of friendship and of future cooperation between moscow and

london but but there have been some members of the british parliament who would calling for the cancellation of love ross trip over the recent incident involving the reporter from the guardian newspaper tell us more about the difficulties of the strain in the relationship between moscow and london over recent years. but it does seem that in the past every attempt that's been made to put this relationship back on track has been de railed in some way and the latest example of that is causing the guardian correspondent who was refused entry to russia earlier this month the russians say that he was trying to travel on an invalid visa and that he had made some sort of accreditation mistake or maybe a deliberate. maybe not a deliberate mistake but that there was something wrong with his accreditation and that's why he wasn't allowed back into the country but you causing and the guardian in turn say that in fact it was due to his work with wiki leaks which contains some compromising information about the russian government but of course that's not the

only thing really this relationship was the murder of alexander litvinenko in london in two thousand and six and the british law enforcement main suspect is under a look of war who is now a do or deputy and it's against russia's constitution to extradite him that's something that the british have been calling for for some time now but it hasn't happened also there are forty people around about living here in the u.k. who are wanted for crimes in russia and so far refusal to extradite them as well the most notable. bodies but it's the russian tycoon and also. the former chechen leader. but these are stumbling blocks in the diplomatic relationship and i think what's been discussed more hits a day is the economic and business relationship and that work on the international stage and if these two countries can carry on focusing on the positives which seem to be what they really want to do then this is a relationship that can move forward and certainly both these men that we've seen

meeting today seem keen for it to do. or not to use or i mean for us live in london thank you. well still to come here on the program on our t.v. just a little bit later how the recent unrest in egypt is causing a domino effect across the middle east you can find out which countries are in the crossfire and what washington and twitter have to do with the violence. russia is taking a new measures in its fight against terrorism in the latest special operations five militants were killed in the northern caucasus region three policemen died and three were injured in the and suing gun battle. has more on this. of terrorists who are surrounded by a local law enforcement a gun battle ensued in which five militants were killed one is supposedly on the run and is being sought after as we speak in the gun battle and this of course is

just the latest installment in the on go way battle against terrorism in russia specifically in the volatile caucasus region one of the a suicide blast that was a detonated in a village in the republic of the guest on that was a car that was detonated by a suicide bomber he himself was in the car of course and died on location another suicide bomb that also took place in that same village in that gets down on a woman who walked up to a military outpost and detonated a suicide belt with a bomb of course killing herself killing one. security officer and injuring many others course the investigation into moscow's airport bombing is still ongoing but we do know that authorities have now managed to confirm the identity of the suicide bomber and the facts are coming out as soon as the identity of the suicide bomber

was established the authorities of course are now gathering more and more information not only about the man himself but also about all of his accomplices who helped him put together the detonating device who actually made made sure that he got to the airport that he detonated that device everyone and anyone of course who came into contact with this so side bomber is now under even further scrutiny from the security forces russian authorities officially the russian president dmitry medvedev has ordered security forces to be stepped up a lot not just a notch on all major transport hubs in washouts of course including airports train stations metro stations the president ordering heavier police presence. a lot more devices such as metal detectors to be implemented on train stations for control to be doubled at airports and that of course is being implemented as we speak but the full effect of those measures is of course yet to take place as it is quite

a serious amount of work for the security forces. out of our reporting that now the controversial debate over multiculturalism in europe has now taken a new twist as more migrants flee their troubled countries and such of stability and security europe is giving them because shoulder more than five thousand arrived in italy in the past week and its interior minister warns they could jeopardize the institutional under social structures of the continent it comes on the back of harsh criticism of multiculturalism by some western european leaders a free speech activist in austria who described it as a failure has gone on trial for speaking out against religious groups but the charges of inciting hatred and violence were dropped she was found guilty of denigrating religious symbols elizabeth edition of wolf is appealing the case and claims she should not be prosecuted for speaking out. in a culture of looks at why some are free to speak out while others are not.

a european citizen peacefully debating islam with a muslim is nothing unusual in a multicultural country like little stream but it's a tall peak not always discussed in such gentle fashion i advise you not to burn the koran about your ego. by studying what islam stands for we'll be learning how to basically know your enemy you elizabeth supper teaching world has been on trial in a vienna court on charges of making what is described as a hate speech against islam a left wing magazine recorded and published a speech at one of his seminars lending his. import i have nothing against people who want to practice their faith. but i would like them to do this in the privacy of their own homes your ideas she says are nothing new and when europe's political elite express them they are not prosecuted for the same views multiculturalism has

failed this is nothing new and my group and i have been saying this for years now all of a sudden. and others come out of hiding and agree with us i don't know why but elizabeth wolfe opponents say she crossed the line here a speech is outraged not only the muslim community but also made. it's not a matter of free speech that i can spread hatred about large groups of society now we have to respect individuals in our society and we have to ask them to integrate and we have to help them to integrate yet european leaders such as german chancellor angela merkel french president nicolas sarkozy and british prime minister david cameron say mostly culturalism in europe isn't working there are huge muslim communities but frequently such as in all strata they leave in their

own areas a physical sign of non integration there is this should sit in vienna is known as the little people here speak their native language they prepare their national dishes and wear the clothes which they are used to and this is exactly what elizabeth subject wall found here a fellow like sounds taking a stance against self segregation at top which was once taboo is now at the top of the european political agenda with multiculturalism now open to multi criticism from some of the continent's most influential political leaders we've yet to see how their views might fully influence debate on the ground and the future shape of europe exiting the church over our team from vienna. just a little bit later here on r t we can a glimpse into the future of a major sporting event it's a taste of what's to come in russia's resort city of sochi as the host of the two thousand and fourteen winter olympics puts

a brand new slope to the test. well in the wake of the egyptian revolution activists in the middle east are turning up the heat on the government's riots broken out all across the region now two demonstrators were killed in rain on monday and an activist was also shot dead by police in the iranian capital the protest in tehran took place just a day after the u.s. state department began inspiring iran's opposition with twitter messages is the first such riot in the country for over a year on tuesday iranian and peace call for the opposition leaders to be tried and executed u.s. secretary of state hillary clinton meantime says washington quote clearly and directly supports the protesters let's get some more on this now we're joined live from islamabad by a middle east expert mikhail good to see you so here on claims washington is behind the riots so we just heard from secretary of state hillary clinton there supporting the riots the iranian authorities are saying the opposition leaders should be tried

and executed so why is the u.s. backing the protests if there are any placing more lives at risk what's what's washington's agenda here do you think. well i think that the united states being developing global policy throughout the last decades global policy in which it came in to support most of the. governments that you can see actually let's say on the broad middle eastern scene but on the other hand we shouldn't forget also that from their own point of view the americans consider that defending their own interests in the region can't come without making as if they were really supporting the democratic processes that are prevailing in their. asian and that is why we could see as an example that in the beginning when you had the riots in egypt you didn't really support the public opinion became much more with the position that was keen to what hosni mubarak wanted but when they consider when

they noticed that they couldn't do anything against the river result and the revolution that was taking place then they decided to compose with the public opinion and to say to tell them that it was in favor of democracy process but i think that anyway whether united states i want willing to do is or is defending their own interests and that is why they try to anticipate things and they try to make as if they were the best friends of the public opinions that are present in the ground or you so you say that washington is trying to look out for its best interests in mind in the middle east region but you're also saying washington is playing both sides of the fence when it was coming to the recent unrest in egypt let's talk about egypt so much speculation the u.s. was was involved in this state of chaos about two weeks of rioting before mubarak stepped down but according to wiki leaks washington had been trying to topple mubarak for years do we think that washington did have some role in egypt. well

it is hard to say oh it's hard to determine whether the united states could have an impact on the egyptian evolution's or no but i would say for my part that if we looked at some situations that prevailed in the past if you look for example at what happened in iran from june two thousand and nine onwards when we when we had the riots that followed the presidential election what we noticed is that the united states tried to have an impact across the internet or the communication means which meant for example that you had the technical procedure at this time that was settled on the twitter website and they decided to twitter to postpone it in order to support the means of communication of the different people that were in the streets so i would say to satan shorts that we can't really see. that the united states hold things on the ground and they could promote some scenarios the way that they tried to accompany the. iranians not directly

involved but certainly exacerbating the situation there as well as we were saying about the twitter messages i washington sending out messages in farsi so when you look at the u.s. resources in the region they're pretty stretched thin at the moment and army in iraq a war in afghanistan the protests have now spread to bahrain which houses the headquarters of the u.s. navy in the middle east is a is a region just getting fed up and tired of washington's presence in the area do you think. well i think that since presence in the region is something that some people are trying to reappropriate in order to to to to to mark a kind of difference or a kind of harsh criticism of their own governments but we shouldn't anyway focus on the the only american. the american factor by the by a by you trying to evaluate the evolutions of the reason why because i think that most of the people that go to the streets are being held by two types of demands the one political is. concerning the way their own governments are dealing with the

internal internal policies in general and the other is also linked to economic issues and that is why you know we've seen energy for example we can see as well as you know other countries in the region such as jordan we can see that people are coming politic of demands but still convinced that most of them go to the streets because they want to eat and to earn money it is as basic and there are so there you're saying there are two to two sides of the street here people are protesting about economic reform about political reform you've mentioned the region whether egypt or tunisia bahrain you know we are seeing widespread demonstrations here at the end of the day when these unprecedented demonstrations do come to a rest what kind of changes are you expecting in the region. well it is hard to determine how things will evolve but what is sure that tunisia came as a surprise that this same surprise is consequences on the egyptian scene but on the

other hand i would say that not all countries of the region. i mean i don't expect all countries of the reason to know the same scenario but you have some regimes and some countries in which you have your situation look at that for example there is there is a risk there look at the country as yemen for example you also have a race but on the other hand we've seen that in syria the demonstrations didn't come with any consequence also that in a country that just kuwait or said just so your radio could have such consequences so i mean that it's case whatever that means when it. does come to the consequences though there are certain cases where the riot police are being sent out in force and we know in egypt now that the military that's in power is threatening to ban all public demonstrations and any further protests and we're going to have to leave it there live from islamabad middle east expert but up mikhail thank you very much . thank you. art it's a look at some other world news now making headlines this hour and an italian judge

is given the go ahead for the trial of prime minister silvio berlusconi he's facing . charges that he paid for sex with a significant number of young women including a seventeen year old girl and he used his influence to cover it up a scone he has strongly denied the allegations you know faces three years in prison if found guilty of paying minors for sex and from six to twelve years for abuse of power the trial is scheduled to begin in early april and will be heard by a panel of three judges all of them being women. a narcotics trafficking submarine has been discovered by a storage unit in colombia it's believed the vessel is able to travel from colombia to the coast of mexico the submarine was found in a river in the state of about four hundred kilometers south. west of the capital bogota authorities did find weapons nearby but said no one was arrested and no drugs were found. for nasa spacecraft stardust has started being

back the first pictures of a comet swept past it the encounter will give scientists a unique information on how these great balls of ice and dust change over time the craft hoped the more seventy high resolution images would reveal the extent of the impact crater and surroundings it's the first time a comet has been viewed by two different spacecraft six years ago another nasa probe unleashed a cup of carved a crater on the comet. for the winter olympics and russian resort of sochi may be years away but the city's already gearing up for the grand event training runs for the alpine skiing european cup of kicked off on a brand new slope which will host the games in two thousand and fourteen denise polaski is there reporting. the resort is situated in the cross napoli on the mountain range about forty kilometers away from the central part of the city and it will be connected with the olympic village near the coast by high speed rail way in highway now what we see here today is one of the first field tests of the sporting

facilities before the actual games to see how they perform under wife conditions even though the olympics are three years away russian and european athletes already are getting a chance to test some of this key piece now during the two thousand and eleven helpline european cup and also domestic competitions while the mountains are covered in snow now there were plenty of nerves beforehand organizers were very concerned about the weather since just a few weeks ago it was raining here in the mountains and everyone was waiting anxiously for the snow to fall and as you can see their prayers were heard and the steep mountain slopes are now in excellent condition for ski but if the weather fails to deliver enough snow there is always a plan b. in the form of recently installed. snow making machines to ensure there's plenty for competition what we see here today is the initial stage of the alpine european mance cup the skiers are having a training day this tuesday and the main part of the competition will be held

during the coming days a total of seventy four test events will be held in sochi before the two thousand and fourteen winter games twenty nine of them international competitions it's the start of serious testing of the olympic infrastructure not just the venues but also roads bridges tunnels and power lines the construction of most venues is still underway although the organizers say it's answering the final stages and it's over the most difficult initial phase the organizers among them members of the russian government sports industry pros and construction companies will use feedback from these events to fine tune preparations for the olympics themselves. would a recap of the headlines just around the corner but for now it's dimitri and the business news. welcome to business arts it is good to have your company moscow's chances of

becoming a global financial center could be hampered if the t.v. bank acquires a bank of moscow without attend that's according to presidential aide a country that coverage now russia's second largest lender b.c.b. wants to buy out one hundred percent of one of russia's top five banks in the first half of this year the bank of moscow's biggest shareholder the moscow city government estimates the bank at six billion dollars it is cited to sell the stake in the bank in late twenty ten out of the previous mayor of moscow you lost his position some minority shareholders say the bank should be worth up to nine and a half billion dollars. british banking giant barclays is planning to sell its russian retail daughter by the end of the year the head of its russian division says the company plans to focus more on its investment business in russia fruits daughter company barclays capital the british lendu is considering both russian and foreign investors however no price has yet been revealed barclays bank entered the

russian market for the second time back in two thousand and eight when has acquired a russian land export bank full seven hundred eighty million dollars previously barclays quit russia after the fault in one thousand nine hundred eight carrying a loss of around four hundred million dollars. second to the stock market so we start with europe where actually barclays is one of the biggest again is this four point four percent because of very nice. earnings beating expectations and also. g.d.p. growth in the fourth quarter along with economic sentiment data from germany where helping markets climb but the declining right now just slightly. smith to russia now changing direction on the russian markets indices are now losing points three percent this is because of a decline in world price. more details of the stock scare masses leading gains bucking the trend it's up six point three percent after ross technology corp

suggested the russian troublemakers should unite with fellow russian rival now as one company. while russia's unemployment rate has declined in the problem of an aging population is ever growing pension ages are being increased in many countries and the proposals are running into protests all over the world last year finance minister aleksey kudrin hinted that in the next six to seven years russia's return would start to creep up russia kind of the as one of the lowest retirement age threshold with men retiring at sixty women at fifty five yes release can go up to manpower russia and c.i.s. says there's no quick way to fix the problem. the recent much. governments can do or. hasn't been tried somewhere so this sort of a process use well documented. number of countries that raise the retirement age that fixes the problem no it means there is no quick fix the problem has to be worked

with let's put it this way to reduce or in the. deeds must be read. that's all for now more in one hour's time rory is next with their lives to save us .