four pm in moscow i match reza good to have you with us here on r t straight to our top story there's been an explosion at a nuclear power plant in southern france one person reportedly been killed several injured emergency crews are on site warning of a possible radiation leak or bring you more on this news shortly. turning now to other stories that we're covering first on r t a professor of politics at the university of kent dr adrian pabst joining us live in london to share his perspective on the visit of british prime minister david cameron to moscow that have. we covered earlier here in the program so thanks for being with us dr perhaps the leaders seemed satisfied with their talks in very friendly towards each other at the news conference do you think that this could be a reset in russian british relations. no i don't think it's going to be reset i

think it's going to be more like a necessary normalization relations have been very bad since two thousand and six since the poisoning of alexander litvinenko in london and i haven't seen many by that tool meetings that may not in moscow london just the da to a g. twenty summits we're not seeing a reset like with the u.s. and russia and the president obama already seeing is to realize ation that the two sides need to agree to disagree and just move on cooperate in areas where of mutual interest now it was a agree to disagree policy the only way that a cooperation can move forward at this point. i think so because this simply isn't the basis to resolve the outstanding issues we mentioned at the you also mentioned syria in your introductory remarks these are areas of profound disagreement as to how to move forward so i think it's best to just bracket them and. have a real rapprochement and closer cooperation areas where the two sides can agree

trade. areas like afghanistan areas like terrorism and also international economic and financial reform. and the two leaders a limited that they will continue discussing these so-called difficult issues how they framed it during the news conference i think it's possible to reach a compromise in the libyan any case considering the clashing differences of the two countries legal systems no i don't see any compromise at this stage because there is a clear constitutional. provision in the russian case saying that no russian citizen will be extradited and i don't think the british side until now has really envisaged a the sort of trial in russia oh indeed in the in the third countries so i think for the moment it's simply an impasse on this and is as horrific and as difficult this case may be i also don't think you can possibly hold back by that for the nation's therefore they need to simply put it to one side and and move on

now turning internationally syria another prominent and thorny issue with the u.k. and russia where they don't see eye to eye what kind of resolution do you see coming out of the u.n. if at all regarding a compromise between the russian position and the british position on that. well there will be anything like resolution one nine hundred seventy three in the libyan case because russia and other countries fear that this will give a license to the west to intervene militarily should nato or indeed a collision of the willing decide to do so it's going to be less than that for possibly more than just condemnation maybe a new round of sanctions may be targeting members of the regime more specifically than has been done so far and you were a little real continue with your answer is there is a real disagree yet there's real disagreement on what can be done to bring this crisis to an end so far it seems to me that president has signaled that he's put

pads you take a tougher stance but it won't go as far as in one thousand seven hundred three residents like the beatles and the world is going through some tough economic times right now do you think that that would be something that could bring the two sides together in a mutual benefit economically. absolutely because both britain and russia suffer from a lack of diversification just as britain depends too much in financial services the rest of the pens too much on certain natural resources like oil and gas so both economies need to diversify but this is not just a national issue for them this is also a global issue we know that a huge imbalance is there's lots of hot money circulating that money needs to be channeled into productive activities in britain in russia and elsewhere and i think there is mutual benefit from operating there it's like technology where britain france that we help russia explore some of its natural resources we know this from energy and in other areas but also you know russian investment in britain is also important to all sorts of areas like civil aviation even the car industry where the

two countries couldn't visit some form of technological exchange and i think we need to be real about industrial policy this is not just a service economy is not just a natural resource economy we need to build a high tech manufacturing in this industrial base across europe and it seems to me that britain and russia have a lot to cooperate on precisely in this field there were some concerns raised by the b.b.c. reporter at the news conference talking about the situation politically and economically in russia making it difficult for businesses to go in there what is your perspective on that and do you think that there is a good environment for british businesses to do business in russia. i think it's so often i think there's exaggeration on both sides i think the critics are wrong to suggest. corruption is so rampant and no one can do any business at all and i also think that there are people who perhaps are slightly too naive optimistic that one has to be very realistic and choose areas where there is so much mutual

interest that possibly corruption and other problems will not be as severe as has been the case in other areas what is clearly needs is political leadership i think if there is political support on both sides for bilateral economic and trade relations then i think business will be easier without the political support until now it's going to be much much harder to do business in a merger markets this is not only true of russia but of other countries as well i think realism really is the answer here no point in being too slow too skeptical or too naive and finally briefly also this came up with a news conference do you think david cameron would've made a good k.g.b. agent. well this is something he mentioned his speech at moscow state university no i don't i don't think he's really got the profile for the arts i mean having trained in in public relations and having had a long association with the conservative party i think he's too much of a patriot for that but i think the same is true for someone i present yet if he has

a background in law of course and they both hatreds and i think that's also something where they can agree oh i'll take politics is very important in this world where globalisation and nationalism pose different threats to identities having patriots at the heads of countries clearly helps all right we have to wrap it up there dr adrian patchin university of can't thank you thank you very much. has russia and the u.k. mull over their differences in approaches to the crisis in syria moscow steaming ahead with efforts to mediate peace russian lawmakers are hosting a delegation from damascus after holding talks with the opposition last week president bashar al assad's advisory says the country would appreciate a fact finding mission by russian officials with which moscow promised to send any day now anti-government demonstrations in syria have flared up in march with a regime response since march with the regime responding with brutal crackdowns at least twenty six hundred people said to have been killed in the violence there russia wants the u.n. to take action that will push the warring sides toward dialogue saying assad and

more time to implement democratic reforms the u.s. and allies want a more aggressive approach that will target the regime and i've already called for assad to step down. iran's barouche air nuclear plant has been officially open operating and is now providing electricity to the country's national grid the first facility in the entire middle east region iranian and russian officials are attending the launch ceremony. the nuclear facility came online september third after a number of different tests were successfully completed with russia which helped build the plant will also provide necessary fuel iran will return the spent fuel to russia to ease western concerns over the country's you're a name in a richmond program terran and once again stressed it's tomic ambitions were peaceful and not aimed at building nuclear weapons russia's energy minister praised the efforts and working together and promised similar projects in the future which . it would. give to those who read

income to parents when through difficulties and problems building plans and today we can be proud to the results that are drawing the attention of the whole world i'm sure that come through through it in the station the developing now the nuclear energy projects who will be distinguished by the atmosphere we created while working together. stay with us here on r t coming your way shortly we pay a visit to a sleepy town in italy has its own ruler any even prince its own money as it plans to break away from rome. but first global markets slumped on monday over fears that italy's debt crisis is worsening as the country's fifty four billion euro a sturdy package goes before the lower house of parliament a proposal whose changes to pensions government spending cuts and a special levy on the rich for more on this i'm joined by johan van overtveldt editor in chief of belgium's leading business magazine the trends who is live with

us in brussels good to have you with us again assert so italy is the euro zone's third largest economy should we be worried about its debt crisis getting over getting out of hand like in other countries including greece for example is of course if the price is. also italy in that would be very bad but i think at the moment the main worry in the markets are concerned with the greek situation and even more so with what i would call the good german issue. i mean the fact that you are going to start it the executive committee member of the european central bank left the central bank last week and was succeeded or will be succeeded by a career long financial diplomat so for the first time not somebody from the bundesbank and that is clearly shown that there is a lot of disagreement at the moment in germany on how to deal with this crisis and i think that's the major issue at the moment with respect to the crisis within the

eurozone and we've heard growing opinion from germany over the weekend that greece should exit the euro zone is this the only solution that's left. yes i think so the greek economy is in an outright depression now g.d.p. is shrinking at the moment at seven to eight percent on an annual basis unemployment is of fishley at sixteen percent but in reality it's more close to twenty five percent what we hear from people from the i.m.f. informally is that the budget situation is out of control so there's no way that greek greece can escape from this situation unless there's a somewhat orderly exit from the eurozone followed by a huge devaluation of the new greek currency ever greece does declare it a fall what's the likelihood of other states following suit well that will be the big challenge i think we have passed the point now where we can argue that we can save greece within the euro zone greece will have to exit it can be organized in an

orderly way but the risk is of course that there will be contagion in the direction of countries like for example poor to go maybe i will and of course i'm not even mentioning here that would be an enormous problem countries like spain for example now the resignation of the central bank's chief economist being seen as a sign that there are divisions among european leaders on what to do with the block do you think that the ship is sinking at this point or what are the options to rescue it from a collapse. well we're certainly amidst very rough waters because it is now very obvious that the bundesbank the german central bank is firmly opposing the policy that the european central bank is following especially the buying of bonds of countries in trouble like greece spain italy and some others so on the other hand we see mrs merkel the chancellor merkel arguing that the euro will be safe that

germany will stay in the euro but that's more or less not more or less but increasingly an isolated voice and i have the impression that mrs merkel inside of germany is more and more. floating towards an isolated position together with their finance minister schauble but the bundesbank the public opinion both of them very important are more and more turning against the euro now some experts have also been saying all along that bailing out countries was the wrong thing to do do you think the time has come for more drastic measures yes indeed i think there are structural problems with the eurozone construction and the major problem is that we don't have a political union so that there is no conversions in economic policies now of course you can't create a political union overnight but that is more or less what markets are expecting at the moment so either we take the big leap the quantum jump like. the new.

president mario draghi pointed out the last week. or we will have major troubles one coming after another all right your at it or in chief of trends magazine thank you for joining us. updating you now on our breaking news story the explosion at a nuclear facility in southern france one person reportedly been killed several injured emergency crews on site warning of a possible radiation leak the explosion followed a fire in a storage area for radioactive waste according to a figure a newspaper the plant is in the garden region it's a major site involved with the decommissioning of nuclear facilities and operates a pressurized water reactor that's used a spokesman for france's atomic energy commission said that there is so far been no leak but a security perimeter has been set up we'll bring you more details on the breaking news story as we get them first though global

markets slumped on monday over fears of italy's crisis worsening the country's fifty four billion euro austerity package before it goes before the country's lower house of parliament for debate proposed change the proposal includes changes to pensions government spending cuts and especially on the rich will go for more on this later here on our t.v. but for now. welcome to filipino a small town in the middle of italy that also claims to be an independent principality and to prove it it's even started printing its own money the man on a new note says town mayor lucas a lhari now self-proclaimed prince i guess everyone dreams of being a prince when they're a little boy and so did i now i get to live that dream realty knows going solo in protest over government plans to slash council funding he wants small towns to

merge having the number of local authorities with a population of just six hundred phila teano and its mayor for the chop. it's a terrible idea because it makes no economic sense we have everything here to be autonomous and besides our neighboring towns are at least thirty kilometers away so it's not practically possible it wouldn't even save that much money most regional administrations do nothing to get rid of them instead italy's in deep debt one hundred twenty percent of g.d.p. the second highest in europe but unions a furious with the cuts accusing the government of punishing those already at their poorest even some of silvio berlusconi's own allies now oppose them with amendments piling up but filipinos fed up determined to be the next san marino a constitutional republic within italy that has no national debt

a rare thing in europe the methinks the town can live off its natural resources of wood and water but currently profits go to private companies there are constitutional hurdles but since autonomy is not illegal it could just be a matter of time at the moment these notes aren't legal tender they just souvenirs but the plan is for two theory to be worth one euro and for this to be the only currency they could be spent in the shops and restaurants here business is always be. slow in this sleepy town but shopkeepers hope the new money will bring new cash . i'm sure that once we start using the new currency the economic situation here will significantly improve it will have a positive effect on tourism of course attracting more people to the town. far from being a p.r. stunt filipino means business and berlusconi knows it he's visiting the town later this month to stave off the rebellion and he'll have

a fight on his hands filipino is the source of rome's water supply and the mayor is threatening to cut it off if he doesn't get what he wants either then it's. filipino italy back to this hour's breaking news story an explosion at a nuclear facility in mark when southern france four we're going live to our team is daniel bushell joining us in brussels. daniel so at this time has there do we know whether there are not there is a radiation leak or tell us more about that. you know we haven't been told. been only. there is no legal going on but there are. fires. right. now who are really you are. you were you can only go during you. know you know when you're. doing

it. for all you have really been on you you're going to pull through there are literally you know. just need their participation. and do something like that. in the. hope of. a writer it is daniel busha live for us from brussels i suppose details of all check back in with you later. turning now to other news we're covering on r t has warned israel that it faces a growing regional isolation as the turkish prime minister heads for a visit to egypt. and is expected to cement closer ties with cairo with both countries having recently strained relations with tel aviv on friday night arranging mob in the egyptian capital stormed and sacked the israeli embassy forcing its staff to flee had expelled israeli diplomats last week over the jewish

state's refusal to apologize for the deaths of nine turks during last year's raid on a gaza bound aid flotilla the turkish prime minister says the attack was our cause but his country had chose to refrain from aggression middle east analyst jonathan aspira says the implications of the arab spring make israel's position israel's isolation unavoidable. it's important to remember that there are there approaches under way in the region right now which are in no way which israel can in no way really exert any influence on we are in the midst it might be said of a tectonic shift actually in the strategic picture of the middle east the government in egypt won't sue continue to have a general atmosphere simply to israel of and so western and so is really rhetoric and at the same time in reality they are dependent on american support and one of the aspects of these move towards making a bid for regional leadership is once again the very distinct cooling of to put it mildly its relations with israel so these approaches is of historical magnitude

which israel can't really influence israel in a certain sense is only going to be able to pursue a policy of damage limitation hoping very much to keep these relationships with egypt with as much as they possibly can it doesn't really matter right now exactly what israel does israel is going to be increasingly isolated it's going to be put in a very defensive situation that i think is the reality in the region we're looking forward to at the moment. the only surviving hockey player of wednesday's locomotive plane crash has died in the hospital twenty six year old alexander gallo died from severe burns to his body and respiratory system the plane carrying russia's k h l hockey team crashed in central russia last week the squad had been heading to belarus for their first game of the season more than one hundred thousand mourners gathered to honor the players in their hometown with commemoration ceremonies also being held in the native countries of foreign players who died a crew member from the plane is now the only crash survivor of the forty five people aboard doctors say his condition is serious but stable. turning now to some

other stories making headlines across the globe reports say explosions have happened near the airport in the libyan capital tripoli with heavy smoke seen above the city meanwhile fighting between cut off these troops and rebels continues in bollywood bani walid one of the colonel's final stronghold some hundred forty kilometers southeast of tripoli gadhafi fighters ignored the surrender deadline given by rebels that expired last week the colonel's son saadi had fled tunisia where while the whereabouts of libya's fugitive leader himself who vowed to stay in the country to the very end remain unknown. about one hundred people have reportedly been killed by a fire at a pipeline in kenya's capital nairobi more than eighty people were injured in a rush to nearby hospitals witnesses said the pipeline passes through a local slum and it burst on monday morning officials suspect some of the victims may have been draining fuel from the pipe when the fire started. back now to our breaking news story the explosion at the nuclear facility in mark you'll in

southern france one person reportedly killed several injured emergency crews are on site and warning of a possible radiation leak the explosion came after a fire in a storage area for way to radioactive waste according to a figure a newspaper reports the facility is in the garden region in the south of france it's a measure site involved with decommissioning nuclear facilities and operates a pressurized water reactor a spokesman for france's atomic energy commission said there had so far been no leak but a security perimeter has been set up in the area we'll bring you more on the breaking news story very shortly business next with marina stay with us here on r.t. . hello and welcome to business here on are seeing our deals worth around four hundred million dollars have been signs in the visit of the u.k. prime minister david cameron to russia that delegation includes blue chip companies

like royal dutch shell b.p. and british airways british the i y. retailer kingfisher will unveil a plants open nine stores in russia total investment could reach two hundred fifty million dollars b.k. is also expected to sign a deal with the russian state energy corporation which would help you to companies rim contracts in russia's expanding nuclear industry. among other notable deals the russian state nanotechnology corporation is point forty to fifty percent of the london based pro bono bio for an undisclosed amount the financial times describes the company as a new medical company launching the world's first molecular scale and then its acknowledge the treatments pro bono by a plan celeste in moscow and london within four years. tony hayward is stepping down from the anglo russian oil form and that's less than a year after joining the board as non-executive director the former chief executive

of people who was fiercely criticized for his handling of the gulf of mexico oil spill is leaving to pursue other interests in the energy sector the departure comes at a sensitive time following b.p.'s failed attempt to join with rosneft so explore the arctic the alliance was broken by the russian partners and seeing to b.p. who are now seeking compensation through the courts from their british parent company. let's take a look now at the markets and more starts with oil prices there are lower as investors fear europe's debt crisis will harm economic growth temper and demand for raw materials. lites regis currently trading at eighty six dollars per barrel while bryant is hovering at one hundred and eleven dollars. over in europe markets are seen heavy losses shares in the tailenders are on the pressure after the independent commission told banks they will have to ring fence the retail on this fall and the credit crisis and european that worries are weighing in on the russian

markets as well that in this ins are extending last week's losses in monday's trade the r.t.s. is a loser more than four and a half percent while the my sex is that almost three percent and let's take a look at some index movers on the my sex and into majors are losing ground with gas from lucent over three percent banking stocks are also on the pressure with russia's largest lender shedding almost four percent of the sour norse nickel is trading slightly better ahead of its board meeting it plans to discuss a buyback of company shares for minority shareholders. fears are mountain the world is heading rapidly for a second day of the recession russian finance minister alex secluded in says it's more probable now than before the summer russia's balanced budget means it is reasonably well placed to ride out the term all but troika strategist chris we first says that will only off limits of protection when the mood turns sour. in

reality russia is in a much stronger position today than it was in two thousand and eight so you know russia is in a much better position to be able to withstand global downturn. you know to to to remain fiscally solvent and stable that's the reality it doesn't matter the perception is that russia is still a high risk environment most international investors view russia as a derivative of global growth therefore if they become optimistic about global recovery russian asset prices tend to rise higher faster than others and equally when there's a selloff as we saw in august russian gas or prices will go down probably even faster than the rest. russia is for parents to ban small air carriers from running both the charter and a local flights routes will be given to the countries the major airlines will also get state subsidies analysts say this could reduce existent passenger traffic by up

to forty percent with just a few companies operating in the market and the move is aimed at improving or aviation safety record after almost an entire professional ice hockey team was killed in a plane crash last week. and that's all the business news for now the headlines are next to the.

four thirty pm in moscow these iraqi headlines we're following breaking news this hour an explosion at a nuclear facility in southern france one person reported killed several injured officials have warned of a possible radiation leak but no emissions reported so far. stronger relations for mutual benefit russia and the u.k. agree not to allow their divided opinions on the litvinenko scandal and the resolution on the syrian crisis to stand in the way of a political and economic partnership. generating power in iran plugging its first nuclear plant onto the national grid the facility had to share was filled with russian help. and italy moving closer to the center of the eurozone debt crisis as it's crucial all stare.