beijing booth corp is china becomes the first country without emitting visits after declaring he will run for the presidency the top story this hour. live from a studio here in central moscow this is r.t. american authorities claim that uncovered an iranian government plot to assassinate the saudi ambassador to the u.s. to iran has rejected the accusations calling it america's latest propaganda attack he's going to church can has the latest now from the u.s. capitol. the u.s. attorney general explicitly said that the u.s. will be holding the uranium government accountable for the plots to kill the ambassador of saudi arabia to the united states also the u.s. is accusing iran of conspiring to stage two bombings at the really embassy in washington and at the embassy of saudi in saudi arabia and washington and here is

how the u.s. department of justice came out with those those accusations the f.b.i. and the u.s. drug enforcement agency have arrested a new rhenium born u.s. citizen in a sting operation his name on sure are. u.s. investigators say the man tried to plot the assassination of the saudi ambassador to the united states and was ready to pay one and a half million dollars for the murder and for that according to the americans this the rainy and men turned to members of the mexican drug cartel who turned out to be undercover f.b.i. operatives investigators say are about to see are wired some one hundred thousand dollars to an f.b.i. undercover bank account sort of as a down payment for the assassination that he has allegedly ordered we also know that he was arrested in september this year the attorney general said the man confessed in the plot and said he was directed by high ranking. officials fear mongering against iran has been going on for many years that let me remind you

that the state department has listed iran as a state sponsor of terror since nine hundred eighty four and it seems now the war mongering has reached a tipping point first made its way into the statement of the attorney general without having any details let alone provocateurs and sort of the american mainstream channels beating the drums of war saying things like we need to step up activities to undermine their government we need to step up cooperation with saudi arabia and israel and things and other things along these lines some experts believe that undermining the government of iran has been a long time coveted goal of the united states it's not clear how this incident will play out but it definitely makes the drums of war louder here in washington when not you want to this problem because since the u.s. may be exploiting the situation for its own geopolitical. i think we should treat the story of my attorney general holder and the u.s. government with extreme skepticism because i do not believe this would be in the

interests of iran but i think what the u.s. is planning to do is intensify sanctions and possibly prepare for some kind of military operation against iran of course invading iran i think is out of the question at this time around is a country of eighty million people with a formidable army the u.s. is bogged down in afghanistan and can't really leave or doesn't want to leave iraq is carrying out a war against libya so that's a problem but i think that we can see and i think this whole meant is designed to ratchet up tension confrontation economic sanctions additional pressure and growing political isolation if they can by the united states against iran. and the breaking news here in r.t. five years in captivity as a hostage is coming to an end for israeli soldier gilad shalit following the mergence the cabinet meeting the israeli prime minister binyamin netanyahu announced a deal has been agreed with some us involving a prisoner swap for a rather thousand palestinian militants. there has been following developments in

tel aviv. i must finish will be your chief pilot michel speaking from damascus and he calls this a national achievement for the palestinian people express for greater that not more palestinian prisoners were being released as part of this field not through office evening tuesday there has been an emergency cabinet meeting in jerusalem that has now finished with the israeli government giving its nod to this prison a deal what we do understand is that some one thousand palestinian prisoners will be released for this one israeli soldier gilad shalit the details as we have them suggest that some three hundred and fifty prisoners will be released in the initial stage that will be taken to egypt this is a deal that was brokered by egypt and is happening on egypt and soil at that stage another one hundred and fifty prisoners will be released and then finally when he returns to israel the final number of prisoners will be released among them marwan barghouti now he is the leader of one of the factions of the fact that he has five

life sentences on him and tel aviv in the posse there was no way that he would be included in the still the fact that he is does point to the israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu changing course and that is some of the analysis that he needs this deal so much more than does hamas in terms of changing the criteria of the deal and i'll give much of it was kidnapped back in june two thousand and six it was a cross border raid women issues from gaza took him across he has not been heard of since there was really little communication in fact it was only one or two incidences when the israelis were actually be notified that he was still alive the latest information we have is that this deal will see gilad coming back to israel possibly as soon as the beginning of next month it has been quite some time that israelis and palestinians have not been holding any kind of direct negotiations it wasn't so long ago that the palestinians to care of a state is all did not accept this at the request of the middle east or to the two

sides agreed to resume peace talks and those peace talks. resume at the end of next week in jordan so certainly there is now a lot more pressure on the israelis to recognize the palestinian statehood in light of this deal going forward one of the problems for israel has been that it doesn't want to create an incentive for survey kidnappings and there is an element among israeli society who feel that this deal is really too high a price to pay. ukraine's next prime minister is jailed for seven years you get to machine co was found guilty of abuse of power while signing gas deals with russia two years ago what is next you know he was following events from outside the court were to mission close supporters have been involved in scuffles with police. at times it seemed that the tension would go over the top with the supporters of thousands of them trying to organize a march through the streets of kiev and being dispersed by the police with no real brutality but still some pushing and shoving and the situation was really explosive

still several people were injured in the pushing and shoving with the police one woman was saw as she was taken to hospital having fallen from a stage or from a staircase or something like that but inside the courtroom of course it was very tense as well while the judge was reading out the verdict. was over shouting the judge was screaming abusive words at him saying that this decision this verdict was not done in accordance with the criminal law but was orchestrated by president viktor yanukovych indeed the reaction from the former prime minister when she learned that she's to spend seven years in prison have her property confiscated and to pay out almost two hundred million u.s. dollars in debt was very much furious. with the retiring regime or its magic to me the trial showed that the constitution and justice had been trampled on dispute i urge you to begin the struggle it's a very difficult and important moment we have to protect ukraine against the authoritarian regime don't give up when her stand at the protests to several

thousand of them will remain in the key of central street for another week at least to follow the developments and to see whether their leader would be set free or any any other development could happen to her while moscow has been saying all along that those deals back in two thousand and nine were signed in full accordance with international law and with the two countries legislation and that the reaction which we have already received from the russian foreign ministry is saying almost the same that the court which had the verdict delivered basically neglected the fact that russia believed that that the deals were signed lawfully and the verdict itself has something over anti russian pretext that is what we've. hearing from the russian foreign ministry clear it is unhappy with the other way things are going because we know that the russian foreign minister and president medvedev have been saying that this case should be transparent and that the gas deals were completely legitimate well today's verdict has already received

a critical response from european officials with calls for the e.u. to rethink its relations with ukraine not as daniel bushell reports now from brussels. there's been a whole stol reaction from the people in europe here the european union's from policy chief catherine ashton says that she's been following the verdict and that the european union says its whole relations with key of as a result of this verdict we've heard the e.u. saying is deeply disappointed with the judge's decision the e.u. commission i did there are serious consequences for by that relations and earlier today the european commission's they hoped for review of this of this verdict on appeal and we've wanted to see changes in ukrainian law so this sort of case contact and again the head of the european parliament regrets the verdict optima shogo and is calling for a review of the case on appeal now ukraine wants to enter the european union has been discussing a free trade agreement and the ukraine president is actually due here in brussels

next week to discuss the first steps to joining the european union but the sounds we're getting here from brussels is that this may be put on hold and in fact stopped if if this case is not reviewed let's now listen to an expert for more details on this case the european union has already made it clear that if you use this trial very dearly it takes a very dim view of this trial it doesn't like to see opposition politicians in prison and i think there is every chance that the european union may take some strong measures such as freezing the talks with ukraine trying to leave it there is no chance at all of ukraine joining the so there were serious doubts about whether key of would actually go through with the ukraine would actually be able to join the european union but this verdict on yulia timoshenko really seems to put the entry of ukraine into the european union into long grass. from the russia and

eurasia program at chatham house says ukraine may try to use the case to review its gas agreements with russia. there's an empty russian subtext because they are trying to fire the maximum or justification for false second alteration of the gas agreements no to save the agreements that julia table shan't quarrel entered into two thousand i moved to one contract and then secondly a supplementary agreement so they were illegal is utterly bizarre the first president to look closely each there is someone in the lidded to these when he couldn't get the kharkiv accords with president mitt the eight years in april two thousand and ten he a third on the validity of the accords that your earlier tymoshenko kluge with prime minister. so that this is one of many absurdities in this whole drama

unfolding washington is also condemned the ukrainian verdict with key u.s. lawmakers saying it's an alarming new step in the decline of democracy in the country and on our website we're interested in what you have to say about this story today we're asking what the tomasz in can sentence means and some of the conscript you can see that about half of you believe the verdict is simply a politically motivated mockery almost a third think it's a clever ukraine employed to avoid paying for russian gas and the rest is split between two options whether the sentence is justice well done or it's a fatal error of blocking ukraine's right to that you cannot want to r.t. dot com and have your say. some of new york's wealthiest tycoons could come face to face with the rage of anti wall street demonstrators hundreds of activists are camping outside the homes of the elite in protest against the widening gap between the rich and poor in america not following the developments from new york. these people on the list are the five

wealthiest residents of new york city bill and as you were mentioning in the introduction to the story this rage has already been unleashed here in new york city hundreds of demonstrators began visiting the homes of those on this list and those names include rupert murdoch c.e.o. of news corp jamie diamond c.e.o. of j.p. morgan chase and as they were walking along park avenue their doorman outside of the buildings on on park avenue were actually cheering in support of these protesters now the reason they're there holding this demonstration that is in conjunction with occupy wall street is because they want to bring to light the fact that the new york state's two percent tax on millionaires expires at the end of this year and new york city residents say that ninety nine percent of new yorkers will be suffering because a lot less revenue will be going to the city and this state now when this group

that is doing this millionaire's march they compartment got to the home of the c.e.o. of j.p. morgan chase jamie dimon there were actually police barricades set up outside of his building now this is what's taking place in new york but we should also inform our viewers that in boston there was a mass arrests that took place following clashes that broke out between demonstrators of occupy boston and police officers there was more than one hundred people reportedly a rusted and there was some images that we did see a note of police officers getting physical with us veterans that were taking part in occupy boston in d.c. in washington d.c. at least six people that were taking part in an occupy demonstration there were arrested this is what one hundred or more protesters went inside of the u.s. senate building and attempted to hang a batter that said top. the rich there might have been another band or two but

clearly the show is that this occupied movement is not limited to one city in the u.s. it's not limited to new york it's expanding across this entire nation our reporter marina portnoy talking to a little earlier from new york. live in interim government troops are advancing closer to the center of the coastal town of sirte with gadhafi supporters still offering fierce resistance this comes as fears are growing that there is a possibility of a rise in muslim extremism in libya as well as in other arab spring countries well for more on this issue i'm joined by john feffer he's co-director of foreign policy in focus it's a two for policy studies in washington d.c. thanks very much for being with us here on r.t. so what risk is there of a rise in islamic extremism in libya despite assertions by the new regime that moderate islam will define the new country. well there have been obviously a number of concerns voiced by people outside of libya but precious little concern

voiced within libya most of the concern outside of libya points to the involvement of a couple of former mujahideen afghan people who work there or fought in afghanistan someone who was a former guantanamo detainee. all of whom died in the rebel side as well as a number of other folks who are here to an islamic political agenda but for the most part these folks have have said that they embrace pluralism that they want to see democracy in libya they have no beef with the united states especially since nato is hoping. the libyans as i said to. waste any concerns about the prospect of islamic extremism stream is. what critics of the nato mission many radical elements you mentioned a couple there are those with al qaeda links will indeed part of the rebel forces

now the fact is where all those elements now and do they actually pose a risk for the future. well of course the situation in libya is still in flux there are still are small holdouts of loyalists and of course it's very difficult to know exactly what the state of public opinion is in libya how much the population as a whole supports the revolution and how much much of the population still supports khadafi obviously we see photos of people celebrating in the streets we don't see photos of people in their houses not saying anything because they're afraid of voicing their support for qaddafi or the regime the previous regime so it's very difficult of course to know exactly what the level of support is for islamic extremism in libya traditionally there hasn't been a great deal of islamic extremism in libya and as i said even those folks who have

self identified as islamicists who you know would like to see some form of political islam take over in libya even they have as i said embraced a pluralist project which is actually consistent with other branches of political islam in the region the muslim brotherhood in egypt for example or not in tunisia what we have just doesn't want to talk about it was going to let me just ask you muslim brotherhood it's very difficult understand really where they stand we hear so many different views about whether they really are radical north they are indeed moderate i mean what's your view of muslim brotherhood is it if they want to come to power good news or bad news for egypt. well look i mean i'm not a great fan of the combination of religion and politics i'm not a big fan of christian democrats for instance however there are a feature of the political landscape scamp in europe and political islam is a feature of the political landscape in the arab world and that includes the muslim

brotherhood which has renounced terrorism which has embraced democracy has participated in elections so i believe that if the muslim brotherhood were to win in the elections in egypt it would not be the last elections in egypt i believe that they would play by the rules the democratic rules just briefly all those who said these revolutions in the middle east would create a vacuum which would then see those radicals taking advantage and and taking control of those countries that simply hasn't happened has it so those fears of have been mis placed. so far it hasn't you know of course what we should be concerned about still of course in egypt is the army the military which of course brutally repressed demonstration by by a cop there are christians in egypt so the concern really are some of the existing actors the people who have guns in the region not the muslim brother joe we'll have

to leave it there very interesting way to say thanks for your time co-director of foreign policy in focus at the institute for policy studies in washington d.c. thank you. what brings you up to date for a moment here twenty one minutes past the hour i'll be back with a look at our main news stories in about eight minutes from now in the meantime coming up next for you r.t. interviews mater the former chief accountant for the european commission is now a member of the european parliament for the u.k. independence party that's coming up next here on r.t. stay with us for that.

i'm talking to mark to an address and he's now a member of the european parliament for the u.k. independence party but she was formally the european commission's chief accountants while she was in that job she raised concerns about flaws in the commission's accounting system which steve said left it vulnerable to fraud martyr and dress and thanks for talking to us today now were you a euro skeptic when you joined the commission as chief accountant no i was not idea of skeptic in fact i thought you were a project was a project of cooperation i thought they were sharing solutions among the different member states so i was quite on earth to be able to be part of the european union and also in order to be part of our if i've managed to do reform and that

they were undergoing what happened or what did you find out to make you change your mind when i found out that they had no control on the pavement. they were making out of the european union budget basically you know they didn't ask if people qualified to get the funding from the european union and i was responsible for the signature of the it's so i had the highest responsibility and i thought i needed to know if i was playing to the right person and for the right purpose and they just didn't care and they didn't allow me to make change use to be able to determine if we were making the right pane others didn't see it like that they did that in fact you were fired for blowing the whistle do you think anything's changed since i don't think anything has changed i now see it in the budgetary control committee so all the committee in the parliament that oversee the payments out of the budget and

i see it in the budget committee the committee that oversees the planning of the budget and in both committees i can see that they have no respect for european taxpayers' money. and i don't see that fundamental changes that they should make have taken place you know once anybody who makes a payment in normal words would take care that the payments would ask the questions what is this payment going to what is the purpose and this questions are not asked by the commish the solution is to blame the member states only gave the money to the u.k. so you carrie who is committing the irregularities well yes but you paid the money out that you are asked the proper questions they dealt do you think brussels is capable of reform is there a will to tighten practices like that up you know i don't think that is any way to tighten this practices because they have a different agenda they want to promote the european union project and to promote

this project they want to be able to give the money to the people who will support the project not the people who really care about the use of funds in a proper way not the people who are going to use this funding to grow the economy of a certain member state but the people who will promote the european union project we're in times of austerity at the moment and members all across europe are cutting their state spending is there any sign that brussels is doing the same now absolutely you know last night we spent six hours up proving in the budget committee the two thousand and twelve budget and they have what they are asking for over four percent increase i won't even asking for decreases but fundamentally saying we should at least reduce the allowances for the enemy please and they don't

want to believe them you know we are now in the middle of a crisis and people think well the year budget has nothing to do with price but. i will give you an example greeks was brought into the european into the euro zone when they didn't qualify to get into the us now people say greece lives. maybe in that account but. nation has asked that this ticks off its uterus that you should have challenge the figures and they didn't challenge they kept side ten years later they realize something is wrong but they are there they have one thousand people working in you are stacked two on the lies that figures they should have come another thing the budget was used to grow the economy of all these countries that came into the euro. griefs got sixty billion pounds in the last twenty years out of the european union budget the question is were there the money

eurozone countries are staring down the barrel of a gun and basically what e.u. grandees are talking about is in forcing more fiscal union in the face of economic collapse which seems like a desperate measure who stands to gain the most from keeping europe together i think the. director general of the bureaucracy in brussels who stands to gain these these people who have been pushing the project all along and they want this unity and union who are they going to hold the power over all the member states and finally as a euro skeptic do you feel any way vindicated by what's going on in the eurozone at the moment. sadly yes i feel vindicated because you know if people had heard and had sort of responded to my claims ten years ago in maybe this wouldn't have happened so yes i feel vindicated but it's sad to say this because we could have

prevented all that's happening today. thank you very much thank you. discovery. becomes. nature. a very warm welcome to you this is your news today protesters on the wall street

they have. ladies and gentlemen to choose to sit to get a book for exactly the status of the human experiments because it. is in this realm . knows absolutely trying to make sense of global economy and its arcane things as financial temples to the researchers to maintain a confidence in markets and economics primitive wants to be seen trade imbalances research species close to collapsing in sub prime loans foreclosed homes people. fails ripple a banks again feel a little like think is the us crashing timonen smashed the ceiling. in a closet in athens greece the i.m.f. it strikes me i'm just programs in greece where the term economist.

stories now here on r.t. washington accuses to run over a terror plot as the us claims it's uncovered and it rainin linked assassination plan targeting the saudi ambassador to state hillary clinton says new penalties against iran are on the way while the islamic republic rejects all accusations. and breaking news this free after five years as a hostage israel announces that its soldier gilad schalit is to be freed in exchange for one thousand palestinians in a deal with hamas. crane six prime minister a sense it's a seven years in jail for abusing power when signing gas contracts with russia divert it sparking clashes between supporters and police the course incision also got a harsh response from russia the u.s. and the e.u. the next person a growing interest to the european union is now unachievable for ukraine. to have to bring it up there for the moment my call to you to shop on the should be here in less than half an hour from now as the news continues.