the italian senate ponders its harshest new austerity yet. a growing consensus that the euro zone's third largest economy is falling to the ravages of the euro crisis . palestine is expected to push for a vote on his un statehood even if it loses and once the bids opponents to justify their decision which the police will be dictated by the united states. and western corporations that descend upon oil rich libya seeking to skim the cream off the riches left following nato.

just after four pm on friday here in moscow you with me welcome to the program italy is a lashing it's a notoriously lethargic bureaucracy into action as it seeks to rush a critical austerity package through parliament and the nation's president has promised once the law is passed prime minister silvio berlusconi will resign it's possible successor being a former e.u. commissioner but is also use earth reports italy's problems go far beyond a lackluster leadership. see it in fashion it's a country that economy wise is used to seeing its best foot forward. but recently its least seen its economy stagnating has now become the latest country to be

dragged into the center of the year is in crisis is only has a strong economy and is a liquid has. been sorry better than it is now it's lead now face a similar fate these countries having to seek of urgency bell out despite being one of the year isn't largest economy we're not greece we're not greece because we have a lot of savings we are not greece because we have been very prudent in this recession we haven't done really benefited from this recession might not be greece but with a man that soaring borrowing costs just how did italy end up in this situation right now nobody. nobody spending all or all of europe consumers are not spending they are saving they're scared to death of what's going to happen meeting here is intervals to jesus that tough reforms in the last part of what's made repeating growth in the country so difficult to now pindle any government being able to bring

about positive change we have had too many years of leadership that was not credible outside and very divisive insights i don't think it's only i'm proud and proud i mean there's pride some support for saying that mr berlusconi was not able to deliver what he promised i think there might be a transfer a song called year old. that's not going to be enough. we need support from europe otherwise everybody on its own and that's the scariest part of the situation in italy right now do you think its biggest challenge yet become clear whether days like deals of a peaceful and culturally united europe can still buy it pay it with doubts and to find decisive leadership at this point and these ideals could be in ruins. the. europe's growing of a harder for the bloke to shoulder all eyes now returning to the east in the hope

that china will commit his vos cash reserves to save the year so far. the reasons why are one of the themes being discussed in today's crosstalk coming your way three thirty g.m.t. . every country goes after self interest right and geopolitical interests as well no where near is cutting and strategic as china does and we've got to be clear that finding our moral hazard in keeping us behaving badly either in europe or the united states is not in china's long term best interest. i want to see the west continue to harm itself i mean who decides what's going to behavior ok great you want to reply. decides to measure very good question moral equivalency arguments really interesting until you come to face somebody who is truly evil we went through this whole same argument in the 1930's don't criticize the germans a lot of american companies whatever their set of business and said it's not our position so you're saying you could create

a board in china of today to nazi germany of the one nine hundred thirty s. absolutely although i think you know china some way worse than. five years past the hour here in moscow nato may have finished his bombing mission in libya but now there's a full scale western invasion and as you corporations are queuing up to do business with the new government which is rewarding the military victory with a lucrative oil and gas contracts. laura smith now looks at how the harvest of war is being raped. first british bombs tourists apart now british companies get paid to put it back together libya is open for business and u.k. firms are being encouraged to join the gold rush. if you will speak.

and i expect. for british. companies involved in the reconstruction of philip hammond is urging c.e.o.'s and sales directors to pack their suitcases and head to the north african country the u.k.'s bill for its part in the nato intervention in libya is estimated at just under five hundred million dollars but according to the u.k. department of trade and investment the value of contracts to rebuild libya in areas ranging from electricity and water supplies to health care and education could end mounds to upwards of three hundred billion dollars over the next ten years and the british government will make sure it takes a leading role in that just as it did in the war and that's raising more questions about the u.k.'s motives in playing such a big role in the recent conflict john hillery of war on want says it has shades of

post-war iraq when companies from countries involved in the allied invasion were awarded best gigs. journalist john pilger says there was evidence of battering before nato even got involved. transitional council told the french. on. friday was shown. but u.k. department for trade and investment already has staff on the ground in libya ready to welcome british companies. awarded contracts wanting to get in on the action or oil firm shell and b.p. shares a bruise on the news they were talking to the transitional government engineering firms arabs and mark macdonald also reportedly keen both the latter refused to put

up a spokesman when asked preferring instead to send basic statements which critics say is a new tactic to avoid defending their ethics it's better p.r. for them not to be involved in any form of public discussion of why they're doing what they're doing around the world. to thaw the conflict in libya it looks like an excellent investment half a billion dollars to oust a dictator with a return of three hundred billion in business contracts when it's all over now that humanitarian goals no longer need to be touted wall suddenly makes great business sense you're a smith forty london now and you're ten minutes past the hour here in moscow the u.n. a security council is expected to review palestine's bid for u.n. membership in new york or the motion was filed back in september too much euphoria in the west bank and the deciding vote rate come as soon as next week at its policy outright us live to a look at what the chances are good to see you paula so for us all up to date

what's in store for the near future of palestine. well palestinians have resigned themselves to the fact that it's unlikely they going to get the two thirds majority they need in the united nations security council for the statehood bid what this means is that they will not become full members of the united nations and the united states will not be forced to exercise its veto rights there are eight countries amongst the security council who have indicated that they will vote in favor of the palestinian bid these include russia china india south africa brazil levanon nigeria and gabon both the british and the french have announced that they will abstain from the vote then they will abstain alongside portugal and as near while germany and colombia might either abstain or vote against it alongside the united states now this really leaves the palestinians with two options the one is that they can still next week demand that the security

council vote on the statehood but this will force those countries who are not supporting it to publicly justify their position and the palestinians michael are here with us although they know they're not going to get that admission into the security council the other option and this seems likely is that they still take the bird to the general assembly what this will give them is upgraded observateur status although they will not become full members of the international body so it's very interesting it was just a week or two ago that palestine was given official membership to the u.s. go to the cultural wing of the united nations or the white house came out very quickly to say that even though palestine was given the overwhelming support approval white house so i caution people who might have made a rather hasty decision when it comes to israel and america they said weeks ago that they would stop our palestine from getting u.n. statehood at the moment what's the political sentiment leading up to the review in

word. well this it seems a lot of pressure going on behind the scenes the palestinians have accused the united states of meddling and putting pressure on other countries not to support the state would put you just need to look at the united kingdom as one example and here the foreign secretary william hague has said about it is to quote him technical judgment why the u.k. is abstaining from this now the palestinians were lying under british to support the bird and the foreign secretary has now been accused of being hypocritical and abdicating responsibility when you mention the unesco air admission to the palestinians here immediately following that the united states canada and israel withdrew all stops giving funding to the body so much so that it can escape has had to suspend temporarily its activities now that kind of pressure comes in while israel continues to build settlements in occupied east jerusalem and the occupied

territories so certainly while the palestinians a short time ago had a lot of euphoria at the international community would back the bid for statehood this kind of pressure going on behind the scenes seems to be paying off. on. live from jerusalem thank you. with r.t. russia is accused of the syrian opposition of aligning itself with extremist gangs which are smuggling weapons into the country and only triggering a more. increase in illegal shipments of arms ammunition and military supplies from neighboring lebanon over the last few months but to discuss the dangers of this may pose i'm joined live from oxford by mark almond a professor of international relations i thank you for coming on the program today so the opposition accuses the syrian government of inciting violence or given all of these reports of arms supplies to rebel groups there who's the wolf in sheep's clothing from your point of view. well it lead to the big problem is now that i'm

very serious open even the neighboring countries have been drawn into this cycle of violence and i had was a naive sometimes in the west where we in a dictator or a regime has no support and at the same time that opposition must in her and her because the only good well intentioned people there are groups that don't like assad's regime and some of them are other militantly committed to replacing a secular regime with a sunni fundamentalist regime and ironically the best which see syria as a geopolitical pawn in its game visibly iran may in some ways be willing to sacrifice the. potentially democratic alternative. under mentalist regime which will be very hostile to run because the shiites and the alawite run regime in syria as a close ally or. has learned of their brain and i would think i would think the

reporter earlier in the day claims that these are simply their money and have no political interest whatsoever but it seems. they are politically motivated here the people doing may be doing it for money but it's all somebody is pain and i think there is grounds for thinking that in lebanon for instance the explosive situation there is being made worse by the fact that one faction of politics silly muslim factions with former prime minister hariri also backed the saudis for instance is rancher see the fall the syrian regime because it's its rival and it supports its rivals has a lot of the christians in lebanon who don't wish to see a revolution in syria bring to power a sunny fundamentalist regime which likely. to the religious minorities and so we are seen as a cynical people who do anything for money we're also seeing people who say the way to paris or the barrel of a car and really from march on which there's been violence on. this site has a tendency to all control use if i think the answer is yes i'm sorry to interrupt

you but you talk about violence on both sides here president assad is being accused of not keeping his promise to end the violence in the country but i think as you were just perhaps alluding to but how is this possible when these armed groups are storing the situation is it a case of violence used to call violence. yes i think we're seeing the regime is fighting for its life we we saw what happened colonel gadhafi and many of his supporters and he shall therefore i'm afraid a lot of the people who support assad will feel that they have no choice but to try john because the alternative is equally their opponents say the only way to get rid of them are shultz and i'm afraid the international situation is becoming. turkey as well as lebanon is being drawn into this writer forces from saudi arabia to the trouble and we really begin to see a religious civil war between sunni muslims and shiites and against the christian there and there are some analysts up of that list and historians we've spoken to

who suggest that a when it comes to the arab spring this will go on for quite some time now when it comes to these are civil wars as you put it warring tribal factions or perhaps this will work to the advantage of the west or speaking of the west and possibly exacerbating the situation here in the region remains a tense in the middle east and in northern africa could explode at any time now we are getting reports that the u.s. is going to supply a cache of weapons and munitions to the united arab emirates a good idea that. well of course states helped overthrow gadhafi and we might have had no formal british or french forces on the ground who we really had special agents or the certainly cattery forces that's going to get it and i think there is a danger now that we could see the same kind of mixture of intervention civil war. which in the short term may bring about a regime change but in the long term as in iraq internal spreading across the region and so i think the desire to get rid of syria's assad has been

a if you know the iranians could try a very bad little. time we have for today here on the program by mark ahmed professor of international relations live from oxford thank you thank you. the former ukrainian prime minister yulia tymoshenko faces new criminal charges this time but of tax avoidance relates to when she was leading one of the country's biggest energy corporations back in the one nine hundred ninety s. just last month she was sentenced to seven years behind bars for exceeding her powers while signing gas contracts with russia in two thousand and nine and many western countries condemned the case against him saying it was politicized as artie's alexia shafi reports it seems that in ukraine history is once again repeating itself. it all started with this man viktor yushchenko fist fights in parliament nasty protests and destruction of gas supplies to europe were common in his era as president and it kept ukraine firmly and i had lines the

world's media had been having many sleepless nights reporting on the rollercoaster events in the country back then writer and journalist me to get within published a book poking fun at all the major political players. there's times are extremely fun for the media with the regime used the media is a drug free society but if you do you have to braise the delusion every year because it's fun to watch when the temperature rises in politics if a society it's bad which is a limit to all this wildness out there which society carries mad with you should we surely breach this go with the police right many now say it was the mass of you should get scared and see which helped you know which sweeps of power and they felt his arrival would become a breath of fresh air centralizing the power instead allies in the economy were big priorities when he became president of ukraine for more than a year it had been relatively quiet here but the case of former prime minister

units and fourteen months of the presidency propelled ukraine back into the global headlines. the culmination of her trial for exceeding her authority while the prime minister's shocked many hardly anyone expected to machine go to land such a big sentence seven years behind bars let. us i want to point out is that the one thousand nine hundred thirty seven as we tend to ukraine this verdict and the repression of the people we all have to be strong today i'm appealing to all the people of goodwill to all the patriots of ukraine defend ukraine on the whole for tarion regime from the lack of liberties from the lies and injustice it was while the so-called joint of arc of ukrainian politics was starting travelling inside the courtroom per see the supporters clashed with police outside. they slater veterans of the chernobyl clear up stormed the parliament to mock to

race to their ridiculous little pensions they demolished everything in their pocket exactly the police with blocked weapons growing social unrest scared the country's president when you come across when you are going to new or enforcement agencies tell me that people are buying firearms and they are planning attacks on state police nationwide people have completely lost their shine conspiracy theories and public protest of late have created and not scandal for any media to be swamped with work and the chief editor of one of the craze leading news websites believes it could get even worse. the first year of human cognition how come because people expected a better life after the wild years that you should just cadency was filled with madness but at least that eugene was open and predictable that the now we don't know what to expect tomorrow and anything like a possible devaluation of our currency can explode the country experts say ukraine may again quiet down for a while with a few rich wage twelve football championship and the crucial parliamentary election

looming the temperature of scandal will most certainly be rising again come next year. r.t. if. i were twenty minutes past the hour here in moscow about three or four minutes away from the business and it's often out of the world update for you some of the international headlines are five more bodies have been pulled from the rubble in eastern turkey following thursday's earthquake brings the death toll now to at least seventeen although that figure is expected to rise it's fear there could still be a number of people trapped in the ruins of a hotel which collapsed in the town of van by the exact same region was hit by a much stronger quake about a three weeks ago which claimed that more than six hundred lives. rescuers have resumed their attempts to reach twenty four miners who are trapped underground following a blast and illegal chinese coal mine on thursday the explosion which killed twenty was reportedly caused by a gas leak ventilators have been installed to prevent another possible blast for

now trying to it's a large co-producer of what has one of the world's deadliest records for miles. well at the close out say about continues its journey all across the biggest country on earth that we're about to join them right now. on today is another chance to discover more of the black sea coast of the southern cross and our reach and it's where people's love of nature is reflected in all walks of life from saving animals who have become street photographers slaves to turning rubbish into it it's quite an interesting back right here artist has been delving deeper. i have new need to find construction materials.

now a bit of paint and i'll turn this battle into something beautiful. some critics might call nina's art complete rubbish and they'd be totally right everything you see in her gallery is made from little machine emotions aside we are covering our living space with litter and he too i have contributed to is good for me to use this was created for. a friend alexei provide some creative accompaniment also using rubbish as instruments was up when i started with just one barrel i was invited to a passable before i even had time to work on my instruments so i just experimented i just walk around listening to things what sound they can make you know collects her rubbish from the coastline and winter and spring storms bring her greatest harvest where i come to the seashore every day no matter whether weather or the

time of year it's all the same to me were gratian inspiration conservation but it's not just pieces of rubbish they've got a second life one month old liana here has just been rescued from captivity but she'll have to spend the rest of her life here recovering of a special center winner's nino restrooms pieces of rubbish and stop at this park rescue far more vulnerable things most of these animals will formally kept street photographers who let people pose with them for money. they are kept on drugs so they remain tranquil have their teeth pulled out so they can't hurt people and starved so they remain small business with the government if we take circus bears who have finished their usual life it's not a secret that they could well be made into sausages many of the animal who received we just can't say they've been cheated as just a commodity in the big caps like rameses mord africa and homer here make up

most of the parts residence there isn't the money to get them as much space as they would have in the wild but at least here they have some exercise a good diet and the veterinary care they so often need. there is evidence in here clerical workers try to do something to save the situation so do i try to save the earth from the savagery of people so we're colleagues willy. from plastic bottles to lion cubs saving the planet can come in many shapes and sizes here on the black sea coast they might be rubbish to some but not to level. all. tom bottom party. where i had the business with here. clones are very welcome to the business updates as russian court has handed well major a win in its legal battle with minority shareholders in its russian oil venture.

the court rejected two claims for around sixteen billion dollars minority shareholders say they suffered spinal actual losses by being excluded from the strategic alliance between ross and aft and to explore the arctic for oil that deal was brokered by the russian part wasn't on the grounds it breached their shareholders a cream and the minority shareholders say they will appeal before object. brushes entry to the world trade organization would obligate the united states to establish normal trade relations with moscow barack obama has called for a cold war era provision which restricts american businessmen working with certain countries to be a polish to the jackson family command and is suspended every year with russia but it still formally remains on this to to. basically us companies don't benefit from the expression of russia from the lower tariffs and the improved

administrative procedures until the u.s. congress repeals jokes about it so it creates a lot be an interest for people in jerks and relic in the u.s. but it's a matter of congress not leave ministrations obama can't promise it but i think the two are very likely to see a repeal of tax advantage following russia's deputy obsession. president richard barrett says russia's economy is in a stable position compared to other g. twenty nations he made the statement while visiting the far eastern city of her. supports the notion that anya economic situation in our country looks better than in many european countries just point recently difficulties we have managed to achieve fairly rapid g.d.p. growth this year it will reach a full half percent in europe and the us g.d.p. growth rate zero to one percent this year we will also have the lowest inflation in the last twenty years around seven percent but i cannot say we are protected from

danger we need to cut our dependence on fluctuations in commodity prices and develop the industrial sector feel they're going to miss the. time to have a look at the market stocks were rising of course you're tracking down gains on wall street and in asia stocks in london the higher led by banks royal bank of scotland group and lloyds banking are both three percent in the black some resource stocks are on the rise on high crude oil futures and precious metals on the downside energy. and mine are reacting to there are shelling one point eight percent and one percent respectively. but here in moscow the markets have reversed from early gains and they are trading of the red this hour they are just my six are both losing under one percent here's a look at some of the individual share moves in the mice it's energy majors and banking stocks all know what world giant oil is dropping over two and a healthy sense to be is also over one percent in the red bucking the trend as

palmetto gaining momentum on high gold coins. that's it for now europe today for more stories you can log on to our website r.t.e. dot com slash business. it is easy.