from that is to vladimir putin has just been officially approved as the united boss appointees candidate for the next president elect. or looking back at the week's top stories also on our t.v. the heat turned up on egypt's ruling generals with hundreds of thousands protesting their power on cairo's tahrir square and across the country it's leading to fears of more violence ahead of monday's parliamentary poll. fresh credit rating downgrade shaky europe is the struggles to control soaring interest rates on its runaway debt all vending market fears that collapse may now be eminent. russia sounding the alarm over the u.s. missile defense shield in europe president medvedev warning moscow will deploy its

own rockets of the borders of washington's plan continues without guarantees for russia's security. three pm in moscow i met treasure bring you today's top stories and a look back at the week's news here on r t russia's biggest political party united russia has just approved vladimir putin's official nomination as their presidential candidate the prime minister first gave a speech in which he agreed to being proposed and gave hints of the direction he would take if elected next march artie's a catherine mcgrath show is live at the conference she joins us live now with the latest so it's officially confirmed putin is running for president in two thousand and twelve tell us more and did not it's official now we know there we love the twenty two month presidential election that was so long ago and the first part. the

united russia convention in september but now with some vision good luck timmer the typical run up to seek reelection as president of this country in several months from now he is an official candidate from russia soon he wants the united russia of course the focus is on him at the convention time during this week for one simple reason because many describe as upcoming sunday's moment elections as a legal status for prime minister clinton's popularity in this country it's the first time that motorists will go to the polls to decide on the country's next moment up to the gym or fourteen accepted an invitation to run for president in march twenty fourth all today in his speech will still being about the way the election process is going on in this country he said that some of the criticism from the opposition is justified but he also warned greetings to specially from the west and he said that in the first place elections in this country is a domestic affair approaching and secondly advice that the money cash injections

which the west spends on and to have united russia broke again that should matter of despondency we won't make raises prices the same the european union and elsewhere. if you get representatives of some foreign states pay money to so-called grant receivers and instruct them how to do certain that duties to influence the election campaign in the country in the long run it is as people see it waste of time and waste of money firstly because judas is not the most respects his character in the bible and secondly they should draw the channel this money to settle their estate debts and cut short in the fact and costly foreign policy when you're in their shoes that one week ahead of the elections the most recent public opinion polls show that united russia remains number one party in this country with these two three more sound. voters supporting the party now there was that's two hundred feet to the point potential sales in the state duma the lower. chembur of

the russian parliament the communist states expected to come second with twenty percent of the vote of the liberal democrats would get twelve percent then just propped up nine percent of all the other parties according to the polls on who gets who in one percent that's up less than a minimal that and treat rush holt of up seven percent while opposition meanwhile claims that united russia party is popularity is dropping steadily and that set me up coming vote as lining up to be one of its morris performances ever and prime minister vladimir putin as he was mentioning also acknowledged last week that problems do exist in the united russia party but he also warns that by defeat of the ruling party it would mean that the country could plunge into an economic crisis similar to the crisis which has great the whole of europe now and he said that it was only thanks to the united russia's maturity in the last elections that russia survived the economic crisis of two thousand and eight and two thousand and nine but well meanwhile the top prospects united russia say that

a decrease leaving the party's popularity is still significant and the party is still supported by the majority of voters which the polls also show but we have to understand that the united russia party would not be satisfied with just about mingling first in the parliamentary elections what they need to do is a problem entry majority is a constitutional majority and that means that they will be able to make this last track called for those files by the cabinet but they'll be able to introduce changes to the constitution of the country and of course books but ima put an enemy trying to be a part in delivering those emotional speech today their address most at the members of the united russia party and also have a potential voters so that the party gains that it is a major a big tree in the upcoming vote to get the majority they need that is a three hundred state duma seamlessly. you mentioned president medvedev he already gave his address to the assembly what was his message when you actually open his speech with again rates. arranging that in his view like him around him remains the

number one politician in this country but he supports it with a bigger number of voters and that's because he's the most experienced politician to run the country or in the next five years have all the mention of it as we know or so cold and focused on the borderline of the looming possible the next five years the thing is that deep the party that wins in the upcoming election will choose it which seems to be back no admission in that if we leave this party would become the new party leader and what we can expect from him in the first place but he will focus on the shuffling of the party's leadership because he would want to write for the money according to your. executive maxim is that you listings would know that there have been fall outs between the course anatomy that is in the process about in certain areas such as budget spending such as where policy at least some of that if needed it goes around now and this main goal is to assure. we

sure the elite might be not so certain about mission ahead of some of your travel plans as a prime minister that he will continue with the liberal reforms which he started as a country's president and that means it was socialist country what that means cash injection is something in infrastructure and industry is an overwhelming modernization so he is a top goal today talking about your own from the collection with his speech was to talk about the rules of the game about his beliefs but actually it's about he's a jerk they both use short term and long term plans here for the country's largest part you got it. right our teaser carried a grudge of a live at the united russia convention in moscow thanks for your pick. you can head over to our t. dot com for more on what's happening at russia's ruling party congress with our online camera feed that you can find there and a live translation of what's being said on stage. one of egypt's main presidential contenders says he's ready to drop his candidacy and lead a unity government instead mohamed el baradei as announcement comes after he met

with political groups that see a coalition cabinet as the only way forward but authorities policy reports the worry is that it could cause even more confrontation within egypt. the situation does where maintains now we've had an announcement find some sixteen political groups who say that they have a very tough yes way of what they are calling a civil salvation government they've named mohamed el baradei is a presidential candidate and he was also a name that was being bandied about earlier in the week as a possible person the army might approach to be the prime minister as they hid all of this new government and there are high profile names that have been named as his deputies a leading physician leading economists from the leading politicians so you not have this most bizarre situation where you have a government that has been to create fear itself here while there is another government that has been declared by the army and it is worthwhile noting that the muslim brotherhood does not support mohamed el baradei in any way all of this is

painting the scenario for growing internal wyvil read that can only lead to more and waste one thing that is happening against the backdrop of this political posturing is that the violence continues to climb one person was killed another four people were injured when protesters try to stop come on al gore has already who is the new prime minister that has been named by the army from entering a government building according to eyewitnesses the person who was killed was driven over by him on the arkell we're also hearing from eyewitnesses that there was a lot of tear gas fired by the security forces the ministry is going ahead with parliamentary elections on monday as i've stated it's named this new prime minister come out i'm going to read it says it will have presidential elections in place finally experience june if this is not enough to satisfy the people and certainly what we're seeing with this new prime minister is an attempt to form a government but again come out all guns all week comes from the mubarak era people here while on the one hand perhaps like to him full force some of the stuff he did

when he was prime minister back in the ninety's they they think that he has been tainted with the brush of mubarak and they are very suspicious of any kind of government he tries to and any kind of people he appoints with him next. paula slee reporting from cairo the arab league is also meeting in cairo but it's focused is on another troubled member syria the group's finalizing draft economic sanctions the measures include a travel ban on senior officials freezing government assets and suspending flights to the country damascus failed to respond to a deadline to let foreign observers monitor the government's methods against civil war to rast france meanwhile has become the first western country suggesting a humanitarian intervention but there is criticism that it could be a pretext for a libya style intervention as artie's tests are so it will force the people of thanks to the libyan intervention french president nicolas sarkozy bad destroying a first for his country first to call for an aide to impose no fly zone over libya . first to officially recognize the opposition as libya's only legitimate

government first to strike with libya now in the rearview mirror syria appears to be the next stop france is once again the first western nation suggests an international ground intervention in syria calling for a quote secured zone to protect civilians and first to endorse the exiled opposition syrian national council plans of towns who are human beings and it's very very popular agreement between most of the left and most of the hype about that and so has the saviour's a difference and so it seems to me that the small even more aggressive than obama would be even though he doesn't have the military strength of the luhansk and sweeping popularity at home is what suckles he needs if he intends to let the french decide his fate as president in the two thousand and twelve elections. pretty soon you could have talks about the syrian crazies. and those really really. bad situation when it comes to the

polls and he's using the crazies as a way to. to to be seen as proactive the way he was with libya but what the french government deems a success doesn't seem to be too promising for those living in the post gadhafi era violent clashes between rival militia groups have continued adding to the death toll a new u.n. report says that some seven thousand people are being held in libya detention centers controlled by militias with no access to courts or a functioning judiciary many are still armed a scenario some warn it could be repeated in syria once those regimes are overthrown a pandora's box is opened in other words chaos can be the result while one is always happy to see the end of brutal dictatorships my own view is that these the ends to these regime should come from the people themselves critics of france's

latest move of race the question of whether any foreign intervention in syria would actually end the bloodshed while other countries have taken a slightly more cautious step it seems that the french leadership is keen on putting its foot down and planting its plug ahead of everyone else french assertion is not entirely welcome by syrians themselves a lot of opponents actually would not welcome. western forces or even turkish forces so you can be an opponent of the regime and against foreign intervention and for all the gains france get out of intervention in syria even critics wonder if it's really worth it but at least no one can argue about who said it first does or celia r.t. brussels stay with us here on r.t. still ahead this hour money down the drain billions of dollars pumped by the u.s. into iraq for a covering program may have been spent in vain as almost the same amount has reportedly been stolen during the u.s. military campaign. the masters of economic war. they are taking aim at iran is the

u.s. with a fresh sanctions backed by canada and the u.k. . but first russia's president sent a strong warning to nato countries this week over their plane european missile defense shield dmitri medvedev said if it goes ahead without guarantees for russia security moscow will have to deploy its own missiles over explains one casualty could be the united states and russia's mulcher much of vaunted nuclear cuts. hope on of the years of talks surrounding the united states proposed missile shield in eastern europe russia says the u.s. still won't give adequate assurances over who will be targeted prompting stern words from president made yet of. other measures are insufficient russia will deploy a contemporary strike systems in the west and south in order to prevent fire damage from u.s. missile systems deployed in europe the deployment of the is going to missile system

in the coming ground region will be one such step there is also the possibility this could derail the landmark nuclear disarmament process agreed to go to the u.s. . what they've got to give me an extra couple link between strategic offensive and defensive weapons reasons could emerge from russia's withdrawal from the strategic arms reduction treaty this is a vision within the content of the treaty russia or in the united states had hoped to reset relations between limit the years adrift during the bush administration remarks from president obama in two thousand and nine led to optimism that the missile defense program would be scaled down but the united states now plans to increase the amount of countries which it will place missile defense systems all of those nations are in russia's backyard going against assurances from washington that they would do no such thing a move that political analysts say is a game of brinksmanship with a potentially devastating outcome once one side has missile defense playing courage

that sidetracked to launch a first strike so this kind of movement these kinds of threats actually increase the chance of a nuclear war washington maintains that it shield would protect against nuclear attack from so-called rogue states like iran those following the systems development believe it only ever had one target the american version it's directed against iran which is completely absurd every joke political analyst knows this is directed against russia and this is not your government ministration this is a pentagon program there are also those who lay the blame for escalating the situation at the door of weapons manufacturers but i think it's being driven by the the military industrial complex and the united states that's getting billions of dollars in contracts to build these missiles the irony is that we have professors

like at mit ted postol former red military people that say it could never actually work president medvedev stresses that russia remains open to dialogue with the united states and nato. over missile defense issues but if that dialogue is to take place then a clear legal framework must exist saying who is the real target peter all of us. according to russia's envoy to nato moscow will in any case push for transparency in construction of the missile shield so that every country involved can feel safe it will carry on tools with the american plan is until the u.s. passes the point of new return in this matter the point of no it's the finalization of the european system iversen make sure that the matter in question is the deployment of the locations from which is strategic nuclear foods can be monitored . adaptive approach will be implemented. there is still time for negotiations and

we are cooling the american council. on this new time to make sure the european countries involved even those involved against their will get not only issues is but legally binding guarantees based on specific to. missile defense. meanwhile iran says it's ready to strike nato's missile defense network in turkey if it's threatened by military action a high ranking iranian military official war and they could move then move on to new targets the country's parliament has also passed a bill to reduce diplomatic relations with the u.k. and withdraw its ambassador from the country the decision is seen as a reaction to broker support for a sanctions against the islamic republic over claims that it might be trying to develop nuclear weapons the u.s. hammered out a fresh set of measures this week and for the first time directly at iran's oil and petrochemical industry and also targeted the country's banking system that was just scribe as a center for money laundering by secretary of state hillary clinton news blogger

david lindahl thinks the sanctions won't work and only punish the population into standing by their government. all the signs are looking exactly like they looked in the period of two thousand and one to two dozen three here in the u.s. with this you know drumbeat of hysteria and new weapons of mass destruction if you really want to get a country to get a nuclear weapon then just keep threatening it with attack the sanctions will probably have a negative effect on the u.s. goals of trying to drive a wedge between people in their government i think what you'll see in iran is probably something similar with the rallying people to their government and to the you know nationalistic feelings when they're under attack from countries like the united states and israel. fresh stories in the latest updates from our correspondents around the world always available a click away at our team dot com here's what's online right now. from

a whole rising star to down and out find out how a man who once ran for governor in his state and it up as homeless and a new prain when he had gone there searching for a lot of plots. the likes of moammar gadhafi and saddam hussein become the stars of a t.v. commercial check out the fall and the holy various version of be added r t v dot com. as the deadline approaches for the u.s. to withdraw its troops from iraq it looks like it's not only the soldiers that are leaving the country billions of dollars have reportedly been stolen from iraq during the military campaign while the justice system is chasing down petty crime by low ranking officers the people at the top appear to be immune from investigation. not everyone leaves the war zone empty handed the number of people indicted and convicted by the us for bribery fraud and theft in iraq and afghanistan has never been so high among those

a marine in iraq who sent home forty three thousand dollars in stolen cash by hiding it in a foot locker among american flags a soldier who shipped thousands more concealed in a toy stuffed animal they can go after people to steal forty three thousand dollars all they want necessary ok they should go after them but what about on the larger scale in two thousand and six michael o'brien was tasked with helping build the iraqi military he says those who have pocketed mili is enjoyed complete impunity they rebuilt an iraqi army base and i'm telling you the condition of this space and this is just one example was so deplorable it was so pathetic and when i asked the american construction project manager well what did this cost how much money went into this i really thought he was going to say three million or five million is one hundred sixteen million dollars my jaw dropped the commission on wartime

contracting estimated that between thirty one to sixty billion dollars has been lost to waste and fraud in iraq and afghanistan the figures seem even more staggering considering the overall amount the u.s. has committed to rebuilding iraq roughly sixty two billion dollars we did get around beer and was the head of an iraqi reconstruction team working for the u.s. they department the squandering of resources occurred at very small levels of thousand dollars a couple thousand dollars here and there and zoomed all the way up into hundreds of millions of dollars that were spent on hospitals that never opened or prisons that never took any prisoners in the commission on wartime contracting is out of business now after congress cut its funding. the details of their probe see. until two thousand and thirty one they don't want certain people in high places. to come under scrutiny that the u.s. congress wants to put the debacle of our iraq invasion behind it the

scope of the waste and fraud is enormous the u.s. justice system goes after individuals who have stolen a few thousand dollars here and there but not after the big players the big contractors that have really made a killing on the wars i'm going to check on reporting from washington our team it's been one of the toughest weeks yet for the european union is markets italy increasingly unfit to weather the storm of the current economic climate interest on italy's debt has hit seven point eight per cent unimaginable just a few months ago and above the level that's triggered meltdowns among other e.u. members ratings agencies have been forced to act on the grim figures of downgrading hungary and portugal's debt to junk status with a warning of more to come a number of italian banks also hit by the debt rating hammer as easy leaders promote more austerity to combat the crisis investment advisor patrick young things now is the time to make the tough decisions. right knowing there is definitely

a pople smell of fear in brussels over what's going on when you're in the euro parliament in the coffee shops the huddled corners are discussions about whether the you're always going to survive in any shape or form this crisis is like a palm demo of financial panic because ultimately you have individuals who are managing pension funds for yourself or myself all over the world and when they wake up in the morning and they've got to go and do something with our money for the next five or ten years ultimately their their most important facet right now is to keep that money see it and as i'm sure you can appreciate it nobody really for you see if in the euro zone germany either house to decide that it wants to basically take away the bull on through a lot of other members of the euro zone club because they view them as not being worthy of being membership or they're going to have to essentially bite their tongue and they're going to have to come forward and do something with the marketplace and in some way find

a solution they were our nude protests erupted in portugal one of the first states to feel before force of austerity transport and public services were paralyzed as thousands flooded into the streets voicing their opposition to yet more cuts the organizers of the strike argue that if austerity measures keep up the country's economy would sink further but the e.u. is desperation to show its crisis management credentials has put tremendous pressure on lisbon to carry on with the cuts as our keys are in english go reports it's fueling a growing exodus from the debt ridden country. now i expect rita is ready to go leaving her home and has probably never been easier. because why stay in portugal when we know that architects with five years' experience are paid just eight hundred euros a month is a question a lot of young specialists have been asking themselves lately and the surprising answer may be to leave for portugal's former colonies like brazil testifying to and has been rather stable they had their national truth and then

a massive record in their record special process began so there are a lot of opportunities for a civil construction companies especially and a lot of portuguese construction companies winter and there are currently there are very active angola maybe know something but many portuguese are starting to hear it at least as a present day. an african country rich in diamonds and oil resources presents an appetizer an opportunity for a lot of people who have lost hope of finding a decent job at home before a member of ever i tell i'm moving abroad invariably says brill and can you get mad job doing friends haven't asked me to take their c.v. . according to some reports around ninety thousand portuguese are currently living in goa compared with just ten thousand in two thousand to some golden gate for better income but most are simply looking for something something better than the ever worsening situation at home recently i think salaries unfortunately are not

the main reason and the main reason is the lack of opportunities in the portuguese markets due to the well to the crisis the mass exodus of portugal's young smart and educated may portend the end of an era for the country a lot of specialized people have hired occasion scientists brain drain as it you would call it that to go and work we've brought them study abroad and there's just stay there and of course we will most likely never recover those human assets like rita they hardly think twice before moving abroad the desire to work for a decent salary far outweighing any possible fear of flying. has been. and if your minutes join us on a spiritual journey to the only buddhist republic in continental europe this after an update of our main stories stay with us.

for.

that journey the length of life. the desire for the best of things. that drowns out our inner world. the story of one man who returns whom after years of alienation. making monks white pass on watching. magine assets that the phone watches young every single. and waiting for you to stumble. i saw a man with a video camera so i moved over and he phoned me. you know we realized that we're following everyone from early in the morning. the only chance to get rid of him. is to reveal him.