egypt's crossroads voters lined up to cast ballots in the first post mubarak parliamentary election against a backdrop of protests against the military and warnings of further violence. president obama meets e.u. leaders to discuss syria and iran with experts predicting further isolation of both countries possibly aiming at regime change. and making their point by making a scene the ukrainian women whose topless protests against women's abuse at home and in europe set to go global.

it's six pm in moscow i'm good to have you with us here on r t our top story egyptians are voting in the first step of a long parliamentary election which will happen in stages until march this follows a week of violence that returned to the cities with more than forty people killed in protests against the military regime artes and he said now it has more from cairo. this is just the first round of these parliamentary elections in fact you don't actually have a parliament set up if the vote is considered valid until march sometime and then the presidential elections only happening in twenty thirteen with that said the atmosphere is tense it's very festive at the same time a lot of people voting for the first time in their lives from young to old release there is excitement about this this vote some people see it as the first step in egypt's road to so-called democracy but no people have forgotten what we saw unfold here over the past couple of weeks the very vicious clampdown and clashes that we

saw and calls for the military rule to resign just ahead of elections but what's concerning the people first off of course is the security situation just this morning we saw a blast this is something that has happened several times since the revolution part of a pipeline that carries gas from egypt to israel so the security situation very tense although it has to be said that so far there has been no kind of of unsecure situations throughout the day so far another concern of course is legitimacy of the vote and people here say that scaf is very much in control that in fact some people that we've spoken to are either going to boycott the vote or going to vote to make sure they highlight what they see as fraud during this first holes. some adoptions are bracing for the worst medics are lined up and security is tight for egypt's first parliamentary election since the revolution the country's only

female candidate for the presidency expects the vote to be void due to from want but sent this message to the supreme council of the armed forces or scaffold took over after mubarak we are as. movement. we are rooting you. money during the election just to connect the. mistakes and then there are frogs we had and our own good no waiting for democracy others are planning to boycott the ballot minya a protester at occupy cabinet says they are encouraging people not to vote trying to do we're trying to call the people to come zone here so we would be a lot of people and nobody would vote and then they would know that these votes and this elections is not correct it's wrong how could you ask us to vote for a parliament which which you are building under you were. the scouts. the violent crackdown that swept over egypt just before elections seems to be pulling focus

from the long awaited dream of democracy minya says if the vote goes through the military will succeed in covering up the blood spilled. like take them to chords or something like for the people the kills i got shot in my yard like here but of course it's not that big of deal like other people go and now they're blind and none of the lot of them are did because of what happened was going to say when you were wrong the party likely to win a staunch number of seats is the muslim brotherhood considered a terrorist affiliated organization in some countries appears very popular here in egypt known for tight organization and a hard islamist line also accused by some of wheeling and dealing with the military supreme council they are politicians and they're a man who is wrong that they won in that it will use indians and this is not for

that he would use some of this all the power power that the people on talk rere have been fighting for on the streets to where you square people would love to have a strong presentation in the parliament. so i urge everybody who was was going to miss the election please don't do that but what egypt wants and want. egypt gets so far proven to be two very different results many egyptians feel the political parties on the ballot don't resent the people and even more so their revolution one of the most common things you hear on top here is that the people running the country are no different from mubarak and they're thought to be very much running this vote reporting from cairo and he's now a party. the gloves are off in the next hour and crosstalk as peter lavelle grills his guest over the western role in the arab spring take a look. we saw

a year ago almost the turmoil in egypt which is now returning no democracy there obviously the americans or the west are waiting for a western friendly government to be imposed and this of course sucks up to the israeli situation so that the the border with gaza is controlled by the west and by israel the previous speaker was talking about the lack of democracy that been an uprising in egypt and then have been clamped down there was no democracy there and then these developments are part of the process and i believe that it is an inexorable process in which ultimately the arab peoples will achieve the democracy that they aspire to everyone should have the right to democracy except for the palestinians and the people of bahrain ok because these are national security issues of the united states of america. i. syria is another country whose government may be feeling the decisions are being

made from outside it's now suffering more pressure and isolation after the arab league imposed economic sanctions the measures in freezing assets cutting off projects of the assad government to punish them for failing to end the violence and allowing international observers damascus lambasted the league's unprecedented move as a betrayal saying it encourages. and anti-government forces acting in the country some are of experts think the sanctions are likely to average syrians to the discredit of the elite. it's going to make the situation much worse definitely for the syrian government for the syrian people part particularly so how can we look to the arab league with any kind of credibility or legitimacy how can we claim that they are speaking on behalf of our people rather it becomes evident that they are speaking on behalf of western interests again if we look at qatar and we look at saudi arabia and we see the positions that they have taken and with whom they are most closely aligned we see their alliances are quite close with the united states and

they seem to be mouthpieces from before the united states which again for anyone who has studied the arab league none of this is surprising the arab league was constructed officially to protect our borders and you would think one of its most basic that it would do would be to protect the arab countries like constant patients they each of these are countries have promised to support and defend any arab country that has been invaded and yet when lebanon was consistently invaded by israel not one our country came to its protection so again what is this our oblique it's not it's another farce it's another jolt about that was imposed upon the arab world by the former colonialist that we're here. stay with us here on r.g.p. still ahead this hour the adventures of ukrainian feminists in europe. we meet the scandalous activists who believe revealing their bodies will expose the sins of politicians. but first as the war of words between

nato and pakistan arranges islam about has announced the recent closure of nato supply routes to afghanistan via its territory will now be permanent the already strained relationship was tossed into chaos after a u.s. airstrike targeted on known army base in twenty four soldiers close to the pakistan border incident triggered massive rallies throughout the country elevating anti-american sentiment to new levels this. as a new nato strategy has come to light paying taliban soldiers fighters one hundred fifty dollars a month to stop fighting a reporter and author hillary says this shows how desperate the allies the situation has become the point about afghanistan and you know there was a very unflattering colonial statement about the afghans that you can't buy an afghan but you could rent him in other words that you can you know gain loyalty for a short but after the money runs out you know their loyalties will return to where they were before and i think the afghans are very well trained as it were taking

from both hands so as a strategy you know i think this is going to fail and what's going to stop taliban members simply taking their money and going back home and i you know i think it's a it's a desperate measure and i think it's a sign of the the failure of the whole afghan episode and the fact that the taliban are probably going to return as the most powerful political force once the west is gone. as we've reported damascus has been hit by fresh sanctions from the arab league there is another blow awaiting the country as u.s. president barack obama hosts leaders in washington to thrash out additional measures against syria concerns over iran's nuclear program also on the table with a european oil ban the likely response but he's got a cheeky reports on why both countries seem caught in the crosshairs. splitting the spoils of war in the middle east and north africa the u.s.

and europe are meeting in washington searching for new ways to fortify their global position now with syria and iran on their plate here at the white house european leaders together with the u.s. president might be trying to turn political tensions around syria and iran into an economic game after all the decision on whether or not to meddle in a foreign country's affairs is never entirely selfless looking at the ranch for example a country with vast natural resources it's not hard to see the benefits in such a venture iran is the world's third largest oil exporter it's seconding gas reserves the u.s. is not getting any of the rainy and oil europe on the other hand accounts for a significant part of iran's crude exports a year has severe energy problems there are a huge net importer of better europe has recently stopped buying oil from syria it might stop buying crude from iran as well if the e.u. decides to impose an oil ban on iran but analysts say it's not full long that the

west would want to deprive themselves of middle eastern oil that would mean more oil more gas lower price of oil lower price of gas more steady supply. how to make it happen typically what they would like to do is make the population so you cannot make the measurable that they will seek to change the regime and the second way is to isolate the country from its neighbors to the point where you can safely without too many complications go in and simply attack iran and destroy the regime through destroying the country singe. the u.s. and the e.u. are trying to press iran's biggest trade partner china to do less business with tehran the u.s. is now calling on pakistan to stop building a gas pipeline with iran isolation seems to be the strategy regime change the end

game the benefits could be enormous going to check on our t. washington d.c. . but syria and iran won't be the only topics on the table in washington as both america and the you struggle to contain their respective economic worries the most urgent is europe's debt epidemic at the center of which sets athens speaking with r.t. greek m.p.c. most care to go blue says there is no telling what tomorrow holds for your battle union full interview with him coming up in about fifteen minutes here's a preview. of the fearful tomorrow we don't know what's coming next and i believe that the whole of europe doesn't know what's coming next even though the borders closed tomorrow a council like greece doesn't produce the we the me that the greeks need so it's the first time since world war two that greece contra feed its people in the country like greece where everything can grow i think it's a crime. russia's presidential human

rights council says police torture could have led to the death of a russian lawyer who was imprisoned at the time members of the council insist the persecution the prosecution should look into new evidence sergei magnitsky who worked for a foreign investment fund was arrested on accusations of corruption in two thousand and nine he died in pretrial detention facility several months later his family and colleagues claim he was deliberately denied medical help to prison doctors have been charged with negligence during the ongoing investigation the incident prompted the u.s. to blacklist a number of russian citizens who they think are linked with the case russia slammed that move and responded with similar similar punitive measures against u.s. officials. all the world news at your fingertips at r.t. dot com here's what's a click away right now. around and courage britain's prince william rescues two russian sailors after their ship sank in stormy waters off north wales. and.

why you can't poke fun at the monarchy in thailand where a facebook gyde can get you a fat jail term if you don't like that story you can head over or if you like that story rather head over to our t dot com for people. i don't frayed and i'm dressed in a series of provocative protests against the abuse of women's rights have been raising eyebrows across europe as artie's alexei or a chef ski found out easy korean activists have set their sights on new horizons. oh yes. on a chilly morning in key of health naked women in racing outfits drink champagne and chant slogans this is how the feminine movement celebrated the resignation of silvio berlusconi several days prior to that that very same ladies were in rome voicing their support to the anti berlusconi protest even do it until we have staged a lot of protests against berlusconi and his sexual adventures here and here and we

are really happy his political career has finished and it's an embarrassment to up to the next couple somebody who came to the terran embassy not only to celebrate but the say that he needs to go on trial for his sexual crimes. for more than a week the cranium topless protesters had been making themselves heard across europe on a dedicated road trip to draw attention to the sexual exploitation of women in room one of their activists made a revealing protest against injustice towards women in the catholic church in the vatican right in front of the pope. was before that they hit paris storming former i.m.f. banker dominique strauss kahn his residence. and women from italy came to us in switzerland and said we know that you're coming to rome and will be staging

protests again berlusconi and the pope thank you they said for sharing our problems they are wild brawl free rallies in ukraine have been making international headlines for several years now from protesting against the alarming rate of prostitution especially with the upcoming who are twenty twelve for book tournament to exposing flaws in ukraine's politics now they're looking even further afield dealing with the new could be worse what went through the classic famine is no longer works it is if you excuse me impotent but a war with dubai. the desire to fact that's why not only ukraine needs us but europe as well who are planning to take over the world and that's. what we see how well you were received in europe remember your colorful actions in ukraine where are you planning to expand now but of those i. know you received lots of letters telling us to continue fighting against religious injustice towards women especially in the muslim states that's where we want to develop it we are even

ready to go to iran or any other islamic state to stage our topless protests but knowing all risks i didn't tale for. them they started out as a few enthusiastic complainer is now they're told this protest messages go read global. in ukraine alone they have tens of thousands of supporters the family network has been set up in europe and now stretches as far as the united states still they say they've got a lot of demons to fight at home. auntie because you from kiev ukraine. turning now to some other stories making headlines across the globe police have arrested three people ordering occupy los angeles protesters to leave a downtown intersection the arrest came after hundreds gathered in the street after a deadline passed to vacate city hall park water bodies were hurled at officers as they began clearing the area occupy activists have been learning resistance tactics

including how to deal with rubber bullets and pepper spray officials say the addiction was necessary on public health grounds. as suicide bombers around a car packed with explosives into a prison entry gate north of baghdad killing at least nineteen people the blast also left twenty four wounded no group immediately admitted the attack which is the third major assault in iraq in a week. and a train load of nuclear waste has reached its destination in northern germany hundreds of protesters made a last ditch attempt to stop the train or turning the radio on. material from reprocessing in france with some chaining themselves to the tracks activists say the containers and storage facility are not safe delivery was heavily policed and low to about thirteen hundred arrests. in a little more than fifteen minutes the tributes to the wales football manager after his shocking death kate has more than that in the sports update but first kareena joins us with the latest business day.

hello and welcome to our business of it is all things for joining me a double dip recession and the eurozone now seems all but inevitable the o.e.c.d. ones that the bloc will see a contraction of one percent of the fourth quarter of this year in the fourth quarter of this year and will continue to shrink in two thousand and twelve and i'm now joined by nick parsons out from our. bank to discuss the issue thank you for you for joining the program next oh so are the worst fears coming true can we call this the second wave of the crisis. clothing the worst fears the coming through those worst fears could be substantially worse than what the o.e.c.d. is actually announced today you're right to point out that it's revised down substantially its growth forecasts saying for the euro area as a whole next year it's only going to grow by north point two percent so it's very very weak growth but it's worth pointing out that the central focus the best guess

if you like want of a better phrase that central forecast is not the midpoint of a range there is a chance that things could turn out a bit better than expected but there's also a very great chance that they could turn out a whole lot worse to use the jargon of the economics profession as an asymmetry downside skew so it could actually get a lot worse and they're even saying that next time do mongers are predicting that the euro could break up within months some even say after christmas how worried are you. well i don't think the euro is going to break up i think they'll be at least fifteen currencies left in it by the end of next year i think the two that are under threat are probably greece and cyprus we still don't believe that any major currency any major country is going to leave it i think it would have particularly particularly different consequences whether or not that break up that people come to talk about was because a weak currency left because a strong currency left and that's why we're seeing such

a lot of interest from companies and from investors best is seeking to hedge themselves against that because under one of those scenarios the euro would plunge in under the other the legacy euro would soar so there's a lot of interest from investors and companies to be seeking to protect their exposures right now but if the euro was to collapse i mean let's just imagine the question how severe economic consequences. i think the consequences would be severe for those that left because they would still have their debts denominated in a strong currency but to the extent that those who were left might well see the euro appreciating in the sense in the case that it was indeed a weak areas of the left and that would push up their costs of their exports and would substantially put the brake on economic growth so there's no situation which ends well for the euro and it's quite likely in the meantime that to get from here to a solution we may well move might well have to go via

a crisis and it's that crisis which could strike at the core of the euro zone which could strike for example in the german banking system that people are very very fearful of so i think we will get a solution which will have at least fifteen countries still in the euro at the end of next year but getting to that political solution will require an economic or financial crisis in the meantime but this is the actually preparing for this disintegration a possible disintegration let's put it this way of the euro and if so how how do you prepare for this. well the disintegration as i mentioned can come about in one of two ways with dramatically different consequences if germany and its northern partners would decide frankly they've had enough of this debate they don't want to subsidize southern europe they don't want to subsidise the peripheral states indefinitely then they could take the decision to leave the euro in which case the euro would weaken substantially if however they decide they're going to keep together they're going to play

a full part in monetary union and those countries that don't like it can leave then perhaps if the greeks greek exit were to be followed by either portugal spain or italy then the legacy euro would absolutely surge in value as everyone would want to hold it so we find we find at the moment that investors and companies alike seeking to protect themselves against both of those. because they could in fact have dramatically different consequences oh what about the rest of the world will europe drag down emerging markets such as if this happens. when it's already doing so to some extent but it's worthwhile looking at the detail of those o.e.c.d. projections russia for example no period in the next three years as a growth rate according to the o.e.c.d. of less than four percent so i think that is that is substantially encouraging if you look at china yes there's a modest slowdown to eight and a half percent in two thousand and twelve but again that the focus for thirteen is well above nine so for the emerging market economies for asia for russia for latin

america i think we've got a slowdown from some of the rates of growth in prospect for the next twelve months but the o.e.c.d. themselves are seeing some insulation from the pain and they're seeing continued outperformance and alex aeration into two thousand and thirteen ok well thank you nick glass and so national's fairly well let's hope that your withstand this crisis thanks very much for sharing these thoughts with us thank you. a financial tidal wave us threatening to swap europe with just said many economists predict a severe recession on the continent in two thousand and twelve as government significantly cut spending however this could be of great benefit to gold prices at all tally from u.b.s. says the average price for the metal would reach two thousand and seventy five dollars per ounce next year gold reflects emotions so it's fear about the current climate and fear about what lies ahead there's

a mistrust of governments governments in europe you know the debt management for many of the european nations there's a mood certain each word safehaven acid and what we saw in two thousand and eleven was a very volatile year for gold and for other assets we continue to see that expect that again for two thousand and twelve so at some time here gold is approaching those record highs that people need to be perhaps a little bit more proactive. be prepared to take profits with a view to coming back in again and buying gold as you know one hundred hundred fifty dollars lower. let's have a look at the markets now commodities first oil prices are heading up on a strong start to the holiday shopping season in the u.s. light sweet is currently trading at over one thousand nine dollars a barrel while brand is at one hundred and nine dollars per barrel european stock markets pushed higher on monday banks are in the lead after media reports pointed to leading making progress two leaders making progress in addressing the eurozone debt crisis france and germany are also studying ways to deepen fiscal integration

and here in russia markets are gaining anything session the r.t.s. is up over four percent that was six is over three and a half percent in the black this hour let's take a look at some individual channels on them isaac's energy majors on the rise by stronger crude gaining over four percent backing stocks are no exception with this bear bank nearly nearly five percent in the black and carmakers dollars is also up on news of its joint venture with a few pounds. here being. all market b.p. has become the second largest oil producer in the country the company produces half a percent more crude during the first nine months of the year than look oil and analysts say local has been concentrating more on foreign operations than domestic expansion and. joining the list of international carmakers to localize production in russia starting from next year the japanese company and annually produce over thirty thousand cars at this plant in the country so far east

. is reportedly investing around eighty million dollars in the project solars already has production agreements with a number of international companies including korea's shine young and italy's few. well that's business update this so stay with us for headline news coming up next.

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