free. free. and free broke. your media projects free media. time. egypt's crossroads voters lined up to cast ballots in the first post mubarak parliamentary election against of backdrop of protests against the military and warnings of further violence. president obama sits down with e.u. leaders to discuss syria and iran with experts predicting further isolation of both countries ultimately aiming at regime change. 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.

seven pm in moscow i met trends are 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 archies and he said now way 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 have been no kind of. unsecure situations throughout the day so far another concern of course is the 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 polls. 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 staff took over after mubarak we are as the. 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 way 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 scout for. 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 courts or something like for the people the kills i got shot of my i like here but of course it's not that big of deal like other people go now they're blind and a lot of them are dead because of what happened who's 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 mean the phone was wrong that they

won in that it will use indians and this is not for that when you show me this hold 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 of those who is going to miss the election please don't do that. but what egypt wants and what egypt gets and so far proven to be two very different results many egyptians feel the political party is on the ballot don't resent the people and even more so with their revolution one of the most common things you hear on top three 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 there now a party. more on the situation in egypt with an expert coming up a little later in the program but first the gloves are off later this hour in

crosstalk as peter lavelle grills his guest over the western role in the arab spring here's a peek at that. we saw a year ago almost to 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 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 had been clamped down there was no democracy there and 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.

staying with the region syria another country feeling that decisions may be being made from outside as the newly imposed arab league sanctions amount to quote a declaration of economic war the measures include freezing. investment projects of the assad government to punish it for failing to end the violence and allow international observers damascus lambasted the league's unprecedented move as a betrayal saying it encourages the armed anti-government forces acting in the country some arab experts think the sanctions are likely to average syrians to the discredit of the league. it's going to make the situation much worse definitely for the 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 the arab 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 and none of this is surprising the arab league was constructed officially to protect our poor old you would think one of its most basic acts that it would do would be to protect the our countries against invasions they each of these our 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 arab league it's not it's another farce it's another joke about that was imposed upon the arab world by the former colonialist that were here. well stay with us here on r t still ahead this hour the adventures of ukrainian feminists in europe.

we meet the scandalous activists who think revealing their bodies will expose the sins of politicians plus. governments and companies around the world up with their own for possible disintegration of the euro business bulletin we examine why double dip recession in the eurozone now seems all but inevitable. but first as the war of words between nato and pakistan rages on islam about has announced that the recent closure of nato supply routes to afghanistan via its territory will be permanent the already strained relationship was thrown into chaos after a u.s. airstrike targeted own army base killing twenty four soldiers host of the pakistan border incident led to massive rallies throughout the country elevating the anti-american sentiment in the other is as a new nato strategy has come to light paying taliban fighters one hundred fifty dollars a month to stop them from fighting reporter and author phil rees says this shows how desperate how desperate the situation has become for the alliance. 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 we 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 arab league and there's another blow awaiting the country

as u.s. president barack obama hosts e.u. leaders in washington to thrash out additional measures against syria concerns over iran's nuclear program also on the table with the european oil ban the likely response or he's got a guy in a chicky on reports on why the two countries are 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 economic gain after all the decision on whether or not to meddle in a foreign country's affairs these 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 us is not getting any of you raney and oil europe on the other hand accounts for a significant part of iran's crude exports a year has severe energy problem. there are a huge net importer. in 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 the rand 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 we'd like to do is make the population so you could not 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 countries which 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 we've seen change the endgame the benefits could be enormous get a check on our team washington d.c. but syria and iran won't be the only topics discussed in washington as both the us and e.u. are struggling to contain their respective economic troubles 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 the embattled union full interview coming up in the next hour here's a preview. of fear for 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 if 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 controversy that's 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 that the prosecution look into the new evidence sergei magnitsky who worked for an investment company was arrested on ickes ations 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 reverberated through human rights groups and prompted the u.s.

to blacklist a number of russian citizens who they think are linked with the case russia criticized that move and responded with similar measures for u.s. officials. remember you can always find plenty more on the stories we're covering a click away at our tea dot com here's what's online right now. for our coverage of britain's prince william rescue two russian sailors after their ship sinks in stormy seas off north wales. and why you can't poke fun at the monarchy in thailand where a facebook giant can lend you a battle jail term if you like that story and overcharged the tom foreman. unafraid and undressed a series of provocative protests against the abuse of women's rights have been raising eyebrows across europe as artie's alexia's chef ski found out these ukrainian activists have their sights set on new horizons. oh yes. on a chilly morning in kiev hoff 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 the very same ladies were in rome voicing their support to the anti berlusconi protest even do it i mean we had staged a lot of protests against berlusconi and his sexual adventures here in kiev and we are really happy his political career has finished this inhibition interrupted 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. i mean 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 there while draw 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 tournament exposing flaws in ukraine's politics now they're looking even further afield those of them with dealing with the now could be worse what they were understood the classic famine is no longer works it is if you excuse me impotent but what we do by. the desire to fact that's why not only ukraine needs it 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 we are even ready to go to iran or any other islamic state to stage our topless protests but knowing all risks if it entails for us. they started out as a few enthusiastic complainer is now they're talking just messages go we 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. ski r.t. because you from kiev ukraine. churning out of some other stories making headlines

across the globe police have arrested four people after ordering occupy los angeles protesters to leave a downtown intersection the arrest came after hundreds gathered in a street after a deadline passed to vacate city hall park water bottles were hurled at officers as they started clearing the area stand simply for public health reasons activists had been learning resistance tactics including how to deal with rubber bullets and pepper spray. a suicide bomber has 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 others wounded no greek group immediately admitted to the attack which is the third major assault in iraq in a week. fresh clashes took place in northern kosovo where locals resisted nato forces attempts to dismantle serb barricades barriers were put up to oppose an alliance takeover of border checkpoints last week similar clashes left dozens injured on both sides serbs in kosovo have been blockading the road since

july when a post of our authorities tried to take control of checkpoints with the help of nato and e.u. forces. less than ten minutes peter lavelle is back this time asking his guests on a cross talk if the world is taking a two selective approach to the arab uprisings but first the green update business update with kareena melican. thank you man hello and welcome to our business update this hour a double dip recession in the eurozone now seems all but inevitable the o.e.c.d. warns that the bloc will see a contraction of one percent in the fourth quarter of this year and will continue to shrink in two thousand and twelve nick parsons from national australia bank believes that things could be much more much worse. clothing the worst fears the coming true those worst fears could be substantially worse than what the o.e.c.d.

actually announced today you're right to point out that it's revised down substantially its growth forecasts it's 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 central focus that 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 asymmetric downside skew so it could actually get a lot worse in there even say. and the former head of the european bank for reconstruction and development. predicts that the euro may not survive until christmas governments and companies around the world are preparing for what could could happen if the car as it disintegrates but you know we're getting our capital

believes that all firms that russell would need government help to survive if they were to fall. strive to survive by hiking the domestic rates at the pump stations. after the number two there will encounter the anger from the government then. there will be a clash the rates will be word of. russian companies. some sort of alleviation of tax duties or will be in order for them to preserve by the trade you margins so we're made in the government who would have to make huge sessions to rational companies in order for them to survive. a financial tidal wave is threatening to swop europe 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 and i'll tell you from u.b.s. says that the average price for the metal will 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 moose and 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 which he doesn't in twelve so it sometimes even gold is approaching those record highs that people need to be perhaps a little bit more proactive and be prepared to take profits with a view to coming back in again and buying goals you know one hundred hundred fifty dollars lower. let's have a look at the markets commodities first of all prices are heading up

a strong start to the holiday shopping season in the united states like so it is going to try to get over ninety nine dollars a barrel brant is at one hundred nine dollars a barrel u.s. stocks open higher as you have maps a plan to leverage a regional rescue and evidence that u.s. holiday sales have gotten off to a record start dow jones rocketing to nearly three hundred points in early trading . and europe push is higher banks are in the lead up to media reports pointed to the leaders making some progress in addressing the eurozone debt crisis france and germany are also studying ways to deepen fiscal integration here in russia markets are gaining and evening session of the r.t.s. is up over four percent of them isaacs is up nearly nearly four percent let's take a look at some individual shovels otherwise x. energy majors are on the rise supported by stronger crude is gaining nearly four and a half percent banking stocks are no exception with spare back up just under five percent comic us dollars is also up on news of its joint venture with japan's lost

. more on that joining the list of international carmakers to localize production in russia starting from next year the japanese company. we produced over thirty thousand cars. in a country far east reportedly investing around eighty million dollars in the project already has production agreements with a number of international companies including korea's young and italy's. and there's been a leap frogged in russia's market tanking he 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 lukoil analysts say has been concentrating more on foreign operations than domestic expansion. now cold war era trade barriers against russia may finally be listed as a joins the world trade organization the u.s.

ambassador to russia says congress could abolish the jackson vatican then but next year party sarah first has more on the jackson founded committed itself is an old amendment that would say restrict think straight privileges to countries that had live it's a human rights never gratian though it's a full agreement this concert every year with russia anyway but there are now concerns that american businesses could suffer losses was russia joins the world trade organization love but because this amendment is inconsistent with the deal bta rules also there are certainly concerns now that american businesses won't receive all the benefits that they gave me to other nations was russia joins the trade board a us about this is that today the amendments a relic of the cold war era having it repealed has been a long time coming a little there isn't likely to happen by the end of this year is going to be a priority getting it repealed for the us in twenty twelve well that's our business

object for this but don't forget you can always find more stories just log on to website r t dot com slash business or join me in. magine assets that the devil watches show every single morning.

and waiting for you to stumble. i saw a man with a video camera and so i moved over and he followed me with a you know we realized there were following everyone from early in the morning. the only chance to get rid of him. is to reveal him. me devil operation on our cheek.

the folks at when we. meet. up with the for six. six six. six weeks. to eat the news today. again flared up the phone these are the.