a russian woman accused of being a spy for moscow in order to gain information from her politician lover wins a battle against deportation from the u.k. . the suspected russian spy has been found innocent by british courts off to being accused of acting as a honeytrap just a british member of parliament join me on bennett for more in just a moment. russia are ready to counter any potential threat is president medvedev launches a new radar station the response to the european missile defense shield. record turnout egypt's first parliamentary elections in decades only days after a violent clampdowns against protesters plain more than forty why. thousands

show up to have their say in the future of the country but many boycott the vote demanding the military rulers step down immediately nominees now in cairo with more details. these are difficult times for europe add in the global economy but experts tell business tsotsi russia is much better equipped so withstand that sort of villains them three years ago on this in twenty. three pm in moscow good to have you with us here on r t our top story our russian woman who face deportation over claims she was working as a spy has won the right to stay in the u.k. twenty six year old catherine is a to leave better was accused of attempting to collect sensitive information while romantically linked with a british politician for more on this we go live to london to get the latest from

our correspondent i ever been. so today sees the end of the tribunal and now miss italy better has officially secured the right to stay in britain tell us more. here's what the court just ruled in her favor as found her innocent and on the balance of probabilities has said that she was and is not a russian spy now is decided by a panel of three judges that made up her special immigration appeals commission hearing one of which even was a former head of british security services in my five rejected the claims by m i five itself that she was acting as a honeytrap for the russian intelligence services to ensnare and seduce a british member of parliament member of parliament in question was mike hancock who had access to a lot of top secret material he was a member of both parliamentary select committees for one and defense one russia and m i five accused of actually talking deliberately for that access and we do know that she did have an affair during the time that she was actually working for him

as his parliamentary research but other than that in terms of evidence against her during her hearing last month we really heard not much more because a lot of large chunks of m i five evidence is actually given behind closed doors in secret to see team too sensitive for the press the public cat is at a reactor and her lawyer even to hear the court didn't hear it though the judges did and they deemed that the basically wasn't enough it said that we have not sorry we have seen nothing that which satisfies us that she was recruited as an agent always task acted as one it also added that we have not reached that conclusion by a narrow margin so rejected these claims it ruled in her favor and this has been a very lengthy battle for she was arrested twelve months ago in december last year and also during her defense has had to reveal some very intimate personal details of her private life and her relationship with my can call because that was the main

pillar of her defense saying that as hard as it may believe for a twenty something woman to be in love with a man three times her age it was in fact just her relationship with him was nothing but genuine was the prosecution's case for her deportation. but others just said there the main the main case that we heard in the open court hearing that ended over a month ago. was that she had this affair with him. that began in two thousand and six shortly after they met in moscow and she actually does chaperone for him for a diplomatic visit and after that then started working for him after coming over to the u.k. to study has she worked for him as he has his research is so had potential access to some top secret documents but other than that others say we didn't really hear much in terms of concrete proof any any concrete proof was given behind closed doors and other the other things taking into account here was that she wasn't

actually charged ever under the official secrets act and that could have been for two reasons one there wasn't any wasn't sufficient evidence and the m i five was actually more of a hunch and that's certainly what the court would more of a hunch given her close proximity to some potentially very sensitive documents and secondly. perhaps because the m i five evidence if there was any was too sensitive and that's for why we'd never heard it but of course we'll never know because the court now has ruled in her favor she now has the right to stay in the u.k. right our desire for better reporting for us live from london thanks for that update. in its most direct response yet to a controversial u.s. backed down time missile shield in europe russia has launched its own missile warning radar in the most western point of the country for more on those let's go live parties in italian overcover standing by for us in colin in grad. drawing us

by phone today's launch by the russian president himself what message is it sending to washington. well the message was russian president's so it's clear over here sherman says he's made have been making about the last four arms and cyclical the can chill in europe not being a threat to hugo chavez overstatements are not enough and russia wants to see some proof of the fact that the cancer missile defense shield is indeed not going to be against russia he also said that this radio cation system can be used together with nations maisie's willing to cooperate and this system as much as well as anti-missile defense shield in europe like not needed is not a against nato countries however it is it is not the case a nation is not willing to cooperate it doesn't so when you need to send the words building a joint anti-missile defense shield in europe and times these are different shields

need each other this is a deal of patience and some others will be capable of getting some good. with them five hundred kilometers around their hands and that will be covering up for support of europe's so tell me where does the story and i mean it's a radar station today could it be back by missiles in the future. well up a victim does not excuse such possibilities again one who does not see them too closely so for the system is capable of detecting a launch over ballistic missile calculate their placid direction that's out there within six thousand kilometers around it's covering most of europeans are soaring flight of the atlantic i hope you know not to come but since i'm just yes. it is not capable of shooting down a hill or a mix i only let you sing a launch but i gather live the thunder the making of all the labels so in the mix

so if i'm sealed it could be. used to hit a target when spikes on the delimiters range around it like i said before i'm back to that means covering the insurgency. that was archana tell you no because the reporting for us from to leningrad thanks for that update will stay with us here on r.t. still to come in the program of choosing a new direction less than a week last two elections we asked people on the people of moscow the current political tandem will regain a hold of the reins of russia. but first a record number of egyptians have cast their votes in the country's first parliamentary election since the ousting of president mubarak preliminary results are expected later this week but despite the turnout the voting was boycotted by many who demand the military rulers step down immediately this after ten days of

fierce clashes with security forces that claim more than forty lives artie's and he said now it has more from cairo. it really seems like a gypsy is are split into two camps and very simply outlined how they feel about this election and you have the group that is flat out boycotting this vote because they say the military rulers are still very much in charge it's them who came up with this system of voting they will essentially be the top people monitoring these votes and then you have the camp of people who don't agree of course with the military rulers especially in light of that crackdown that we saw just ahead of this vote that they feel like if they don't come out to have their say and they would be essentially giving up giving up the months that protesters spent on talk we're square trying to bring change to egypt so really a split of opinion a lot of people are voting here for the first time in their lives and it almost seems as if they're not really thinking so much about whether this will be a valid election what the results will be for them what's important is that this vote is taking place there have been some minor violations the most common that we

heard were candidates coming up to actual polling stations and campaigning we heard of some minor i don't think you can even call them clashes but fights that happened at polling stations with people understanding that this was wrong that this was this was a flat out violation we also heard of some parties actually setting up booths if you will with laptops trying to help voters because what we're hearing is that the system that was created is quite complicated in a lot of people came to the polling station and didn't actually understand how it all works it's only the first round of this parliamentary election in fact the parliament won't go into session until sometime in march also not even the whole country is voting in this first round it's selected by districts in cities so a lot more of the country has has their say and with the situation with these military rulers in power and you think in change here at any moment and egyptians are very aware of that was new mubarak may no longer be part of egyptian politics but his regime still haunts the country during this election according to middle east expert dr ahmed badawi who says the outcome will be pivotal as the state moves

forward here's a preview. mubarak is gone but the regime still to this explains why the demonstrations and. the. satisfaction continue the supreme council of the forces very wary of elections happening now because they see an alliance that is taking shape between the muslim brotherhood some of them and some of the old regime and the supreme council of the armed forces and they're very worried that the results of the election would be a victory for this coalition and for them that would mean that the revolution would be hijacked. and you can watch that full interview with more insights on the situation in egypt and syria coming your way in the next hour here on r.t. . and russia says the unarrest in syria is mainly being provoked by an armed

opposition according to foreign minister sergei lavrov who said it's time to stop dealing ultimatums and get back to the peace talks words come despite a u.n. investigation which found that syrian forces committed crimes against humanity and the tightening of the sanctions by the e.u. tests are sillier who's reported from syria as more. time of the e.u. was putting more pressure on the financial institutions in the syria more specifically they put a ban a long term financial support on trade with the exception of perhaps a few industries such as food and medicine e.u. companies are now prohibited from doing business especially with syrian state banks as well as investing in sectors such as energy and oil there's already an oil embargo on syria that has been imposed by the e.u. sometime in may now e.u. officials would maintain that all of this is to aimed at cutting off financial support to the syrian government but the people themselves so the syrians the state t.v. in syria have been showing them going out into the streets by the thousands granted

these are state backed protests but they are frustrated with the growing growing number of sanctions on the country because they are the ones who are feeling the pinch just an example i was there with the r.t. crew about a month ago and it was almost impossible to find it was impossible to actually five eighty have to get some money and everything was done in cash and when you ask the locals why is the case they simply say because there are sanctions in our companies the e.u. sanctions are in addition to the arab league sanctions which is the toughest sanctions by the arab league to work towards an arab country and they think that this is a betrayal they feel that and economic war has been waged on the country and that they maintain that by doing so it's simply exacerbated the situation is just encouraging those who are involved in what the government sees the terror as terrorists and those who are part of an opposition that is growing increasingly militarized the government thinks that all these sanctions would just encourage them and those who are opposed to a putting sanctions on the assad government and one of the arguments put forth this if this is really intended to come up with

a solution to the crisis why is it only focus on one side when both sides first of all are increasingly capable of violence and so by putting pressure on one side it encourages another side against the end of the day more financial sanctions while it may cripple the economy it may corner the government and business leaders it will also definitely impact the people political analyst dr his xanga see things the e.u. is unconcerned about the civilian population in syria and that sanctions are designed only to remove president assad's government. these sanctions are meaningless actually i think they are meaningless and on every level on the level on the economic level and on the security lap and it will not stop the violence western powers particularly the united states now to use these sanctions and other to use the decisions of the arab league for their own purposes to put pressure on syria to put pressure not for the syrian regime to stop the killing as they put it

no they want they want to weaken the syrian regime and to weaken the alliance between syria iran and lebanon i don't think they they. as so much for for syrian blood in libya more than one hundred thousand people were killed by nato bombings and the country was devastated and nobody said anyone so i can't actually believe that they're now so what about three thousand syrians when they are not actually what it about more than one hundred thousand libyans it has nothing to do with stopping the violence on the contrary they're feeding the bodies we can't expect the syrian government and the syrian army to end the violence if the other if the armed gangs do not stop atrocities against the syrian armed forces . all of our news coverage and much more available a click away at r.t. dot com here's what's online for you right now. more than

a thousand people detained by police during massive anti-nuclear protests in germany against the storage of nuclear waste on home soil can find all of that and more and footage of it all at r.t. dot com plus the u.s. government reportedly orders julian assange to destroy all material on wiki leaks that it holds on them and to stop using government insiders to gather fresh information plus find out how much money one a russian girl spent on making her lips about the size of jessica ravitz if you remember that eighty's reference find all of that and more at r t v dot com. well western economies still struggle in the east that's been seeing rapid financial growth china's presence in europe can now be felt more than ever as

beijing has been making strategic investments although it's still cautious about buying the continent's debt are the sour furthur ports on china's growing influence in the e.u. . the fashion capital of the world where you can be sure to sponsor an emerging trend but right now it's the economy here that's been getting i'm a cave with the west seeking east an inspiration. and you're going to want to sell but forget the italian business model with its focus on slow fine and expensive production business here is seeing this competition from its tiny counterparts with their emphasis on fast see. some of the high streets here in the chinese influence isn't hard to spot with europe's economy struggling for countries like china it's not a better time to snap up a bargain such as the acquisition this year of the well known italian fashion brands to resee by a chinese luxury closing retailer for. china. i

suppose the. opportunity. to catch the west struggles it's been the emerging crepes the brics that is brazil russia india china and south africa that have been preparing ahead this is really kind of a moment where you might look back and say this is a chance where emerging markets finally got their opportunity to become much bigger players and much bigger powers around the world take a look at the g.d.p. growth to china and italy was this lease that meeting economy has resulted in a great slump china in comparison has been full steam ahead emerging as a major manufacturing base but was chinese business is approving strong competition china is being cautious when it comes to buying up your debt the you must be told

that more to the valuable. help industries instead arriving all blonde is chinese investments in western companies and infrastructure grows so you to just china's control and influence across the entire european economy with the chinese trade and investment delegation g. to visit europe next year further investment seem extremely likely. that we call it. could be very very. you know due to. financial crises as the crisis continues to readjust the economic leaders on the global stage emerging economies such as china looks set to remain firmly in the spotlight surface r.t. . take

a look now at some other stories making headlines across the globe pakistan has ruled out doing business with washington and threaten to wrap up its cooperation with the united states on afghanistan now that followed a nato attack on saturday near the afghan border that killed twenty four pakistani soldiers thousands of people across the country protested on the streets outraged by the attack the country's military officials insisted that the air strike lasted for almost two hours and kept up even after pakistani commanders had pleaded with coalition forces to stop. around seven thousand pro khadafi prisoners are being held behind bars by former libyan rebels according to a new u.n. report which says that the detainees do not have access to legal systems as police and courts are not functioning most of the prisoners are accused of working for the khadafi regime many of them have allegedly been tortured this is the first un assessment of libya since the end of its eight month long civil war. protests in kuwait health force the prime minister to resign along with his government he

stepped down after opposition party members accused him of bribing in peace for their support who remain in power to a new cabinet for the prime minister has been in office for five years and led seven governments during that time. with less than a week to go before russians elect a new parliament many wonder which direction the country will take in search of an answer r.t.g. could greaves hopped on his bike and took to the streets of the capital. so a good leader wonderful bright you're. going to let us see how it's done them bicycle works. i know it's right if so. how do you know. unsteady no more appropriate place right now than the duma wants you made frame you can go to sleep this is what i actually found it sent happened to the united for russia the party. was set up ten years back and it made

a really impressive start and it got people to lies on the wasp popularity why demure putin but what happened after that they relaxed a bit from the off russian position they prefer to criticize they prefer just to be to be a part of the opposition. but at the same time to every responsibility. to see it's. going to be honest a little bit not good for driving this thing if you can take the lead and absolutely this is working a bit better i think alike i like about taking a back seat when you look at the opposition. worry you tend to leaders of the country becomes the business community you know i don't think they're actually capable of leading they don't have that leadership. which takes over from united russia as a main legacy or united russia will be

a political stability and economic groups and a lot of critics have said that actually what you have a president has moved on from stability and it's the danger of turning to stagnation if you think that's the case if you know what russia remain is a majority power in the duma i think if you're not rational stayed in power through instability about north stagnation social justice would be number one priority for new. development and as a result are seeing united russia will have to change itself to speak in ten years since she noted russia and now sits. on the political stage coming to power with a mandate was the biggest see that's the message that seems somewhat outdated now among voters the general consensus we've been hearing more change will be needed in the future regardless of who's leave the country. or turning back to one of our

top stories in its most direct response yet to a controversial u.s. backed anti missile shield for europe russia has launched its own missile warning radar in the western most point of the country. how to shoot too shy to expect that these steps will be regarded by western partners as the first signal of our country's riddance to appropriately respond to the threats posed by the missile defense system to our strategic nuclear forces if our signal is not hurt we will start deploying other defense means including robust country measures and the deployment of a strike force. the new radar station is capable of monitoring missile launches from the north atlantic as well as any future european missile defense systems moscow sees the us plans to build a missile shield near russia's borders as a threat to its national security russia's been seeking guarantees from washington that the plans are not directed against russia moscow says the launch of the radar today should send a clear message that russia is ready to counter potential threats well dimitris

joins us next with all the latest from the world of business stay with us. thanks matter of double dip recession in the eurozone now seems all but inevitable during the first wave of the crisis in two thousand and two russia suffered a rapid economic contraction as the world beyond its borders slowed however this time it's in a better position and even if europe does collapse russia is predicted to stay healthy as nick parsons from national australia bank explains. russia for example or no period in the next three years has a growth rate according to the o.e.c.d. of less than four percent so i think that is very substantially encouraging if you look at china yes there's a modest slowdown two percent in two thousand and twelve but again 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 their likes their liberation into two thousand and thirteen. so you look at the markets this and the situation has changed on the commodities market is back up there while it was actually correcting in the morning hours point seven percent i should say actually seventy cents per barrel of light sweet is gaining this hour brant is up but more than one hundred ten dollars per barrel. european markets are also correcting positively the footsie is up one quarter of a percent the dax three quarters of a percent that's the spite rumors that could downgrade the outlook on francis' triple a credit rating to negative in the near future however banking stocks are

still under pressure as another rating agency moody's as eighty seven euro zone banks on review spurs produce quantrill was up more than three percent of the reports of first net income. russia's markets also a change of scenery here after gaining four percent on monday the now adding another third of a percent the second what is moving the energy shares have come back up the point six percent one of the few stocks bucking the trend make. it's down half a percent after announcing that it's launching mass production of its newest model lather around and make a t m k is on the rise it's a point seven percent of companies nine months net profit almost traveled to reach two hundred seventy nine million dollars. also in results just in retail group x. five as posted a two point one million dollars net loss in the third quarter of the year which is

actually above expectations and is predicted the russian operator would suffer a loss of around eighteen million dollars due to the integration of recently acquired change to paper and currency fluctuations five says the result was supported by strong sales and improved capital management. right that's formed from me for today you can join my colleague will be here next with an update for you.

well for science technology innovation all the moves developments around russia we've got the future covered. whether it's life in the fastlane or most slow but today anyway. they shouldn't alongside them not. natural science and technology updated. the diversity of this land on the limited. come and gone takes a ati.