the biggest threat yet to the year over the entire euro zone faces a ratings downgrade while the leaders prepared to make a last ditch attempt to save the troubled currency those days meeting in brussels. almost all the votes counted and seems determined in masses parliamentary election while thousands of people are happy with the outcome of poll protests in central moscow. meanwhile online blogs are flooded with reports that tanks had been deployed to central moscow pull in the parliamentary elections join me in a few moments to what's behind the hysteria. and fukushima fallout tons of

radioactive waters that leak from the japanese and nuclear plant that was hit by the earthquake in modern fear as toxic liquid may have reached the pacific ocean. a very warm welcome to you this is live from moscow no one is immune to having their credit rating downgraded the stark message for the leading stand then pause agency which is issued a warning to almost all the eurozone members the reasons are not new the blocks failure to stem its debts while it comes a day after french and german leaders push for more decisive rescue action and claimed there is complete harmony between them but as assays test all city reports that may not be the case. the years of crisis has been good fodder for cartoonists

but it's no laughing matter. for measure rescue packages numerous and popular sturdy measures two years and hundreds of billions of euros in bailouts later it's still in need of a shot for the elusive big the super solution. hopes are high that december ninth e.u. summit will finally be a decisive day for the euro's future german chancellor angela merkel is pushing for a treaty change with a fiscal union as the end goal she wants brussels to have veto powers over national budget plans that breached e.u. limits automatic sanctions for debt violators a day of court for repeat offenders. in a word merkel wants to impose discipline french president nicolas sarkozy is generally on the same page but is resisting giving more powers to brussels whoever pays the piper gets to call the tune and germany pace we've all of you in the euro

zone want to keep the single card safe you must be prepared for that you must be prepared for giving up your fiscal sovereignty but this german m.e.p. begs to differ but what is the sovereignty for germany at the moment paying billions and billions of risk there's no sovereignty we are forced to do this because the euro is a reality so basically regaining sovereignty by sharing it on the european level is what the whole operation is about while germany may be for greater fiscal integration it's dead set against the euro bond idea or euro countries sharing debt and idea pushed by the european commission albeit renaming it stability bonds germany won't let the deficit sinners off the hook by taking on their dad. if sarkozy ever got his way he'd like the european central bank to act as a lender of last resort but again merkel said no and what have other e.u.

members who don't use the euro the idea of a two tier europe or the euro zone and the rest doesn't sit well with a major economy like the u.k. . the euro is successful because a lot of our trade depends on it but on the other hand to us if there's a group a central group which are in the euro as another group which is not who makes up the rules which control the single market it appears that any plan agreed upon will have to have germany's backing all merkel dismissed the idea of germany dominating europe as absurd although that's how it's increasingly being perceived for better or for worse. r.t. brussels a lot of unused and international consultant and former beltre m.p. says the ratings agencies are meddling in an issue that's not their business. there is something basically wrong when the rating agencies should become players in the

game i mean you don't ask a referee before the field almost starts but if things are deemed says he referees that's what he does this is a way of influencing went in the euro zone countries are going to try to decide on friday i mean this is an additional correct way of doing things it is up to governments to decide what their policies is going to be not to rating agencies in germany it is always profiting from its economic dominance but actually what it is doing is telling other countries you should do as we do voting laws are put in the constitution is there are limits on budget deficits and so on now this is totally unacceptable from a democratic point of view and also it misplaces the problem the problem is not the government's overspending that is a problem yes the problem is that we we the people gave so much money to the banks and now we are applying and going for how to these banks and asked if they would

loan to what kind of what kind of a system is that. that may be a financial rollercoaster for many nearer present struggle to fix its finances but some international investors american record profits from the chaos the ethics of making money is just one of a subject discussed by max and stacy in the kaiser report coming up next hour. if the bank breaks the law they changed the law if the government is failing to do what they were elected to do they change the definition of what it is are supposed to be doing or they change the statistics that they are reporting to somehow reflect them in a better light because this is how in fact they make money they probe the globe's financial orifices and they root out all the detritus that they find there as collateral for five hundred trillion dollars worth of anus collateralized j.p. morgan strength or bonds which are the basis for jamie diamond christmas bonus.

now with almost all counted in russia's parliamentary election four parties are preparing to take their seats in a state where it's clear the biggest force will be united russia even though it suffered a significant plunge in popularity meanwhile thousands of people to the streets of the country's main cities to voice their reaction to sunday's vote on the behalf of a shift. with just a handful of votes left to be counted we've got a pretty clear picture of what the duma will look like for the coming years united russia picking up the most votes followed by the communists there russia in third place with the liberal democrats for now after the proportional representation the seats had the allocated between those four it means that united russia although they didn't get over fifty percent of the vote actually have over fifty percent of

the seats in the duma now on monday night we saw protesters out in force across moscow and st petersburg up to five thousand people is estimated taking to the streets protesting against what they saw alleged violations in the electoral procedure arrests were made we're hearing from police around three hundred now they say this was after the protests which were approved by the police expanded to far greater numbers than it had been allowed to and people were spilling out into the roads blocking traffic and arrests were eventually made well the online blogosphere has been raging with reports that troops and tanks had been deployed to central moscow i can tell you and in central moscow there are no tanks here what actually was deployed i watch he would deploy the police units this is due to the fact that we have seen many people out on the streets protesting police would be the normal procedure to deploy them to make sure that these protests are conducted in an

orderly fashion now today is also the one year anniversary of the death of a football fun which for which sparked vicious violent ultra nationalist riots in moscow so those police have been deployed and due to the amount of people that are expected to come out on the streets on tuesday later on to try to make sure that everything is safe is organized and is secure. well babiche told r.t. that social media is having a significant influence on the way the public responds to the political process internet and all these things these are instruments they cannot make people better or war so they just helped organize a radius that are going to be good really bad really such as the one on one usually we had last year the one which was prepared by nationalists so i think it's just an instrument and although it is very rude. i would say that this is becoming one of the problems not only the government but even more that position radio stations

social internet networks they are becoming extremely till i just listen to the speeches some of this just work where you would agree with them in general i think these people deserve all respect to the ones who come to protect their vote but also listen to not only speech for example there were some things that they would not say that i would not call decent you know he said like we want to sound united russia a message we hate you i'm not quite sure this is you know i would say this is a good taste. coming up later this hour a business bulletin explores what effect the new do you may have on the public. since devotees are now coming in for a five year term experts told business tsotsi a long time will allow lawmakers to implement economic reforms more effectively

including the privatization program which is expected to come back on track more on this in around ten minutes time. we're also helping you keep track on developments in russia's parliamentary election at home website dot com there you can find all the latest facts or figures and i'll say. now around forty five tons of radioactive water has reportedly leaked from the fukushima nuclear plant in japan that was badly damaged in march his earthquake and tsunami some of the toxic water may have found its way into the pacific ocean over the weekend dr robert jacobs a research associate professor at the hiroshima peace institute please tepco is keeping a lid on just how severe the situation is. we're talking about tepco tepco is the

company that knew that there were three nuclear meltdowns within two or three days of the tsunami and took three months to speak about it publicly and admitted publicly the credibility of tepco is not at a very high level and unfortunately there are only a source of information about what's happening at the plants and the secondly there's a crack in the building where the water is being filtered sandbagging the crack in the wall is is the kind of remedial step that just indicates the scale of the difficulty of responding to these problems by tempo if it's a sand bags that are going to keep this strontium ninety out of the sea then that's not really very encouraging. today at toxic threat all special report exposes the plight of unspoiled famines and rain forests and all the smith pull pro who are dying because of tons of industrial waste dumped by an oil giant.

russia has downgraded diplomatic relations with qatar after an assault on moscow's

envoy today the russian diplomat was attacked by airport security officials just as russia criticized role in the mounting international pressure on syria as you can report there are suspicions that could top of these they can get away with such actions because of its support from the u.s. . a small country with gigantic ambitions qatar with a population of less than two million people embarks on an aggressive plan to shape the air war old playing in tune with washington's policies in the region could target gain diplomatic weight it never had before they could tyreese feel as if they've got enormous backing and that they've become sort of larger than life as a factor in the politics of the region they're currently the chairman of the arab league and they've used that position to press for the most aggressive kind of

action against syria could target became the first gulf nation to close its embassy in syria in july qatar is also reportedly funneling syrian rebels with weapons as it did in libya. the country's cheerleading rolling revolutions in the middle east and north africa has earned qatar cheers and applause in the west or this not only supported diplomatically but it's also supported militarily. we are for the partnership between our two countries is a model everyone's beginning to notice the u.s. went from once branding the qatar funded al-jazeera a terrorist channel to openly praising al-jazeera al-jazeera has played a key and leading role but qatar has come under increasing criticism from russia for its aggressive involvement in the affairs of other countries in the region last week a daughter airport the russian ambassador to qatar with two other russian embassy officials were physically assaulted by qatari customs and security officers when

they made an attempt to confiscate the russian's diplomatic bag because of the incident moscow has downgraded formal relations with qatar but get a sense that anything that they do to really stick a finger. in the rush or any of the other bric countries will be applauded in certain circles in the west and reward so yeah i think that it's all of it's all about that. you know they're in the front and russia is not fall in your world around this syria issue these said and took place on the same day as russia's foreign ministry criticize could tar for supplying weapons to libyan rebels in violation of a u.n. arms embargo the u.s. which has a military base in the country has qatar's backing for its ventures in the region with syria now in play washington is betting high on qatar has been put forward as

the arab face on this bullying operation tiny qatar empowered by the u.s. is now playing big striving to shape the turbulent region in its favor the incident at the airport with russian diplomats shows what happens when someone gets in their way i'm going to check out reporting from washington r.t. . a string of attacks across afghanistan has killed thousands of worshippers this day most of the muslim festival. more than fifty people died in the capital kabul when a suicide bomber blew himself up as hundreds of people gathered near a religious shrine discuss the surge in violence now in the country i'm going live from kabul by former afghan and. many thanks for joining us here on this is the biggest sectarian attack your country has seen since the fall of the taliban more doesn't signify could we see an increase in a despondence like in neighboring pakistan do you think. well

unfortunately this is an unprecedented incident and tragic one on a very important day and definitely it can find a sectarian connotation when when the facts are known. perhaps this is just the beginning of a new wave of violence that will. try to instigate religious differences in that country because of the freedoms that the minorities have been enjoying in the past few years the a religious ceremonies and other activities have become more. visible and perhaps some circles would like to take advantage of that and create instigate a situation and from this you say some calls that no group has actually claimed responsibility saying who do you think might be behind this.

you know this this country is the center stage of a great game for centuries and this very hard to pinpoint one player there are so many players in this country with so many agendas and even the claimed aspect of the game here is also has a multi-dimensional aspect to it so it's very difficult at the present time at least the taliban have denied. that responsibility involved and it's also important to mention that in this war that seemed like a coordinated attack both in kabul and in mazar e sharif which is another important city in the country and this was a in minutes of each other so the taliban have denied involvement so far but there are so many players so many reject countries in the region and beyond and so many circles within the country who want to take advantage of this including the political. circles in the country let's talk about the timing now the attack comes

in the wake of the global conference on the future of afghanistan how do you assess now its results what are the chances of finally bringing stability to that we are. you know because of the conference in doing yesterday and and of course the regional game that is being played in this country one can see a regional touch in this situation by trying to explain to the international community that this region has its own live. events can turn on its on their own here in international conferences could mean very little that's one way of looking at it but on the other hand also there are many rogue elements within the country also that can be pinpointed. fingers could be pointed to them it's too early to really. point your fingers to a specific direction there are so many variables so many factors and i'm sure the

next few days a lot will be more clear and i hope that we will be able to explain it to your viewers than now the u.s. has said that it does plan to strengthen its military infrastructure in afghanistan even after troop withdrawal separate twenty fourteen at that conference in bonn you referred to russian officials there that they didn't quite see how the two ideas what are your thoughts. you were cut out what did russia do i was just saying this conference in bonn that you referring to the us said that it did plan to strengthen its military infrastructure in afghanistan even after troop withdrawal in twenty fourteen in russian officials for their part have said that they don't see how these two ideas correlate what do you make of this. you know it's very. difficult to reconcile the differences right now between russia and the international community's presence in afghanistan it's very difficult.

definitely to convince russia that. and the worsening presence will not be. any it would not pose any danger to the russian interests in the region afghanistan needs russia's friendship or there's no doubt about that we need to cooperate with each other we live in the same region but at the same time of understand is also in a predatory neighborhood. some of the problems that we are facing will affect russia in the short term and in the long term terrorism extremism and drugs these are all problems that are. threatening both nations so i hope that instead of that we have to fight we can sit down and find a cooperate of environment and framework with which russia can play a better role russia is a major country in the region and russia should be more active and constructive way in afghanistan needs that partnership with russia as well ok daoud sometimes

a former afghan and p. twenty thousand speaking to us live from couple. ok time now for a quick check on what else is making news around while they sow and she's in the capital as hundreds of protesters mark the third anniversary of a teenager being fatally shot by police in athens thousands of officers were on duty for the valleys which is set to continue throughout the day demonstrators held rocks bottles and firearms the police outside parliament the two thousand and eight shooting sparked two weeks of some of the worst rioting the country had seen at that time. belgium finally has a new government after a record breaking five hundred and forty one days of political dead long socialist leader. it takes charge of the new coalition which will have to bring in reforms and cuts to patch up belgium struggling economy has the country's first french speaking prime minister in nearly forty years the last government stepped down in

april twenty ten after failing to resolve internal disputes. day two of the gippsland runoff elections has revealed tensions between the two islamic parties that dominated the vote the muslim brotherhood's freedom and justice party and the salafist nor party jokes all the other outside several polling stations islam as muslim brotherhood claimed forty percent of the vote after the first poll last week following a huge turnout but far fewer people have cast their vote second time around result of the election won't be finalized until after a third round of voting early in january. is one. day i was out with a recap of our headlines in a few moments after a business update with dmitri. thanks allison new russian parliament has been joe's own but many of the challenges remain

the same a number of these are long term projects such as building infrastructure or privatization due to changes in the constitution this duma will serve for five years rather than four and burn hours from business new europe thinks the extra time will help get things done. all of the problems that russia faces have to do with long term planning and you know massive amounts of reform rebuilding restructuring investment what have you and this sense it's not like a western democracy and so given that what needs to be done is actually pretty obvious i mean you need to invest in the education system you need to invest into infrastructure to power to rail transport you know all these things it's very obvious what needs to be done and so in that sense having a government that's in power a little bit longer which can concentrate in the job and hence is probably a positive thing. for the new parliament now for many in russia waiting for the privatization program to get back on track from the capital says the government has done a good job so far encouraging investors to inject cash into state owned companies.

the government for several years has been making an effort to improve transparency to improve governance companies but now you're actually seeing the fruits of that effort so last last week when guys from announced its dividends were higher than expected you know to the rules. as dividend yield of almost five percent. tax on its own share of intelligence an opening in petrol price and cetera so the government is actually taking very dramatic steps to pay you to be a minority shareholder and then you see increasing transparency in dividend payouts from a host of other state and companies so you know the general story is that the government's efforts to improve corporate governance among state owned companies are now rewarding you substantially as a minority shareholder so that you know that we keep an eye out. physically to the markets that we start with commodities and oil well we did see it go up for

a short while is now down light sweet declining sixty nine cents brant around one quarter of a dollar this is as standard and poor's placed fifteen years own economy is on a watch list for a possible downgrade nessun piece says it will lower the ratings unless the e.u. leaders come up with a workable plan on friday to seize up by just a notch in taxes down more than one percent here in russia situation is pretty much different so we're seeing a widening of the losses the r.t.s. is down more than four percent to my six point three percent now several of the reasons to that we have a technical correction after several positive sessions and there are reports of political tensions in moscow appeared to have prompted some of foreign investors to switch into cash in the afternoon but we've spoken to analysts here who say domestic investors are taking a common view and i'm not selling now if we take a look at some of the main movers on the myself you'll see energy shares of gazprom down four point nine percent financials also taking a big hit the t.v.

more than five and a half percent in the red and gold is not even a safe haven down three point two percent is gold. the stock exchange are competing to secure a strategic partnership with the kazakhstan bourse recordings of financial times that offering to update the trading system and collaborate on other issues the fossils come to asian exchange plans to conduct the people's i.p.o. to raise up to half a billion dollars and the deal would allow moscow or london to get in early on kazakhstan's emergence as a natural resources hot spot and we will be back with plenty more in around fifty five minutes that.

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