president of the opposition will have a better say in the new parliament and reiterates that all claims of electoral violations will be investigated. a deadly attack in belgium has a hand grenades and opens fire and crowds in the city of killing at least three and injuring dozens more. sanctions on syria and one side of pressure don't work which is foreign minister condemns the west for ignoring atrocities committed by opposition groups he says aid to great humanitarian catastrophe in the country. crowds in the former ukrainian prime minister supporters have stormed the port building where you get to. a power abuse is appealing.

international news and public life in moscow twenty four hours a day this is the prison to be treated video has promised that all reports of violations during russia's recent parliamentary poll will be looked into he made the comments as he met with leaders of the parties elected to the state duma the lower house of parliament on the sort of firth has more now from central moscow. we had mcdade of the pools addressing the concerns of the election violations he once again reiterated the old these claims are going to be fully investigated though we also heard him talking about the pa the opposition to going to have to play in the need to miss saying that they should have the best say in the team a committee of course we had all the elections united russia lost the parliamentary

majority that t. says majority so you know it's russia two we're talking about two milledge in the fact they will have to work much closer with the opposition in the feature to boss important decisions that compromises need to be my age of course all of this coming on the back of tens of thousands of people taking to the streets over the weekend to have their political voices heard amongst other things demanded a rerun of all the material actions now so it's already turning somewhat to the presidential election season we happening in march and we've seen russian billionaire mikhail prokhorov throwing his hat into the ring he announced his decision to run calling it a decision that could be one of the most important of his life. somewhat surprising he's been known in the polls much more his other pursuits which of course being russia's third richest man that is money and metals and. he's also the honor of an

american basketball to name for his exploits as rush's most eligible bachelor but is the political fail that he's been looking to play at the moment he was leading right cause in the some of the he quit that quite visibly in september we're seeing him now planning to return to the political spin now he's also had his spokesman of his company announce that he has plans to buy media a major media holding here in russia that's. again a very interesting the times decision because thomas. and has seen a lot of controversy surrounding it today also its decision to fire one of the chief editor of the magazine now they were fired publishing a pitch that depicted it's the language that was related to the parliamentary elections firing his kools a huge amount of anger and calm and she amongst journalists inside and outside of

russia called the sun has said that they apologize for that picture being published the needs. of the spokesman all called the sun have links the come the sun firings and pro quos intention to run indeed across the entire approach to his plans for his political future and he's been very a vase of about so not much known about that yet we'll have to wait and see what happens in the coming days and weeks this certainly the place elections live in interesting as of ahead. at least three people have been killed and up to seventy five injured in a hand grenade and gun assault on a crowd in the building city of police and the attack was carried out by a building citizen who died in the incident let's get more now from ortiz in brussels so how exactly did this tragedy happen and who was the man. well as police continue to investigate the matter details are becoming clearer so what it what happened is at around twelve thirty noon here in belgium so that's

about eighty kilometers from brussels in the crowded city center a gun man had thrown about three grenades into a crowd and also opened fire at those people and it's it was reported that he also had more grenades on him now initially there were reports that there were more than one attacker so there were instructions given to the people to stay indoors avoid going out into the street as the police still try to apprehend the others but now the prosecutor has confirmed that there has been one attacker and this man has to serve time in jail for crimes related to guns drugs and sexual abuse and he was on his way for police questioning when he launched the attack and among the dead include the gunmen a fifteen year old boy a seventeen year old girl and an elderly woman and of course there were dozens injured the those numbers continue to change in a short. and goes on now what this terrorism has been ruled out of this incident but of course any such attack of this nature in the city center in an

urban area is thinkable unimaginable for people and it does draw memories of that recent attack in norway where a bomb explosions went off in the capital and although then a gunman had gone on a shooting spree on the island of utah where there were students gathering for a political meeting there were several dozens killed in this incident so of course such an attack of this kind of this scale has rocked the country and of course has taken people off guard. to so thanks very much indeed for that live update in brussels this is over to you can you live from the russian capital with twenty four hours a day still to come. record bomber hills are coming into the war in iraq the people there say that after nine years of occupation all the u.s. troops will leave behind is political infighting destroyed infrastructure and paul says. curity class. canada pulls out of the anti global warming kyoto protocol saying the treaty is not working we have live comment on that

a little later here on r.t. . but first russia's foreign minister has accused the west of turning a blind eye to armed opposition groups in syria which aim to destabilize the situation there and create further calls for foreign intervention so he can evolve his repeated his belief that a one sided approach to resolving the country's crisis is wrong and want both sides to hold dialogue to broker peace not even to spin off as more foreign minister lavrov slammed the west for what it says is a one sided approach by some western states to the situation in syria he says that instead of looking for ways to bring peace to the country more pressure is being applied on the syrian authorities while the atrocities committed by some of the problem western groups within the syrian opposition are being ignored and these groups use hostile and aggressive tactics which only rock the boat and worsen the crisis even further. our partners who are calling on us to be decisive don't

want to condemn violence committed stream is groups which have become increasingly active in syria in the city of homes several blocks have been occupied by militants they regularly attacked army posts as well as administrative buildings hospitals schools police patrols and public transport i think there's no doubt that their goal is to provoke a humanitarian crisis should have an excuse to call for outside intervention. so you are off. presenting these hostilities as the syrian opposition efforts to gain democracy by some western states is an inadequate approach at the moment he stressed that the libyan scenario cannot be repeated in syria and reminded that russia and china are putting forward their draft resolution on syria to be a u.n. security council which condemns the violence but does not give way for any foreign military intervention in the country and said that accusing russia of hampering the

work of the un security council in these conditions is immoral they are both foreign ministers including of course the. syria being one of the keep whereas in the arab league have also called for syrian of the audi's to allow monitors from the organizations to enter the country see what's going on there on the spot and actually also said that if moscow's wanted then monitors from the bric countries could also join them meaning brazil russia india and china of course you could have this kind of reporting that the violence in syria that plagued the country for nine months has recently intensified with the death toll now exceeding five thousand that's according to u.n. latest estimates but syria's ambassador to the organization is dismissed and again as quote incredible with some experts also questioning the source of the figures. there are definite questions on the credibility of the syrian human rights of

salvatore particularly when it comes to the number of victims that they allege shyer victims after the government atrocities. you can watch our full interview with the specialist on the region dr rania musri at our website r.t. dot com where there's also plenty of other expert opinion on syria's ongoing unrest and all the latest news from there in addition to what you see on screen. hundreds of protesters have been storming ukraine's court of appeal lets where the country's former prime minister's conviction for abuse of power is being challenged you to a shank i was trying to avoid spending seven years in jail but couldn't be present in cool due to poor health meaning the hearings were postponed until wednesday. reports the fate of ukraine's hold prime minister still remains in the shadows because we understand according to her lawyers that according to the iranian law the appeal decision the decision on her appeal cannot be taken without due to a shy girl herself presence in the court room and she is not here and there's also

a great deal of controversy on that story as well also some sources say that she has a very serious blood disease other sources say that she has a ruptured spine and she cannot walk by herself that's why she was not delivered to the court building as of today on the other hand. the medical crew inside the detention center report that to her condition is not as severe as it's been told and that in fact she can and she's able to attend this court session so it is a mystery why she was not delivered to the court building as of today now. it's being convicted to seven years in prison for abusing her power during when she signed gas deals with russia in two thousand and nine but even if the appeal court brings a positive decision on her appeal she would not be set free media the because as far as we understand there's almost a dozen other charges against her this is only the first day of the appeal hearing and definitely this is not the last protest we'll be seeing over the next few weeks or even possibly months as some experts predict well later this hour our business

desk takes a look at the energy deals between russia and ukraine. well it looks like the ongoing gas dispute between russia and ukraine may soon be resolved the sides have come to draft agreements on forming new joint ventures and this would mean that russia gets access to ukraine's gas transport that work in return for gas price cuts more in a business bottom. so u.s. troops may be withdrawing from iraq but one of its military contractors is planning to return to the country the company known formally as i should say known formally as blackwater it's been involved in several scandals including the killings of iraqi civilians now and for the second time the company is change its name and claims this change runs deeper than just the logo well for more on what this rebranding means i'm now joined by dr joseph it's not his he's from the security and intelligence studies program while the company says the new name academy is designed to show that it has changed do you think it has. but it depends on the

client you're talking about what i can i mean i guess as it's called now is trying to do is i guess blur it's just a lineage through a serious sort of corporate renaming so it's pretty standard tactic for a corporation some clients will buy this some will not. and another thing that is trying to do of course is disassociate itself from its close connections to the cia at least in the corporate world so that other non american clients may find it attractive also disassociate itself from its rather murky past. very american past got in trouble several times seen iraq the fallujah incident the north square massacre that killed seventeen iraqi civilians and of course constant. constant cases of smuggling of weapons being caught several times by the state department

for instance what about the main client are supposed to convince is the immediate concern about iraq now that the u.s. troops are withdrawing do you think the company c.e.o. will actually convince the iraqi government that this company does have a place to play a role to play there in the country. there was something to try to do that iraq is a lucrative market for blackwater slash academy. it's going to be difficult particularly in iraq because of the american past of the organization in iraq having said that having said that it is important to recognize that iraq does require a lot of security currently it appears that this murky gray line where blackwater slash mechanic i mean moving appeals to both the state department and the iraqi government there's a lot of opportunity for plausible deniability and also there are

a lot of things at stake so it could be that academy will return to iraq not as academy per se but perhaps as one of its sister companies what about the thoughts of that just simply taking over the role of u.s. combat troops who are due to withdraw very shortly. this could very well happen i think that academy represents a long term trend a very visible trend in american security and military areas in which we see the privatization of all of these organizations or agencies and what we're seeing are basically is a corporatization the proposition of american military and security services and that's exactly what it represents but will those security people be accepted by the iraqi people because obviously we know there's been a lot of tension between the iraqi people and the u.s. combat forces. it is very unlikely they'll be accepted by the iraqi people but keep in mind that all of this rebranding will continue and there's so many ways to find

ways to get back into the country as another company for instance blackwater has blackwater slash academy has several. sister companies such as e.p.a. aviation graced a limited range during the barbados and social force where there's a will there's a way joseph thank you very much indeed for your thoughts dr joseph it's an artist from the security and intelligence studies program my pleasure. occupy protesters in the u.s. have clashed with police as they staged some of their biggest demo so far storming ports up and down the west coast thousands of activists took their frustration to major shipping hubs from california all the way to alaska hoping to disrupt trade and corporate profits but he's got a ton has more now on the campaign. seattle police used flash bang percussion grenades to disperse protesters who blocked an entrance to a quarter of the adult facility police said multiple people have been arrested they

did not specify how many of them those protests were part of a national effort to block west calls for trying to make thousands to go on boards to disrupt what they described as an economic machine that benefits the wealthiest individuals and corporations the protesters cared for indeed managed to disrupt the work of those major ports on the west coast in oakland the port there was almost entirely shut down same in portland in l.a. now a bit about why court the protesters say they want to cling to the profits of goldman sachs goldman sachs owns have one of the world's largest transportation and shipping out there for the occupiers it's a way to make a point to get back at this funeral bank which has very much contributed to the financial crisis in new york occupier says marched in solidarity with their fellow protesters on the west coast they took their message to goldman sachs directly

marching around the banks a little lower manhattan had foreigners almost two dozen people got arrested during you know what looked like a peaceful demonstration there so far as already said being quite successful in cracking down on those peaceful protesters across the united states this man killing their camps of making demonstrators and more than five thousand peaceful protesters have been arrested in the last three months of those arrests the only me you can be how live anymore that's what it seems like it seems to be cut to have become business as usual as occupiers are being forced out of their occupy the locations in parks and plazas all across america and members of the movement want to make sure that their message doesn't manage together with those hands there. up . by the way you can log onto our web site is dot com for more stories comment and analysis and here's what's there for you right now or should you log on to much western media hype over this amateur footage filmed during russia's weekend

election protests claims that these strange aircraft used for aerial photography. or a government surveillance drone. plus bridges dramatic pictures of fire raging on this vital piece of infrastructure in russia's far east with hundreds brought in to help fight the flames. russian trucks with humanitarian aid bound for serbs in kosovo have been blocked on the checkpoint by the albanian authorities. joins us now on the phone from the location there what is being going on what do you hear from people there. well there are always going to be a lot of conflicting versions as with everything in this particular region of the world but definitely this humanitarian convoy has become a little bit of

a political hot potato and the crisis only seems to be growing it set off of from russia a week ago it doesn't carry anything controversial just basic necessities which i needed full. of and said i had bought all the cars that are struggling through the past few months with blockades and everything else and it was doing ok until it seemed to reach the border this morning at which point it was apparently some of the trucks in the corner let through but then the whole control is stopped and then we received information that apparently elects which is the e.u. mission and kosovo which is man mainly by albanians which represent their interests mainly want to see you as call this convoy into the serbian part of kosovo and this is something which is unacceptable to the on the border but they rejected this convoy under seems to have been the major point of argument throughout the whole day and the latest information which we received from the russian side is that now

there will be no compromise as to what can really will be it simply these trucks will be turned back and they will have to go although i'd like the russian eagle we've been reporting about a lot of tension there in the region recently here not to just remind us how the dispute on this volatile border began and why well this actual particular issue with the convoy goes back to what we've been talking about for the past four months which is the albanians have previously wanted since the summer take over a customs and border control of the entirety of course including the serbian part because they say that this is an important part of all that stated on the one hand the settings are saying that this is the first part the done dissolving inside a consulate which they do not recognize. these border disputes the deceased has been going on for months and receiving barricades that are by the subsequent less than. i think. once

again. you can go back up a little. you go live there thank you very much indeed for that latest report their concerns. for serbia border dispute well time now for a quick look at what else is making news around the world in our world update it is years and months and months yuki has been sworn in and now leads a true transitional government becoming the country's first leader after the popular uprising almost a year ago longtime ruler president zine bin ben ali was ousted after weeks of public protests the election of the interim leader approval over the weekend tempered by laws to guide the nation until a new constitution can be adopted. and footage is emerged from china of a group of bystanders lifting a vehicle to free young girl who'd been hit by a car and trapped underneath

a security video shows the five year old sitting in the street just before the car drove over sixteen people work together to ensure the child was pulled to safety. canada has pulled out of the nine hundred ninety seven global warming kyoto protocol saying the treaty is not working the departure comes a day after further climate talks in south africa lead to a new agreement which is set to replace kyoto by twenty fifteen minutes try to make sense of all of this with piers corbyn he's the founder of the weather action foundation joins me now live in london so a candidate withdrew from the treaty saying it's meaningless without the involvement of the world's two worst polluters china and the us but surely canada is being irresponsible is it not by not playing its part in battling climate change . well of course i don't believe in climate change because there is no evidence for it in fact carbon dioxide is control boy world temperatures rather than the other way around so frankly i'm glad that. left the kyoto

protocol process and i hope it heralds the collapse of the whole thing but do you believe there is actually climate change going on though both climate change is going on and the key aspects of the big very extreme events happened in the last eighteen months were predicted boy asked whether actually using solar activity carbon dioxide has zero effect zero effect no effect whatsoever they have no evidence for their claims only evidence against so this kyoto agreement is it a waste of time and indeed we see canada pulling out of it and the treaty is supposed to be continue until twenty seventeen do you think other countries will pull out. well i think so and i hope so it is a complete waste of time it's a waste of public money it's. a gravy train for so-called scientists looking into

things which don't exist and of course for governments to impose taxation and oil companies to increase oil prices on the back of increasing energy prices which is the thing demanded by the global warming just nonsense lobby and i know you and i spoke back in two thousand and nine we don't do. to prevent climate change there was damage wasn't it severely by those leaked e-mails from scientists suggesting are they want manipulating the data but despite now or of course but we spoke about that two years ago but still many governments many countries many people are taking this issue seriously piers and that's two years on from that. well it's delusional . founded on fraud and these people will be called to account eventually world opinion is moving against people in england are now realizing that building is wind farms which are going to increase their electricity bills by thirty percent annoy improve anything for electricity supply is

a nonsense and you know the liberal democrats in the government in britain are going to suffer as a concert but surely just very briefly and finally reducing carbon emissions and preventing further deforestation around the world surely that's going to be a good thing for the world's climate just growing very different things do you forestation is about to go your way and we support. defending forest but just as a matter of fact a mature forest does nothing to reduce c o two because. they rot and c o two come last but we still support rainforest because of biodiversity this is just an example of another trick played by the global warmers to pull your heartstrings to make you support delusional nonsense and help them on their way on the gravy train these people should all be removed the r.p.c. . it should be closed on the news people but to do some useful work piers i'm expecting a lot of reaction to your comments here on r.t. thanks so much for your thoughts piers coleman there joining us live thank you could have you on again that brings us now time for the business news with kareena

. thank you bill welcome to business here on out it has been progress in the gas dispute between russia and ukraine but gas pump says a deal will not be done by the end of the year media reports in kiev say the sides have come to a draft agreement on forming a new joint ventures and this would effectively guarantee that russian and russian access to ukrainian gas transport network in return for price cuts for gas supplies down. on the face of it this is a success for all sides so supply transit to ukraine and european gas customers most importantly finally gets a say in the point line but politics are always just below the surface of any russia ukraine agreement current ukraine leave the cove which is pushing a hold to get as cheap russian gas as possible for ukraine but this may be a case of the will you know because on thursday hosts a summit with russia and this deal allows mosco to present

a solution to the gas tensions that we see every christmas in winter two thousand and nine and two thousand and six ukraine even cut off russian gas to european families european consumers were affected. the trouble for russia continues. russian gas to europe are also affected is that ukraine remains highly politically unstable ukraine's last prime minister yulia timoshenko is in court today fighting her conviction for being too generous with russia on a previous gas deal with many ukrainians still opposing closer ties with this deal could easily be affected if the russian bloc returns to prominence in key of. looking at the markets now your stocks are slightly higher mid day trading have to the previous day's big declines investors are reassured by strong participation from buyers at a bond sale backing of spain was able to sell short term bonds at much lower interest rates today compared with. most european stock markets closed lower that's

after german chancellor angela merkel rejected to raise the lending limit they have found that also cause the dollar to go up against the euro and here in russia markets close in the black the r.t.s. and it over one half percent hi adam isaacs closed over two percent in the black as well with oil majors among. the back.