rebranded returned the u.s. security contractor blackwater banned from iraq allegations of killing civilians. on the country's uncertain future with a comeback but under a different name. the birthplace of libya's rebellion hits a boiling point again as tens of thousands in benghazi protest against the new government and the secrecy surrounding its policies. the russian convoy carrying humanitarian aid to. the border over twenty four hours. in a move that. could

have you with. the russian capital with you twenty four hours a day as u.s. troops prepare to leave iraq thousands of contractors are moving in to make a buck in the country devastated by war and one of them is the world's most infamous mercenary company blackwater the firm was once banned from iraq over allegations of indiscriminate shooting of civilians but now it's trying to wash away the rebranding itself and it's now called academy sean thomas is in baghdad. well companies construction companies companies that will. help the country rebuild all of those companies are going to need their own security as well and one of the companies that wants a piece of. a controversial name blackwater under a different name now known as academy now blackwater expelled from the country in two thousand and seven has a bit dubious practices and questionable tactics especially after the massacre at

square where seventeen civilians were killed after this incident the iraqi government suspended their business license to do business in the country of iraq after the tried to reinvent themselves and come back under the guise of x. services and now it looks like the company is trying to reinvent themselves again so that they can get a piece of this contracting pie now let me give you one example as to the types of contracts that this new account of the company is interested in the security cooperation is expected to have two hundred military personnel stay back to help train iraqi special forces and the iraqi military in addition to do two hundred military personnel there's seven hundred contractors civilian contractors are expected to stay as well to help train the iraqi military academy wants a little bit of that pie it is expected but beyond that it is expected that all of these companies coming into the country as the u.s.

pulls out they're going to need their own security services as well and academy wants to make sure that they get in on the ground floor as the u.s. troops leave of course interesting development information company blackwater trying to come back to iraq after having been expelled in two thousand and seven after questionable practices in baghdad sean thomas. for more on the story let's talk to jack rice he's a lawyer and former cia officer who's done extensive research. in iraq well given the company's recall. there in iraq that includes alleged manslaughter and smuggling of weapons just how likely jack is it to reestablish itself in the country and get a contract well it's certainly trying to i think the real reason they could is because they have very deep pockets and they also have very very good connections you can call this company anything that you like whether it's blackwater whether it's the whether it's academy whether it's john smith it doesn't make any difference if there's a lot of money and there's connections there are opportunities i guess the sad part

is though is that if you go to a restaurant and you have a bad meal just because they change the name on the front door doesn't mean the food's going to be any good here's a question for an ex cia officer the company's founder once again as the firm was at the cia's disposal with some very risky missions and that's a quote what is that implied just how close were blackwater as links with the cia what can you tell us about that well apparently they were actually quite close and that's one of the biggest problems that i think not just the americans have right now but the europeans as well is that when you have this close relationship between essentially mercenary groups they're not u.s. government or european or brits or german or anybody else these are actually independent companies that you hired to do things that you don't want to do that real question is the ability to control them and the americans did not do this very well that one of the biggest problems that they had was i think they didn't want to they wanted to be able to show off certain things to these guys and say go and do this i think about this when i was doing things as

a journalist in iraq in two thousand and five two thousand and six two thousand and seven i saw this there i saw this in afghanistan too so the same problem exists and it continues to exist whether the americans pull out or not we were just today we saw thousands of iraqis taking to the streets of the city of fallujah celebrating the u.s. forces departure now it was also of course where for blackwater contractors were brutally killed back in two thousand and four and now that led to a bloody u.s. siege of that city just how do you think the people of iraq will feel about companies such as. blackwater now returning to that country because obviously we know there's been a lot of tension between u.s. combat forces and the iraqi people oh i think there's still a lot of problems i mean they're going to try to hide the american flag aspect to this but they still exist the real question now of course is the whether the leadership and others really particularly care about what the quote unquote people of iraq think i mean that's always been one of the problems but i do think this company whether it is and multiple others where there is well will try to stay as

low a profile as they can but remember i mean one of the aspects that just because the americans are leaving doesn't mean they left the largest american embassy in the world is in that dept the largest it's bigger than china it's bigger than moscow it's bigger than britain and so you have fifteen thousand people in multiple contractors including multiple special forces who still have very deep thinkers and there are people right across the border who can cross into iraq rocky space at the drop of a hat so in effect is it misleading to say in a way that u.s. combat forces are leaving because you've already mentioned the links with the cia but will these people in a way do the job that the u.s. combat forces would have done if they want to stay on erect and it's a very very good point the americans are shining this up as if they are leaving they have a very deep imprint into iraq which is what they wanted and the americans will continue to have that imprint but they're still in kuwait they still have troops

along with the brits and others in the indian ocean they can reach in very quickly they still have a very large camp bondsteel in kosovo that they could reach across there in turkey or elsewhere if they want to get into iraq they can be there in a matter of minutes just finally tell you did mention these companies want to keep a low profile you implying perhaps that blackwater has learned by its mistakes and it's not likely to make the same sort of mistakes again. to be sure that i wish i could say that my problem is that there's a certain culture that blackwater has and you can change a couple of the guys at the top of the heap they're hiring the same kinds of people who are doing the very same way they're doing much of the same work and the leadership comes from the same places with the same connection so my fear is the failures of the past and they have been dramatic will continue into the future jet rights lawyer and former cia officer thanks for your time always a pleasure but with all eyes now on how iraq will fare on its own after u.s.

forces pulled out we look back at how the war began richard perle one of the chief architects of the us was shared with his views on the justifications and failings behind the invasion of iraq and that interview is coming away in the next hour his a brief preview for you. instead of turning things over to the iraqis more or less immediately we got involved in an occupation and occupations are never popular and the fact that we were an occupying power was very important in the development of the insurgency against the occupation. that interview still to come here for you on r.t. the streets of benghazi in libya are once again the focal point for crowds of angry libyans only this time they're protesting against the country's new government for

two days tens of thousands of protesters have been demanding more transparency and honesty from the national transitional council but demonstrators infuriated by secrecy surrounding the country's decision making and finances the city of benghazi was where the nato backed rebellion began and ultimately ended forty years of colonel gadhafi is rule patrick kay's report of the online magazine spike told me earlier that the libyan people have finally realized the m.t.c. short of representing their interests. the national transitional council was never actually really part of a democratically forged libya anyway they were never on the streets really fighting for the with the libyan people against gadhafi a lot of them in fact were in other countries at the time waiting for my speech helicoptered in when it was safe enough to enter tripoli it was made up of gadhafi cronies people who were basically cherry picked by the west as being people to represent the libyan people now we have a situation where the libyan people are saying you have got a minute these people don't represent us we don't even really know who they are.

two months after the end of the civil war in libya changes are expected in almost all areas of life there but in one of the most important parts of the country's future education the serious doubt that change will be for the best given a record high literacy rate reached under gadhafi is rule some parents now oppose a total tearing up of the curriculum and the imposition of new values on their children artie's accent a biker reports. it's a new day in the new libya but it starts with an old preacher oh students assembled before classes to see a new flag be hoisted and to sing a new national anthem. like the revolution the retry color of the human is a flashback to the pretty good afi era with a few verses tweaked to represent in the action of the country's recent liberation the decades on the get out the still even students were expected to memorize long passages of his brain book without ever questioning that and it looks like this

tradition may continue on this new leadership as while his children to young to understand the meaning of life exists or of the new that wish there after they're already expected to know it by heart next comes a speech that an ambiguous lee explains who are the heroes of the new libya. rebels to get out how to gain freedom they taught us to how don had high it taught us to love our country this is the only new material students in this triple a school have learned since september regular classes like math or chemistry are suspended until january when the new curriculum is expected to be introduced the nisbett in the english will definitely introduce foreign languages into the curriculum now kids will start studying english from the first grade because they have to be prepared for university. in the meantime the students are preoccupied with making drawings and trinkets to commemorate the february seventeenth

revolution teachers here say they try their best to explain to students what has happened in libya over the past few months in this that nobody tells us what to tell students were free to say whatever we want we don't say bad things about gadhafi in fact we don't talk about him at all here as they say sometimes a picture is worth a thousand words to get our families and carpet dug just a year ago adorned the principal's office is now strategically placed in front of the door several hundred copies of his green book from the local library have been thrown away the forty two years of his rule that how bring libya's literacy rates from twenty six to about ninety percent is a distant memory he did it to sink but what she did of passage was for better than it is they are no you don't but if you don't talk about what you know what she does doesn't move to talk about but what she did in the past eight months of carrying.

out a four hundred fifty students that attended the school a year ago half are still absent some fled the country others were pulled out by their parents who disagree with the new values taught here those who laugh and run because traders have to speak i think it's better to caffeine now when i something bad about the good while the study of english was banned under gadhafi words like freedom and revolution a familiar to every first grader here but when asked what's the difference between gaddafi is due me here a year which literally means power of the masses only be as new democracy both students and teachers are lost i don't actually know that i was just that. it's an oblique artsy chip. from the arab spring to occupy wall street the. protest has been making history throughout two thousand and eleven so says america's time

magazine. street all over the world in resulting in regime change in some places an r.t. has been closely watching the unexpected recipient the person of the year travel through north africa in the middle east the u.s. europe and even russia just click on to. where it will become clear also on the web site. return of the king. to challenge one of its top. up against on. the european union is abusing its mandate holding a russian convoy carrying humanitarian aid to serbs in kosovo it is still stuck at

a checkpoint in the border area after being stopped by e.u. controlled police. reports for serbs in the country this delay will mean a critical shortage of vital supplies a humanitarian mission turned into a national scandal more than two dozen russian trucks filled with food and household items destined for serbia and kosovo was stopped on the border of the disputed territory by albanian officials members of ulick's a police mission operated by the e.u. the stop which was an entirely political decision. was blackmailing us according to the russian side looks official demanded an order for the aid to be let through the convoy needed to be scored in the serbian. forces. or it could end the course or three minutes the checkpoint. by being asked to comply with these conditions we're being forced to recognize institutions the news or russia nor serbia accept

and which exceed the un mandate for kosovo. this is a new chapter in a crisis that has rocked kosovo since the summer the territory has been controlled by ethnic albanians since a bloody conflict in one thousand nine hundred nine the spy declaring independence in two thousand and eight kosovo is still home to more than one hundred thousand serbs when albanians tried to impose their border controls under so been part of the territory in july the serb minority put up barricades during their bond with serbia would be broken and a foreign authority would be imposed upon them since then there have been constant clashes broken up by temporary agreements for many serbs stopping the humanitarian mission as in others of muscle flexing but albanian border officials while the trucks remain trapped on the border and the driver said idle inside the situation within serbia and kosovo continues to be grave says ernest passage from red cross says that nearly half of all serbs in kosovo need aid to survive. she visits this

house regularly just sixteen people living inside it all refugees driven out of their homes in one thousand nine hundred nine now when you. were three sisters our husbands go out every morning to do our jobs there are no param and it was for refugees some days still bring back five years sometimes nothing today we may have food on the table tomorrow maybe not. it's now down to moscow prishtina and belgrade to deal with the political fallout meanwhile down on the ground the standoff is taking a tangible toll on the minority. and hugo continues to monitor the situation on the troubled border and you can follow his twitter updates to stay on top of the story and we can see on screen at the moment in one of his latest tweets he reports that a second russian aid convoy is on its way from romania to kosovo with everyone wondering if this one will be allowed to pass.

the greek economy already teetering on the brink has taken another turn for the worse that's the verdict coming from i.m.f. officials. visited the country to check whether it's meeting the conditions set up by international creditors if the demands on fulfilled won't get a second lifeline a one hundred thirty billion euros. italy is undergoing a further round of belt tightening as its lower house of parliament is about to vote for more austerity measures. and leader of the u.k.

independence party says the hands of eurozone struggle is a tide while they are trapped within the block. don't forget that politicians will always defend the status quo they will always tell you that if what we have now doesn't continue to exist the sky will fall they'll be famine pestilence the devil all be a complete disaster we've seen this before many times over the years the reality is . but the breakdown of the euro in the short would be tough because many many european banks would go bust and probably have to be nationalized but as we've seen with iceland who back in two thousand and eight let some of their banks go bust accepted the situation three years on they going back to growth i think the biggest threat we face now in europe is to keep countries like greece and portugal and ireland and possibly even spain and italy to trapped inside an economic prison stripped of their democracy i mean literally the governments of greece and italy

were removed by these bully boys in brussels the bigger threat is they stay inside this thing and they die a slow economic death and they finish up with unemployment figures that are so high that there is even a risk that europe returns to extremism and maybe even fascism so let's get the bad news out of the way let's have the breakdown and you know what a few months on the world see very it will seem very much rosier. ati's cross talk show is taking on the organizations whose decisions trigger a roller coaster ride on the markets putin and his guests rating the rating agencies and that's coming up a little later today on r.t. . one of the issues one of the problems with trying to make the ratings better through issuing having fines or having a system of penalties is that people like richard to say well we should just get rid of ratings altogether because they're obviously conflicted and stupid let's get rid of them but you know what they're just plays in that place is not only radiator

in a sense because we don't get showing. himself because you have these voices saying let's get rid of richard go ahead well that's mischaracterizing my position a little because i didn't say let's get rid of ratings of course we need ratings i said let's get you know let's not tinker with a system that's so broken in terms of its incentives to. talk a little later here on r.t. . talk one of the greatest space ponies in history has passed away at his home in moscow two months short of his one hundredth birthday born in one nine hundred twelve he was an innovator at the cutting edge of rocket science along with his mentor said he could only off he was behind almost every major soviet space launch particularly masterminded the world's first cosmic outpost the mir space station. from the russian academy of cosmonaut x. says his dog had already become

a legend long before he passed away. he was born in the right place and that. he took a full advantage to it he was the man to be dictated to what he was doing. and he was a blessed the rural career the. special forces. above all he will be remembered for two things for us he was one of the major contributors to the disease. he will also be. called people rich could be called a need as a generation. x. . is here with a business these very shortly but first let's have a quick look at what else is making news around the world pictures are emerging of more d. in the money the man who launched a gun and grenade attack in years in belgium he killed five people and wounded more

than one hundred twenty others before killing himself and chief tributes to be paid to the victims with many people laying flowers at a makeshift memorial set up at the site of the shooting meanwhile police have found the body of a female house cleaner in a shed belonging to the gunman reportedly killed a woman before carrying out his brutal. egypt's holding the second round of its first post revolution parliamentary election of eighteen million citizens are eligible to cast their votes with the muslim brotherhood expecting to repeat its first round success where it crushed its more liberal parties hoping to dominate the first elected government after hosni mubarak's thirty year rule ended in february results won't be finalized until after a third round for january. tens of thousands of gazans took to the streets in gaza city on wednesday to celebrate the twenty fourth anniversary of the ruling hamas faction demonstration showed support for the movement ahead of the parliamentary elections slated for the coming spring and the us took control over

the gaza strip in the two thousand and seven election after political infighting with the western backed palestinian movement and agreement to hold the vote and form a unity government was reached in late november i think steps towards the current sponsored reconciliation deal signed this year. with a reminder of our top stories for you in just a few minutes from now in the meantime as promised business news is next with kareena. thank you bill hello welcome to business angle russian venture tanky b.p. says it's going to invest ten billion dollars in arctic oil production this will include infrastructure on the oil fields and links to export pipelines mainly in the china the move follows a failed arctic alliance between b.p. and will smith blocked by the russian partners and tank a b.p. . and gastro says the south stream pipeline to ferry russian gas to europe will have its terminal point in italy earlier the state's energy giant i'd also central

european location and gas infrastructure was seen as an advantage but vienna is backing rival pipeline project in a book oh and that causes gas pump to switch to italy but in a russian gulf get north capitals this also makes better commercial sense. the gum tree which is provided for the guest room wipes enjoy a certain. bit of development maybe some future discounts maybe some privileges. obviously it's a mutual it's a win win situation it's a good commerce and i think the two lead in the way you phone right now. may be offering guess broome a bit rates. let's have a look at the markets now first always see it's quite heavily down on worries over falling demand particularly in europe opec has also been holding a meeting of the organization have agreed to maintain production at thirty million

barrels a day however no mechanism was agreed to cut supply if to not should fall further let's cross over to u.s. where stocks and the year are sliding as worries over europe hang over financial markets energy companies are hit hard as the price of crude oil plunged four percent treasury prices are higher though as investors shifted money into a lower risk assets and stocks in europe closed sharply lower on wednesday forty ends over two percent in the red while the dax lost one point seven percent metro among the main losers on the dax falling from a half percent hearing loss in markets and lower as well as he has lost one point two percent demise it sheds nearly half a percent let's have a look at some individual sham of sodomize takes all the downturn energy and banking stocks really bank lost over half a percent of the close russia second largest lender plans to cut its borrowing next year by fifteen percent as news client versus other developing countries oil

company tech never ended lower as well that's despite the company's net profit rising fifty percent in the first nine months of the year and a financial group. has reversed from earlier games finishing below are the company reports its third quarter net profit rose seventy five percent to three hundred nineteen million dollars. foreign visitors coming to russia will soon be able to claim back well you got a tax on goods bought here purchased tax is currently fifteen percent only goods costing more than three hundred fifteen dollars will be subject to a refund this will apply to quote shoes electronics souvenirs and food two hundred retailers and it's expected to join the scheme which will start in the first half of next year that's all the business is for now of back in about fifty five minutes with more news here on.

i am losing the buddhists . just seem to.

see. these grants to your tree shit and this is products on the price of healthy eating . meat to test these foods for toxicity allergenicity immune response lower nutrition and for environmental contamination don't you feel like a law brought some consider the experiment in human treatment i believe significant differences between the g.m. fact that they both had their own g.m. . but they weren't treated so well themselves one question means one carrier if you ask one question you could be uncertain and you might or might not be able to publish it but that's the end of your career me.