security contractor blackwater. allegations of killing civilians to cash in on the country's future with a comeback but under a different name. shortly. the birthplace of libya's rebellion hits a boiling point tens of thousands in benghazi protest against the new government secrecy surrounding its policies. russian convoy carrying humanitarian aid to. has been stuck at the border for over twenty four hours after.

the top stories this hour. international news and comment live from moscow twenty four hours a day r.t. as u.s. troops prepare to leave iraq thousands of contract is a moving in to make a buck in the country devastated by war and one of them is the world's most infamous mercenary company formerly known as blackwater the firm was once banned from iraq over allegations of indiscriminate shooting of civilians but now it's trying to wash away the bloody taint by rebranding itself for a second time is now to be called academy. is in baghdad. well companies construction companies companies that will need to come in and 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 of its 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 academy company is interested in. 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 you 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 r.t. . with all eyes now on how iraq will fare on its own off to u.s. forces pulled out when you back again how the war began richard poem one of the chief architects of the u.s. will should with his views on the justifications and failings behind the invasion of iraq in that interview is coming away just about twenty minutes from now. stead 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. the streets of benghazi are once again the focal point for crowds of angry libyans only this time they are 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 the demonstrators are furious about secrecy surrounding the country's decision making and finances city benghazi was where the nato backed rebellion began notably ended fourteen years of planning. patrick a reporter for the online magazine sprite told me that people finally realize the m.t.c.

short of representing their interests. the national transitional council was never actually really part of democratically forward anyway they were never on the streets really fighting for the with the libyan people against gadhafi a lot of them in fact in other countries at the time waiting till my speech helicoptered in and 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 poor people to represent the libyan people and now we have a situation where the libyan people are saying how these people don't represent of 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 there is 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 and a boy who 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 rich tricolor 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 good of the school even students were expected to memorize long passages from his brain will ever question that and it looks like this tradition may continue i did you notice while his children were too young to understand the meaning of life he says three of the new route wish their answer they're already expected to know it by heart next comes a speech dead an ambiguous play explains who are the heroes of the new libya the

were the rebels to talk how to gain freedom they taught us to how the had high they 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 minutes but 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 and again in the meantime the students are preoccupied with making drawings into kits 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 chemical that nobody tells us what to tell students who are 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 wards the good af name blazoned carper dug just a year ago adorn 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 sleep just two raids from twenty six to about ninety percent is a distant memory he did a good things but what she did of passage was forbidden it is a i mean you don't think people don't talk about what you know what she does it doesn't move you to uncover to what what you did in the past eight months of killing. murder out of 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 talk here those who laugh and run because traders have tools i think it's better to caffeine now when

i something. about the good. well the study of english was banned under good afi words like freedom and revolution a familiar to every first grader here but when asked what's the difference between gadhafi is due me here which literally means power of the masses only be as new democracy both students and teachers are lost i don't actually love as just that. it's in a boycott artsy. from the arab spring to occupy wall street the protester has been making history throughout two thousand and eleven so says america's time magazine called over in the streets all over the world even resulting in regime changes in some places and r.t. has been closely watching the unexpected recipient of this year's the person of the year want to travel through north africa and the middle east then the u.s. europe and even russia just click on to. where it will all become clear also on the

web site of the moment. the return of the king russia's martial arts legend feared or. goes to japan to challenge one of its top fighters and find out what the man known as the last emperor is up against on the website r.t. dot com. well let's return now to our top story here on our team as u.s. troops prepare to leave iraq thousands of private security contractors are heading to the country and one of them is the world's most notorious security company don't as blackwater well let's get more perspective on the story from the group war on

want campaign for justice and human rights in countries across the world given blackwater's murky past in iraq which includes alleged manslaughter and weapons smuggling how likely is it to get new contracts in the country. well it's actually looking quite likely they're very you know they were banned from iraq after the incident in two thousand and seven september september sixteenth two thousand and seven when seventeen iraqi civilians were killed. shooting by blackwater but more and more. the company is trying to rebrand itself and really. change its image in some way it's really looking to make inroads again into iraq with troop withdrawals. we're looking at a situation where p.m.s. mention security companies p.m.s. sees. an increasingly important role. very worrying. so

you're suggesting that this rebranding is merely superficial the company in a sense stays exactly how it was in the past absolutely i mean we've seen this before this is actually nothing new because in two thousand and nine when they rebounded and sells from blackwater to acces systems. you know that was that was again a move to try and distance itself from its past and from its tarnished reputation even if it is late as two thousand and nine they were in blackwater contractors who were involved in engaged activities that resulted in the death of severely afghan and iraqi civilians so it's not something that they've made any real changes in in their in their operations as such it really is just a very cosmetically change and i think we should see it for what it is. but with the u.s. troops set to leave iraq very shortly surely there is a need to fill that security gap. well i mean it's one thing to say that there needs to be stability in that kind of area but these companies face. a

situation where they really have no accountability for the way they act so we can say that there needs to be stability and security and so on but it doesn't mean that we need the solution is these private military and security companies that kill innocent civilians unarmed civilians it simply is something that needs to be regulated properly do you think do you think that company though after all the negative media is getting what actually make the same sort of mistake again if it is given the chance and clearly a very lucrative contract at that to go back into a. well i think it's important here to look at this is not just an issue of blackwater obviously blackwater is one company that we look at and we you know it's made headlines and so on but this is symptomatic of an entire industry that faces no serious regulation it's not simply an issue of one company or a few bad eggs here and there it is systemic. this industry faces no serious

restrictions on it so when you're talking about in effect here what appears to be a growth of private armies being used by nation states for moules yeah absolutely we see a lot of outsourcing from. countries and gaged in conflicts that allows them to shift the moral responsibility away from them and onto private companies where that simply isn't the kind of scrutiny that there would be from conventional armies and that's very problematic what about the attitude of the iraqi people we've seen many iraqis celebrating the u.s. troops departing from their country what do you think their attitude will be towards companies like blackwater. well as i said iraq. iraq banned blackwater. those specific incidents but do you think these people be more welcome than we've seen the welcome for u.s. combat troops in the past example well it definitely has been obviously a lot of tension. i don't necessarily think there would be any more welcome because

these private military security companies constitute a real threat to the security of iraqi and afghani civilians it's not something that there is a real sense that they're providing security in a material concrete sense for them i think they don't they're not providing anything that would give comfort to those countries. it's great to hear your thoughts on this thank you very much indeed for joining us live there in london put down the well from the group war on want to thank you for justice and human rights thank you very much indeed for your thoughts thanks. moscow says the european union is abusing its mandate in kosovo by holding a russian convoy carrying humanitarian aid to serbs in kosovo still stuck at a checkpoint in the border area after being stopped by e.u. controlled police it's not easy. for god never reports for serbs in the country this delay will mean a critical shortage of vital supplies. a humanitarian mission turned

international scandal more than two dozen russian trucks filled with food and household items destined for serbian cost of i was stopped on the border of the disputed territory by albanian officials members of you lex a police mission operated by the e.u. to stop it was an entirely political decision. is blackmailing us according to the russian side looks official demanded an order for the aid to be let through the convoy needed to be a score to him to serbia and kosovo albanian forces or it could end the concert in obeying inabilities the checkpoint. being asked to comply with these conditions were being forced to recognize institutions in the news or russia or serbia accept and which exceed the un mandate. this is a new chapter in a crisis that has rocked kosovo since the summer the territory has been controlled by ethnic albanian since

a bloody conflict in one thousand nine hundred nine despite declaring independence in two thousand and eight kosovo is still home to more than one hundred thousand serbs and albanians tried to impose their border controls under so i've 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 stop indicated there in mission as in others by of muscle flexing but albanian border officials while the trucks remain trapped on the border and the driver said the inside the situation within serbia and kosovo continues to be grave this isn't a spice it from red cross says that nearly half of all serbs in kosovo need aid to survive. she misses this house regularly just sixteen people living inside it all refugees driven out of their homes in one thousand nine hundred nine now and here. were three sisters. our husbands go out every morning to do our jobs they're no

parent and once for refugees some days they'll bring back five euros 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 leader of artsy kosovo. and he continues to monitor the situation on the troubled border and you can follow his twitter updates to stay on top of the story we can see here on screen one of his latest tweets he reports that a second russian aid convoys on its way from romania to kosovo with everyone wondering if this will move be allowed to pass and see photos of r.t. under school come.

the greek economy already teetering on the brink has taken another turn for the worse that's the verdict coming from the international monetary fund officials a steady inspectors visited the country to check whether it's meeting the conditions set up by international creditors if the demands are not fulfilled and greece won't get a second lifeline of one hundred fifty billion euros. in the aid of the u.k. independence party says the hands of eurozone struggle is a time head while they are trapped within the bloc that it all. 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 in they'll be family

and pestilence a little over a complete disaster we've seen this before many times over the years the reality is that the breakdown of the euro came a 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 old they're 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 but 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 and you ferrars there not is cross talk show is taking on the organizations whose decisions trigger roller coaster rides on the markets peter lebanese guests are rating the rating agencies that's coming up in the next hour here 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 just 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 in no way really really agencies in a sense because we don't get showing many. cells 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 this system that's so broken in terms of its incentives to. talk a little later today here in r.t. morris chair talk one of the greatest space parties in history has passed away at his home in moscow two months short of his one hundredth birthday born in one thousand nine hundred twelve he was an innovator at the cutting edge of rocket science along with his mentor sergey collie of he was behind almost every major soviet space launch in particular he masterminded the world's first cosmic outpost the space station you could rush from the russian academy of cosmonaut six says talk had already become a legend long before he passed away. he was born in the right place and there i saw him and he took a full advantage to it he was a man totally dedicated to what he was doing to me always did and he was

a blessed the rock river pushchair he was special for space siri coral off all remember morsi for two things he was one of the major contributors to the design of the famous so use all ensure equal and he will also be remembered for a right being a real revolutionary book called rockets and people which could be called without a need as a generation the encyclopedia of the soviet and russian cosmonaut ix. and here's a quick look at what else is making news around the world before kareena joins us with the business update amateur footage is what appears to show the ongoing conflict in syria where activists say another pretty five people being killed flames and black smoke was seen rising from a building in the eastern city of homs and tuesday night syrians of close their businesses in recent days as part of a general strike. tonight that five thousand people have been killed since protests

began but that's disputed by damascus which says the figure is biased and based only on the words or rather. pictures are emerging of nordine murni 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 on tuesday tributes are being paid to the victims with many people laying flowers at a makeshift memorial set up the site of the shooting three more police have found the body of a female house cleaner in the shed along to the gunman who reportedly killed the woman before carrying out his brutal. thousands of gardens gazans took to the streets in gaza city on wednesday to celebrate the twenty fourth anniversary of the ruling hamas faction demonstrators showed support for the mobile the head of the parliamentary election slated for the coming spring a mass took control of the gaza strip in the two thousand and seven election after political infighting with the western backed palestinian movement and agreement to

hold a vote and form a unity government was reached in late november as the first steps towards a caro's sponsored reconciliation deal signed this year. but to bring up that the moment i'll be back to recap our menu stories for in about five minutes from now before that the latest business with queen. hello and welcome to our business update the south thanks for joining me british russian venture tanky b.p. says it's going to invest ten billion dollars in article production this will include infrastructure on the oil fields and links to the export pipelines mainly in the china the move follows the failed arctic alliance between b.p. and ross net which was blocked by the russian partners in. gastro says the south stream pipeline to ferry russian gas to europe will have its terminal point in italy earlier the state energy giant eyed austria at central european location

and gas infrastructure was seen as an advantage but vienna backs rival pipeline project book-o. causing gazprom to switch to loyal italy but the emotional cost get more capital says this also makes better commercial sense. the come through just provide for the guest room wipes enjoy a certain. better development maybe some future discounts maybe some privileges. obviously it's a mutual it's a win win situation. and i think you to leave in the way you found itself right now. maybe offering guess brome a bit rates. european stocks fell sharply on wednesday and you were dropped below one dollar thirty cents markets were lower and worries over european sovereign debt crisis combined with lingering disappointment over policy inaction by the us federal reserve germany's dax dropped one point three percent for its measure along

the main losers falling three and a half percent. and here in russia markets and lower as well the odds here as well one point two percent of the mines exposed nearly half a percent in the red let's have a look at some individual shareholders on the wires six on the downturn energy and banking stocks we lost over half a percent russia's second largest lender plans to cut its borrowing next year by fifty percent as heels versus other developing countries or company they have ended lower as well that's despite the company's net profit rising fifty percent in the first time months of the year and financial group of cases has reversed from earlier gains finishing lower the company were poured its third quarter net profit rose seventy five percent to three hundred nineteen million dollars. well foreign visitors to russia will soon be able to claim back value added tax on goods bought here when they leave purchase tax is currently fifteen percent of only goods costing more than three hundred fifteen dollars will be subject to refund this is

the world by two quotes electronics of many years and food two hundred retailers are expected to join the scheme which will start in the first half of next year. well that's the business news the final stories on our website are. business thanks for watching.

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