a very warm welcome to you this is artie ally from moscow with me alice have heard a lot of in their bodies have been pulled out of freezing sea off russia's far east coast where an oil rig capsized and sank on sunday crews are working to recover are the possible victims seen in the water while earlier a life raft was spotted which was an issue we thought to be carrying fifteen people but it turned out to be empty fourteen people were rescued from the sea shortly after the recurrence but several dozen are still messing assays it jiggles greiss in used in sakhalin skin the coastal region where the disaster happened. it's looking increasingly unlikely that any war survivors will be found search and rescue teams who have made contact with lifeboats and life rafts through out the course of the day but no people so far no survivors crucially have been found as

a very similar story to that of sunday and largely this is owing to the fact that this all wreak sank so quickly in bad weather conditions that swept away many of these lifeboats before it seems people could board them and we're looking at a very grave picture present if there are any survivors though being in the water for well over twenty four hours now typically given the night time conditions that means planes can't fly and can't be used to try and search out any signs of life indeed throughout the course of monday we have seen the number of people found dead and mounting as for those who have been found alive for so far fourteen in toto took place on sunday where they're plucks from the water shortly after the sinking of this oil rig for the were immediately flown out to sakhalin here for further

treatment a day have been ruled that they're in fits and good state and that she those four have undergone questioning in it because this case is a criminal case has been opened to try and find out what exactly happened some of the theories that have been put forward so far looks or perhaps as this oil rig took on a significant amounts of water which meant it sank very quickly it's all occurred approximately two hundred kilometers off the coast of sakhalin in russia's far east as it already has been towed support by an icebreaker a very bad weather conditions now of course the search and rescue operation is still ongoing there are many more still missing and expecting it to continue throughout the course of the evening. well assays crew in the region is following the developments hopefully will get you more of how the rescue is progressing from both the air and in the sea as well as hearing from relatives desperate for

information about their loved ones well still ahead this hour r.t. dealing a digital of the no internet users sound the alarm over u.s. piracy as it could strangle freedom of speech on the worldwide web. voicing fears of a possible military escalation in the korean peninsula following the death of the north leader kim jong il the warning follows a state of emergency and military alert declared by itself korea china in turn has expressed its condolences but is also reported to have sent troops to its border with the reclusive state it's all being driven by fears of a possible succession conflict as the late leader's youngest son kim prepares to assume power the country's declared a period of mourning state t.v. showing outpourings of emotion from across the country and he said now we now report on the man who personify north korea's communist state. a mystery to the

world what now for north korea with its leader kim jong il gone this massive military parade was held in two thousand and eight to mark north korea's sixtieth anniversary general kim jong il wasn't there to greet the crowd reports suggested he suffered a stroke in two thousand and three reports claimed kim jong il died of diabetes and had been replaced in public by stand ins hired previously as a security measure he never spoke to the media had a profound fear of flying and ate with special chopsticks which could detect poison rumors have surrounded the so-called supreme leader throughout his life beginning with birth according to one source he was born in the soviet union in one nine hundred forty one during his father's exile all kim jong il's official biography claims his birth was heralded by the appearance of a double rainbow. our people take pride in the fact that they are blessed with great leaders from generation to generation. the leader of the democratic people's

republic of korea since one nine hundred ninety four he succeeded his father kim il sung keeping korea close to the world. was also named supreme commander of the people's army one of the largest in the world with one million active troops and over four million reservist it's believed enormous funds allocated to its military might ate up north korea's resources needed to fight famine and other social problems but kim jong il and his regime tried to put on a different show when allowing the globe a glimpse inside one of the you know in our father the general kim jong il thank you thank you so much you know after the korean war the demilitarized zone was drawn up sending north and south korea into very different directions. decades on the north remains a closed communist state the south a modern democracy and innovative success story north korea has caused global

outrage in recent years testing patience by carrying out underground nuclear test and short range missile launches leading to us in un financial and military sanctions it is now not a matter of the united states and north korea it is really a matter of the region saying to north korea that it has to change its behavior russia has tried to be a mediator for peace on the peninsula by pushing for negotiations or hope in the asia pacific region this serious potential for conflict and there's no alternative but to set up dialogue and improve understanding between the sawyer in twenty ten new cars blew up around the north with talk of the possible next leader that's when kim john on became a four star general and first moved into line to take over for his father november saw tensions reach its highest point in decades after the north launched an artillery strike that left four dead south korea continues to hold large scale war

games with the u.s. and japan and want a conflict would break out if another attack was launched now kim john on a young and inexperienced leader is at the helm and will either open the door or continue to keep it shot this row a station was built in two thousand and two with hopes of connecting seoul and pyongyang but the north korean regime backed out at the last minute making this a lot stop train heading back into the south now with kim jong il that there is news that perhaps soon we could see a train heading in that. setting light on the most secretive and reply. in the world and he's now our team korea. now tensions across the korean peninsula are the peak of the world waits to see what direction the north new leadership will take gregory clark a former australian diplomat in asia specialist please the opportunity for better relations has already been lost i am very pessimistic i think we

will see a worsening of the situation i think it's almost certain that kim jong il will be unable to control the military he will be controlled by the military and they will do is take a harder line in the international players we had a wonderful chance to improve relations you kim jong il tried to improve relations with the united states and with japan in both cases the hawks in japan and the united states in the doing to prevent the improvement in relations in one hundred ninety four some very important was reached between. korea to develop a nuclear reactor for korea to produce power those promises were not kept and this is freely admitted in the united states those promises were not kept because the hawks under bush said we don't need to make any concessions to this regime it will collapse and they kept on waiting for it to collapse and if those promises been

kept north korea would probably would not have gone on its own nuclear development nuclear weapons development so this really is the whole story of relationships between north and the outside world. that was gregory o'clock four mos training diplomat and a specialist on asian politics. israel plans to build over a thousand new homes in east jerusalem and the west bank is part of a speeding up of settlement construction following palestine succession into an escrow then we were slammed by palestinians who say peace negotiations are possible while settlement expansion continues on his policy is following developments. what we're hearing is that the israeli government has announced it will be building more than a thousand housing units across the green line on palestinian land now the purpose of the housing units is to try and help alleviate the shortage of accommodation particularly among young israeli couples in the jerusalem area but no doubt this announcement will draw the anger of the international community as indeed have

similar announcements in the past so it does not bode well for any kind of resumption of peace talks between the israelis and the palestinians it's a result a strong message that the netanyahu government is not interested in sitting down and talking with the palestinians while at the same time continuing to build settlements on palestinian land while we're talking palestinians in the west bank grating and this is because of the release last night sunday of five hundred and fifty palestinian prisoners from israeli jails this was the second phase of an israeli prisoner exchange swap that was carried out back in october you'll remember there that the first phase of this prisoner exchange deal started that will ultimately see more than a thousand palestinian prisoners released for one israeli soldier gilad shalit who has already returned to israel now it was a time when clashes broke out shortly before the exchange last night took place these clashes were between israeli soldiers and families who were waiting for

prisoners to come back the soldiers were firing tear gas and rubber bullets the palestinians were throwing rocks and burning tires so you do have this policy which seems quite strange to some observers on the one hand israel that hearing to a prisoner exchange deal and seemingly one thousand feet away then create some kind of of negotiations with the palestinians but on the other hand we do have this flare up in violence and we also have this continuation in settlement building by the mid term now who government. well let's discuss israel's move in detail now and . the chairman of the palestinian israeli peace n.g.o.s for many thanks for joining us. the palestinians say that they call. till settlement building stops what kind of setback of israel's decision to increase going to have do you think. well i mean first of all i just would like to assume

that from my point of view the whole idea for punishing the palestinians by building another one thousand units in that year was a live issue was a hammer and the west bank is a big mistake for the point of view of the israeli interest undoubtedly we are not now in a situation of even a beginning of negotiations with the palestinians so by and large i don't see this as influencing the magically the political dialogue between us and the palestinians because unfortunately there's almost no dialogue but i'm dealt only also and clearly it. is the direction that this government is taking and that they were action is to work. against the palestinian demands of stopping all settlement buildings but more so i'm afraid that it works also against the israeli interests. our friends our allies in europe that against settlement building in united states the american city it's very very clear

and loud today against any new settlement building on a large excitement building and also internally in is were they severe big debate so all together i think that this is more an impudent political israeli issue and here in the town you know is trying actually to send the message and in turn that message into his political supporters and as probably you are following today that is trying also to we believe that he is correlation and he within the likud party so all in all i think that one should judge this divinity within the realm of internal israeli politics but until israeli politics influencing or so outside so all in all i think it's a big mistake well let's talk more about international ramifications on their face israel's aggressive battle and policies i think we can say happen criticized by be including from its closest ally the united states so what does israel really risk

in terms of foreign relations by accelerating the process how that is doing. i must say that i don't think that there is any objective observer who can give you a very straightforward answer which would give in norway and i would say logical explanation of washing explanation to this kind of activity because this is not the time to have a fight with the europeans or with the americans take for example secretary of state clinton that she's poised she's in favor of israeli policy today she's not putting any real pressure on israel and willingness to stop settlements and enter into negotiations with palestinians but at the same time we are putting into her face this kind of policy and i am sure that. makes the state department and also the white house quite course with israel but

unfortunately the israeli prime minister is looking at the scene and clearly understand that from the point of view of the united states today until november until the elections in united states november twelfth nothing seriously will happen from the point of view of american pressure thus he's allowing himself to do activities which by and large i think i gauge the interest to romp and catch him out of the palestinian israeli peace and jay for many times. now the u.s. government banging the drum a lot of the mace when it comes to free speech but it's a reputation some believe isn't entirely deserved internet users fear the proposed stop online piracy and in a new dawn of web censorship. counting why the plan is being branded a case of double standards. as the obama team travels around the globe preaching virtues of internet freedom but i am a big believer in technology and i'm

a big believer in openness and it is vitally important to every nation represented and every nation in the world namely internet freedom u.s. lawmakers may soon pass legislation that would make taking down a website as easy as a walk in the park the government would be able to shut down any site suspected of hosting copyright material no court warrant needed the government doesn't just take down the infringing material it takes on the site entirely and it does it without even a trial to find out whether it's illegal or not and as you know copyright laws are extremely complicated there are lots of things that look like copyright infringement the turn out to be licensed in one way or another even a site like youtube which has a mix of different kinds of content under this bill the entire site could get shut down companies like google yahoo facebook are furious over the pending stop online piracy act google co-founder sergey brin compared the bill to censorship in china

and you ran imagine my astonishment when the newest threat to free speech has come from the mother but the united states legendary computer scientist vin serve widely hailed as one of the founders of the internet itself said the legislation has the potential of bringing about unprecedented censorship of the web by using copyright as a wedge issue suddenly we're able to put this power in the hands of the government and then once they have it it can be expanded and expanded to deal with a whole range of other things the programmer aaron schwartz was under investigation for sharing united states federal court documents on the web in july he was arrested for downloading roughly four million academic articles from a protected computer he says the loss would make it very easy to silence internet whistleblowers any time a news organization or activist group our clinics. tries to put up some internal documents that were leaked or things like that all those documents are copyrighted for example we found e-mails from the people who made voting machines and the group

at swarthmore college put them up on their website showing that the people who made these voting machines knew they were flawed and people could hack into the voting machines those emails were all copyrighted and that company alleged it was covering infringement to share those emails under this bill they could shut the entire site down prevent anyone from reading these e-mails of incredible public importance but not only could it affect freedom of speech but also businesses by potentially giving companies easy tools to drive competitors out of business they would have every opportunity to take action to disappear competitors and made huge it debates congress postpone the vote the websites of the congressmen themselves could potentially be shot down under the proposed legislation because all of them post content that was borrowed from somewhere else like t.v. news clips what's even more ironic is that as the us preaches freedom of iran and to the wall that the home it might soon pass legislation that gives the government

sweeping powers to stifle web sources i'm going to check our reporting from washington r.t. . how security forces have. military protesters in cairo killing at least three egypt's health ministry says the total number of casualties following days are for new violence now found fourteen with seven hundred reported injured this is the developments in cairo now with the political activists from the stop the war coalition many thanks for joining us. now egypt's two thirds of the way through its long election process to replace the military government and yet the protests continue wants driving this impatience do you think. well i think two things firstly the supreme council the armed forces the governing body of egypt since the fall of mubarak has simply continued mubarak's policies economically socially politically and has on many many occasions before this attempted to drive the protesters from the here square to break strikes to make them illegal and i

think that many of those people who fought in genuine fairbairn i was amongst them believe that the government is continuing the mubarak era regime policy and that couldn't be clearer with the current crackdown the extreme violence now being used against the protesters some of which i think to your credit you've shown on russia today the emblematic video of the woman in the in the blue bra being stomped on by security officials and of of of officers now firing live ammunition to the crowds i think what many people believe is that no elections that take place now could be described as free and fair when they're taking place against this background and the police and military brutality which you describe there it closely resembles that's not what egypt saw earlier this year when angela barrett care protests rocked the country isn't it strange that the military rule is don't seem to be learning from these mistakes. yes well i think we have to understand what happened in the initial revolution in january february what happened was this that the

demonstrations the strikes at that time the beginnings of splits in the military themselves forced the senior ranks of the army to dump mubarak in order to protect their own rule they got rid of the figurehead in order that they could continue in power and it's been a struggle between those forces organized by the supreme council of your forces the top. of the protest with the strikers the demonstrators the revolutionary forces on the other side which has characterized this whole period between the eleventh of february when the foul and the fighting that we're watching today and this transitional period which you referred to it tells place the west in a somewhat awkward position doesn't it alter my barrack was toppled it was hailed as a win for democracy drawing military and other aid worth billions of dollars but now they critical of this very heavy handed approach taken against the protesters. well the west has been as complicit in backing the skaf regime since mubarak fell as it

was in backing the mubarak regime when he was in power there is still one point three billion pounds of u.s. military aid given to the egyptian military you will have seen the videos of the protesters holding up the c.s. canisters fired at them in here square with the words made in the usa on them we know that david cameron when he visited to hear square behind him british companies including all these companies and these people have been part of the rearmament of the egyptian military the very arms the now being used against the protesters are provided by western governments who have been backing this regime so they have pock rissi is times to do with hypocrisy with regard to mubarak and there is no further hypocrisy with regard to the supreme council the armed forces regime the next forward now briefly the islamist to appear day to be ceding a march on their rivals at the polls safe do you think that the protests were actually about getting an islamic state from the very beginning. no i don't think that was what was in the minds of the vast majority of protesters at all. and

indeed i think that we have to look at the record of the muslim brotherhood in relationship to the dominance regime you see sometimes they've been opposed to it and of joy in the demonstrations are they did months ago it here square and other times their calculation has been that they're going to do very well out of fast elections and therefore they have lend support to the regime while now is the moment where that kind of isolation is no longer going to be acceptable i think to millions of egyptians you cannot see people being trampled as you were before he's beaten in the square shot at seven hundred injured and still think that you're going to carry on participating in the election that the outcome of that election will be regarded as legitimate by many millions and millions of people in egypt so i think it's now time for the muslim brotherhood to to reconsider its stance and perhaps think that there. is a profile their whole political reputation will be better served by rejoining the

protesters in tahrir square ok it's on response to the war coalition many things. out of a chair crosstalk is a way meals for next year's u.s. presidential race that's coming up in about ten minutes time the first the business . of. oh and a very warm welcome to the business program russia's prime minister vladimir putin is calling for a corruption probe and stage i want to power companies inspections will take place in the next two months and will include firm such as gas from the bank as bear upon the milestone announcement was made at the country's largest power plant business archies touch on the political will is there with the details. the government meeting devoted to the power sector surprised many and it started in a routine way with large number of putin announcing new investments in the sector but none of that was done the prime minister devoted how often not worth to naming people in the industry suspected of corruption he highlighted how top managers used

offshore companies and i feel it's still siphoned off money he called these schemes a legacy of wild mind his and said russia has to make sure strategic sectors worked in a transparent way. we want to good investment climate we cannot accept offshore schemes any longer especially in the infrastructure sectors those who want to keep profiteering russia you're welcome it's in full compliance with the law but withdrawing money from the country through free companies cannot be accepted we need to pull the plug on the legacy of the arrow while capitalism is wrong what's different this time is that it appears to be more than grant awards officials and managers have been put a lot has cleared up your act all software as a consequence is that you are going to call a business are to siberia. while it's been called the deal of the year by russian business magazine the country's two stock exchanges have completed their mortgage

and. six will continue to try to separate indices but the trading platforms clearing system and data centers will be integrated the new exchange is expected to go for a public meeting in twenty five and they meet to raise at least three hundred million dollars the merger is an essential part of the government's plan to promote moscow as an international financial center. let's have a look at how the markets are performing this hour here in russia the markets all lower the r.t.s. is down a quarter percent while the my six is losing just a notch let's not have a look at some of the individual moves in the marxists some energy majors in the right fall in the speech and it shows that it produces hydro is losing more than three percent after russian prime minister said the company should cut its consumer prices by twelve and a half percent next year gas monopoly gazprom this posting significant losses off to vet mr newspaper reported its spending may rise to fifty five billion dollars

next year and precious metal monopole metro is gaining the company plans to increase production by as much as twenty percent in twenty twelve and expect the gold price to rebound above two thousand dollars an ounce. european stocks a mixed the sour as the markets await fresh steps crosses development and react to the devil for a north korean leader kim jong il which praised the geopolitical concepts. ok that's it fanaa europe today it's more market analysis in about fifteen minutes for you here on r.t. . to. lose

lose. lose lose lose. the book. culture is that so much money to come which of course you write on it comes in here it is like a blazing phoenix rising from the ashes newt gingrich again shows himself to be a major figure in american politics does he represent the republican party.

the old the shirt sleeves technology innovation all the moves developments around russia we've got this huge earth covered. this is. a fate of finding more survivors from the oil town hall and it sunk in the cold rain as well as off russia's follies coats with rescue is failing to vacate the nest and there is. a cloud of uncertainty descends on these days or as the death of north korean leader kim jong il these days is only edge with growing fears of long island called fit could follow his demise. and israel pushes for more settlements in the.