tens of thousands of grieving north koreans packed into the capital as kim jong il is finally laid to rest. egypt working to shape its post-revolutionary future by reestablishing relations a broad as the country's foreign minister heads to moscow. britain's measures to protect itself from potential demise of the euro and plans reportedly including restricting cash flows even closing the borders was. a controversial trial in russia prosecutors wanted a version of the. movement from the extremists i'll have more on how the trial that

sparked outrage here in india and shot at. two pm in moscow good to have you with us here on r t our top story tens of thousands of north koreans have taken to the capital snow covered streets to pay their final respects to their late leader the farewell ceremony will last for two days starting with a funeral procession led by kim jong il's youngest son and successor to the long standing leader of the world's most reclusive country who died eleven days ago of a heart attack knowledge of his air crews on the moon is shrouded in mystery though some are hoping his western education may see a more open country but asia specialist dr tim beal thinks it's not entirely up to the successor to determine north korea's fate. thomas. you know he was

educated in switzerland not see that's going to have an effect but i think that's crazy move this to me is freedom of action. part of the north korean system but also mainly in respect to the outside world in immune respect to believe the americans so it's not north korea and since don't want to open up that see americans we want to keep it. constrained some what's like they want to contain china rather different you differently but it's all part of the same the same package so what one can do is in many respects fairly limited. we will again we'll have to see but i don't really depends very much on the americans. journalist and war correspondent eric margolis shares the view that there is little chance of north change in north korea today excessive

influence of the military. speculation that is his uncle is and some other members of the family are kind of pulling his strings but i think more important is the one point one million man north korean army. farther announced kim jong il forgotten well or year ago now it's the new policy of militarized korea as it was insufficiently militarized. the whole country it's really as the quote frederick the great it's an army disguised as a country. and that's what's happened to this great and the son military rule which to me says that it's unlikely there will be major western style reforms you because this means cutting spending on the military the military so powerful it's well fed it has all the prerequisites and good position so does the communist party so that they will be a force against change rather than for. well you can watch the full coverage of kim

jong il's funeral services on our website r.t. dot com. the new post revolution egypt is heading abroad and it's had to mend its relations with other countries as part of that cairo's foreign minister has been talking with his moscow with his counterpart in moscow but with the situation at home still very tense the north african country will have to prove it's going to be a stable partner has gone off reports first of all this is a great time for egypt to start we gaining some was positions on the international political stage since syria is in the spotlight the arab league has been able to send observers into the country the organization's headquarters are in cairo so egypt is directly involved in of course syria was discussed at the meeting in moscow russian foreign minister said a deal of it all praise the fact that observers were finally allowed into syria at the same time both russia and egypt once again show me criticize the wireless in

the country but stood against any foreign military intervention egypt is also we poured into a regional where when it comes to the middle east peace process that was discussed at the meeting as well but all of this comes as the situation in egypt itself is quite complicated i'm in the ongoing violent protests and the country being in the middle fevola men she election of one of the several islamist oriented to political parties seeking courting including the muslim brotherhood and the first round of the election showed that all of these parties come blind managed to gather around seventy percent of the votes the second round is expected shortly and it is planned that the new parliament will start working by the late by the end of january so this is a good time for egypt to start regaining its international contacts. the

ongoing situation in syria looks set to dominate those talks here in moscow and latest development tens of thousands of people have taken to the streets of syria's third largest city homes demanding international protection as happened after the arab league's monitoring team visited the area have served his mission is to assess the country situation and president assad's compliance with a regional plan to end the bloodshed that is asia times journalist pepe escobar says there are doubts over the mission's impartiality. they have to investigate it is up to the free syrian army d.d.'s are mercenaries in the sector it's all are armed by outside and these outside borrowers are basically from qatar and the emirates will the arab league which is now called troll why did she see the gulf cooperation council easiest to get themselves in this case we still don't know will i be going to investigate need to cool truly command center set up in the or

near the border between you keep and syria and a disk in that room which is very across the border basically from a little let's see in two hours and i'm going to investigate that do i really going to convert this to gains shipment smuggling weapons by the jordanian syrian border we still don't know the good it's a tall order for the area to eat go caesar in that these are not exactly democracies they are investigating one of their own but they're also implicated in the whole big picture. well stay with us here on r.t. still ahead in the program. the president of iran is. with you to. some of the you know we named him at a jet engine after. with the u.s. presidential elections looming we find out how much americans know about the building blocks of our country's politics at home and abroad. to

try to influence and eventually to take up space sort of a case that's time and sort of mid sentence just thinking oh my god and i just come and he will at least in a few moments to be also bring you our correspondents personal reflections from greece's art he takes a look back at the eleven main headlines. pandan business turkey gives the green light to south three but there's another barrier has been removed for russia to build a pipeline from the plant. more in fifteen minutes. but first britain is reportedly working on an emergency plan to shore up its economic defenses in case of a euro doomsday the u.k. treasury is set to avoid any or wants to avoid an influx of economic refugees and plans include evacuating british ex-pats from affected countries and even the temporary closure of its borders but actual analyst robert oulds says attempts by european leaders to avoid a worst case scenario are only making it more likely. you peon leaders are trying

to shore up the eurozone by having greater degrees of centralization and more having countries like france and germany have the final say in a sense over the budgets of those e.u. member states that have excessive budget deficits but that really isn't the answer to the problems wilts really needs either a massive injection of cash into countries like greece and italy to shore up their economies course another option would of course to recognize that the single currency has hurt competitiveness in many nations of the eurozone so really there's a number of options either to transfer funds from the north to the struggling south or of course have an orderly break up of the eurozone greece still remains of the center of europe's financial storm of those two thousand and eleven draws to a close r.t. has been looking back at what's been a year of despair and discontent for austerity greeks are the sorrow for witness their anger reach a boiling point walk covering protests in athens. i

think in two thousand and eleven we really sort of felt the world shift on its way we saw people's protest movement sort of spread around the world and greece is certainly for me very much on the frontline fight. it became really the sort of the child the financial crisis it turned into a political crisis to became a social crisis and yet this does a saying that if you're a hammer everything looks like a nail if you push people into a corner then they're going to come out fighting and i think increased that was exactly what happened. the first time in. reporting and they had a protest planned there remember in the morning. was just still think cool in

a very very close to central square as the year is saying crisis rumbles own grief is once again found itself the focus of international attention and it seems like everyone had an opinion about it that you and i remember going off and finishing to . coming back and getting a phone call to say that we need to do another one and at that exact moment we could hit the noises that would just like popping sounds it's a take us going off on the other corner. almost immediately you just get a huge surge of people coming policy i mean you can barely me. this is a really intense experience and you sort of when you're right in the center of it i can't tell you what it's like to be around people. that. the angry that they feel to a point where they're having to turn outs and these sort of clashes abroad i mean it's really scary because it's not just. a small hall cool. these people

you know old people young people completely normal families that are turning up that have just reached the point where they don't know what to do anymore. we literally found ourselves in the center. just side of one of the streets as all the riot police started pushing back late at the anarchists and these guys just went back into the people sort of running at them and throwing rocks and metal and it was just it was absolutely. going off in different parts in time everyone was just sort of running around thinking very very lowest and we were just stunned to be honest i mean it just going from one hundred in the space of sort of twenty minutes and we found ourselves right in the century and i remember just saying just keep filming this just keep filming it that made it very hard to even to pretend that it was even

a difficult to find out. about it. because . he. was the. people. who were trying to reports and eventually to take us to a sort of a became sort of mid sentence just thinking oh my god i just can't breathe anymore . and i remember seeing the fishes in the car and getting caught in the middle of the take us and just thinking oh. this thing coughing and spluttering in. remember being quite in virus the bout. then we realized that it obviously that

clip caught a lot of people's attention. and i think it actually felt good that it was striking a chord with a lot of people because at that time still there was very much a sense in europe in the way it was being reported that you know this is a problem that greece is having its a great problem and we were all sort of witnessing what was going on and i think when we were increased we realized very very quickly that it wasn't just a greek problem and this is something that was going to face everyone. and absolutely you know the effect when you were reporting that you witnessing people passing their breaking point they were just so angry. and very quickly alston tightness. in the crowd we're not sure exactly what that thing off but everyone's just trying to get off. you could see people by the riot police brutality that was . almost you left all of the national t.v.

and maybe tomorrow. right from the very beginning we wanted the. story from a different angle we were much more interested in getting the sight of what was going on i hope for everybody to be calm and. try to get out of the crisis if that was what was always important to us it is getting. the people increase getting their opinion across to the kids i think a lot of their voices really have got lost in the whole political economic talk kind of forget what it's all about which is about you know the people who were there and you're talking to. the lucky and that's amazing people i mean every single time i've gone back they just say welcoming. or going to bring a personal reflections from our correspondents. world wide on the headlines of two

thousand and eleven and if you missed any catch all again at r.t. dot com. a russian court will decide if a russian translation of the main book of the harry krishna movement should be banned from being extremist the case filed by state prosecutors caused a storm among religious followers living in the country as well as the political elite in india our correspondents preassure in new delhi and italian overcover in moscow are following the reaction siberian court is considering banning a russian translation of god as it is which is considered to be the bible for the hari krishna movement now this installation is being used to sparking religious and racial hatred during the ninety's the movements was seen as a religious sect its numbers were roaming around to wearing rights clothes listening to rock music they were spreading the book as well many teenagers were leaving their homes to join the movement of people who were donating money to it so by maybe it was seen as

a threat now the case was filed after prosecutors looked into the recent activity over the movements in siberia how the russian foreign ministry insists that it's this particular translation of the book that the case is filed against not so there is no text or it's that is sacred for him. it is clear from the available materials that criticism from law enforcement officials is not so much aimed at the text of the book itself which suffers from semantic distortions but at the comments of the author which can be regarded as falling under article thirteen of the russian law on countering extremist activity. people here in russia and the indian political elites both have been asking to stop the case calling it absurd well there is obviously massive outrage here this is been the top news on all the major news channels and all the top newspapers here in india there have been mass protests a lot of the russian consulates all over the country and even the indian parliament

was actually stalled for a few hours on monday and some of india's elite politicians were saying that this was an insult to the lord krishna one thing that's important to note that natalie also pointed out is that this is a ban is actually for the book called as it is which is a commented edition that was printed in one thousand nine hundred sixty eight by the international society for krishna consciousness which is otherwise known as the hari krishna movement now that's a different version of the book than the actual which is a very sacred in spiritual tax for the hindu people and obviously this has brought together hindu people from around the world who have any hope. that the who will buy the divert the don't know and the better. but also you know that because of the . you know. the extremist which is that is. you can see.

that it's absurd and while all of this is going on the book itself the buggy that is actually flying off the bookshelves here in india but with a lot of sort of the outrage and the mass hysteria there is all lot a little bit as well a little bit of misinformation regarding what exactly is going on in russia. remember our website has got plenty more stories comment and analysis including santa in the sky people all over europe baffled by a mysterious flying object on christmas eve a shooting sports star a spaceship or a magical slays the christmas conundrum on our website. and lights camera plenty of action the sex scandal surrounding the former head of the international monetary fund dominic strauss kahn set to make it to the big screen and discover who's been tapped to play the lead at our t dot com. as u.s.

presidential candidates tell the nation how they plan to lead it into the future some have been exposed for a. basic knowledge of foreign affairs it seems the general public could also be following suit artie's i missed reports. it's three agencies of government when i get there that are gone commerce education and the what's the third one there let's see he's looking to to actually fire tens of thousands of federal workers and eliminate an entire cabinet level position he can even remember its name asked me who is the president of you beki beki beki beki stan stan i'm going to say you know i don't know do you know it's not the fact that he doesn't know it's the fact that he doesn't think he should look it up you agree president obama live in. the basic knowledge of those attempting to spearhead a country can leave much to be desired would be this leave americans choosing their

politicians and their country's potential future let's find out. the speck is heard of it. for some reason i don't know anything about libya do you know what is the pakistanis know i do not know what the pakistan is backing for now . do you know the us is an airbase there. or do we know about libya. you know dispel libya yes yes do you know the united states was involved in a war with libya. ok. you know why. i know absolutely nothing about but what about new mexico is that a state or a country but is that. hard every time you think that we don't like you know. it's all been under bush. actually.

come on it was not that long ago you vote cheney who is the vice president of the us. you know i have no idea i know it's. the might. cheney. so it was tributary of the state kind lisa rice now we would be fools and nice to ignore their purpose and their plan some countries are at the top of politicians list to attack her belief am literally but how much do people really know about those faraway places. with. the music the president of iran is now capital capital of iran do you know the capital city of iran. negative do you guys know what iran is oh yeah what's the capital of iraq. was the president.

of a president who just died but the capital of the capital yes i do but if you're asking me i can't tell you that either top secret comes to lawyers calling me. snow libya or. anything we guess it. is the president of iraq iran iraq all right you know his name but a jet a giraffe or so when it comes to picking a future for the us choosing what comes next may be tough without the knowledge of what has gone on in the past and even the very present it is this it should not be or. we would know some other stories making headlines across the globe starting in gaza where a series of air strikes have killed three people injured nearly a dozen others israel's air force carried out the assaults claiming it was targeting militants to prevent an attack on part of the israeli egyptian border initial strike killed one man after the rocket hit his motorcycle second hit

a hamas police vehicle. trial the gyptian former president hosni mubarak resumes after a three month delay mubarak faces the death penalty if found to have been behind the killings of some eight hundred fifty people. during protests that overthrew him in february he's been under horace in a hospital since april the trial was postponed when lawyers asked that the judge be replaced or request that has since been denied barak is the first ousted leader of the so-called arab spring uprisings to appear before a court. yulia joins us next with all the latest business headlines stay with us here on art. thanks matt a very warm welcome to the business update turkey has given the cream light to solve trying to cross sponsor the black sea the pipeline is intended to carry gas from southern russia to europe bypassing the transit countries of ukraine and belarus its plans to have a capacity of sixty billion cubic meters

a year and will cost around twenty billion dollars to build from fifty percent of the project while twenty percent belongs to any the rest is evenly distributed between france's e.d.f. and germany is when just hold all of the whole project may yet be multiple earlier this week from said if it can gain some ownership of the ukrainian transit system then south stream may not be necessary. and a new era is beginning for the russian economy the country fast applied for membership of the world trade organization nine hundred ninety three wealth finally that long ago shay sion is over russia has been formally invited to joint richmond virginia looks at the changes that will bring. becoming a member of the world trade organization is both a political and economic milestone the fact that for such a long time russia now a top ten global economy was outside the trading club that unites ninety eight

percent of the world's population sounds pretty ridiculous under w. zero rules the average duty on imports of goods will be reduced to seven point eight percent for agriculture it will be lowered to ten point eight from thirteen point two percent and as for manufactured goods the decline will be to seven point three percent from the current nine a half the parliament in russia still needs to ratify russia's exception to the w t o but obviously these changes will not happen in one day only a third of newly set in produce are expected to come straight after the ratification basically those which will not do any harm medicine for example will become cheaper gradually over three years to give local producers time to adapt to new market conditions and when it comes to the weakest or sensitive sectors like cars imports will be cut inch by inch over the next seven years for years the government protected farmers and car makers and will continue to do so through

subsidies although the funds will drop significantly over time and perhaps the definite winner in this whole situation is the consumer has regulations become more transparent and tariffs are slashed more companies will be coming to russia's market and competition will force producers to reduce prices the economic development ministry therefore expects to see an average reduction of around ten percent of us the world bank believes that that the total effect will amount to an extra four point three percent of the gross domestic product as spending will grow seven percent but yet again this whole process may take quite a while and in the end russia is expected to finally improve the disproportional two percent of global trade. that accounts for at the moment. let's have a look at the markets now oil house what they were triggered from the gains and so in the previous session it is still very high on concerns tension in iran might cause supply disruptions another driver is improving consumer confidence w t i is

trading under one hundred one dollars a barrel while being a grand plant is that one hundred eight dollars a barrel. and to european stocks trading mixed to chop if in markets on wednesday with bonds and resource stocks dragging and intel index in focus. on in russia the markets declining trading is then by year end holidays then makes you cannot make news out of the view outside of europe but my sense of the r.g.s. all losing ground even as oil sets another record high. that's it from the business to you from all market analysis in less than fifty five minutes for you here on archie.

tried to clean a ghost town. squandered morning. abandoned mine. what is now. more than sixty square kilometers and in one move in the midst nation and those who are still surprising new lives and finding we're just. getting bad out here.