that's your actual trial in russia prosecutors want to ban a version of the main book of the hari krishna movement here for being extremists i'll have more on how the trial outrage here in india i can tell you that at. two pm in moscow i'm not trends i'm good to have you with us here on our team 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 a farewell ceremony will last for two days starting with a funeral procession led by kim jong il's youngest son and a successor to the longstanding leader of the world's most reclusive country who died at work in days ago of a heart attack the knowledge of his air control room is shrouded in mystery though some are hoping his western education may see a more open country but asia specialist dr tim beale thinks it's not entirely up to

the successor to determine north korea's fate but the good. times we know he was educated above the edge in switzerland and i have the same but i think that's grossly glued this to me is freedom of action. to the north korean system but also. in respect to the outside world in immune respect to the the americans so it is not north korea and since don't want to see americans and want to keep the. constraint some what's like they want to contain china around to do something differently but it's all part of the same the same package so one can do is in many respects fairly limited. we will again we'll have to see but i don't really depend so much on the americans. journalist and war correspondent eric

margolis shares the view that there is little chance of north change in north korea to the excessive influence of the military. speculation that is his uncle is a man some of the members of the family are kind of pulling his strings but i think more is the one point one million man north korean army feel that the father announced kim jong il forty done well over a year ago now says the new policy of militarized north korea as it was insufficiently militarized and the whole country it's really is the quote frederick the great it's an army disguised as a country. and that's what's happened to this great and some military rule which to me says that it's unlikely there will be major western style reforms because this means cutting spending on the military 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 any force against change rather than for. you can watch the full coverage of kim jong il's funeral services on our web site 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 there with african country will have to prove it's going to be a stable partner has been off reports. well first of all this is agreed time for egypt to start we gaining some was positions on the international political stage and 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 and of course syria was discussed at the meeting in moscow russian foreign minister said a deal of it all praised the fact that observers were finally allowed into syria at

the same time both russia and egypt once again show me criticize the violence in the country but stood against any foreign military intervention egypt is also be reporting to a regional where when it comes to the middle east peace process that was discussed at the meeting here as well but all of this comes as the situation in egypt itself is quite complicated i'm in the midst of the ongoing violent protests and the country being in the middle of the problem and shia lection with several islamist oriented to political already seeking courting cooling the muslim brotherhood and the first round of the election showed that all of these parties combined 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 the 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 service mission is to assess the country situation and ensure president assad's compliance with a regional plan to end the bloodshed is asia times journalist pepe escobar says there are doubts over the mission's impartiality. they have to investigate the activities of the free syrian army these are mercenaries and the factors all are armed by outside powers and these outside powers are basically from qatar and the emirates will the arab league which is now called trolled by dingies see the gulf cooperation council easiest to get themselves in this case we still don't know are

they going to investigate the need to call troll and call and sen set up got in the or near the border between turkey and syria and a disk in their room which is very across the border basically from aleppo let's say in two hours and i'm going to investigate that they do are they going to convert us to gains shipment smuggling of weapons via the jordanian syrian border we still don't know all good it's a tall order for the arab nico caesar in that these are not exactly the marker says they are investigating one of their own but they're also implicated in the whole picture. well stay with us here on r.t. still ahead in the program. the president of iran is. with you to. remember the you know we named him at a jet engine africa. 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 us a sort of a they came by the time and sort of mid-sentence just thinking oh my god i just come faith and he will. 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. pendent business turkey gives the korean light just saw three another barrier has been removed for russia to build a pipeline from the plant. more than 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 on trial as robert oulds says attempts by european leaders to avoid

a worst case scenario are only making it more likely. 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 what's really needed is 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 limitations 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 windows 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 too sorry for a witness their anger reach

a boiling point walk covering protests in athens. ok i think in two thousand and eleven we really sort of felt the world shift on its axis slightly we saw people's protests nathan sort of spread around the world and greece is certainly for me very much on the front line of the fight and 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 there's 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 the reporting and they had

a protest planned i remember in the morning our hotel was just off the corner syntagma very very close to central square as the usa in crisis rumbles alone greece is once again found itself the focus of international attention and it seems like everyone had an opinion about it that you wait an hour and then 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 tear gas 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 angry angry that they feel to a point where they're having to turn out in 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. 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 just it was absolutely. five is going off in different parts in time and 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 you know we found ourselves right in the century and i remember just saying try me just keep filming this is keep filming it in the main

street right now it's very hard. even to take them in it may not be that difficult to find out about it but. as we. the people. who were trying to reports and eventually did take us they sort of a became both of us time and 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 to you guys and just thinking oh that's just. thing coughing and

spluttering in. do you remember being quite embarrassed about that but 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 as a greek 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 he he felt when you were reporting to you with this thing people passing their breaking point they were just so angry. and very quickly also intactness glad we got to be in the crowd we're not sure exactly what that thing off but everyone's just trying to get out of the way you could see people being

just backed by the riot police that it was. almost you left all of that. and maybe. right from the very beginning we wanted to. get a good story from a different angle we were much more interested in getting the social side of what was going on i hope for everybody to become and. try to get out of the crisis if that was what was always important to us is getting. the people in greece getting their opinion across because 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 are there and you're talking to and who are the lucky in that's amazing people i mean every single time i've gone back there just a welcoming. i walked into neighboring personal

reflections from our correspondents. world wide on the headlines of two thousand and eleven and if you missed anything catch them 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 insulation is being used to sparking religious and racial hatred during the ninety's the movements were seen as a religious sect its numbers were roaming around to larry writes close listening to 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 many was seen as a threat now the case was filed after prosecutors moved into the recent activity over the movements in siberia however russia's foreign ministry insists that its 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 comment 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 bug which is a very sacred and spiritual tax for the hindu people and obviously this is brought together hindu people from around the world have video flew. through the body divert the don't know and the but. but also you know that because of the.

you know. the extremist which is that is. you can see since listen it's so absurd and while all of this is going on the book itself the bug that gave those actually flying off the bookshelves here in india but with a lot of sort of the outrage and the mass hysteria there is a lot of 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 at analysis including santa in this guy people all over europe baffled by a mysterious flying object on christmas eve a shooting sports star a spaceship or a magical sleighs of 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 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 as some have been exposed for a baby for locking 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 so you agree with president obama livia.

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. borat for some reason i don't know anything about libya do you know what is back to stan is no i do not know what the pakistan is backing for. do you know the us is an airbase there. nor 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. what about new mexico is that a state or a country but is that i or any time you think that we don't you know.

it's all been under bush. and while actually. come on it was not that long ago you know no cheney was the vice president of the us. you know i have no idea i know it's. the right. cheney. so we can tell you to take that kind lisa rice tell them that we would be fools and nice to ignore their purpose and their plan some countries are at the top of politicians with to attack her belief am literally but how much do people really know about those faraway places. like wisconsin really good to me it's here on the present. the president of iran is no capital capital of iran do you know the capital city of iran. negative do you guys know what iran is oh yeah yeah yeah what's the capital of iraq. was the president.

the president he just died what about the capital of the capital yes i do but if you're asking me i can't tell you that either top secret i don't want is calling me . snow live here it's. anything he gets 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 whoriskey 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 owns fifty percent of the project while twenty percent belongs to italy's any the rest is evenly distributed between france's e.d.f. and germany's win just hold all of the whole project may yet be multiple earlier this week gazprom 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 apply for membership of the world trade organization but nine hundred ninety three well finally that long ago shay sion is over russia has been formally invited to join richmond virginia looks at the changes this will bring. her. 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 and 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 volumes that it accounts for at the moment. let's have a look at the markets now oil has 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 your consumer confidence w t i it's craving under one hundred one dollars a barrel while the brant blunt is at one hundred eight dollars a barrel. european stocks are trading mixed in choppy fin markets on wednesday with bonds and resource stocks dragging and in italian debt in focus. some in russia the markets are declining trading is then by year end holidays and makes the comic news out of the view out of europe but my sense of the r.g.s. a losing ground even as oil sets another record high. that's it for the business to market analysis in less than fifty five minutes for you here on archie.

practically a ghost town. squandered morning. more than sixty square kilometers of the one move from the most nations under those who are still surprising new lives i'm finding we're just. getting bad out here.

but not saying hardly any birds squirrels you know. you know i don't know what's going on here. on crete monarchy. two thirty pm in moscow these iraqi headlines tens of thousands of grieving north koreans packed into the capital to pay their final respects to their late leader kim jong il who feel laid to rest after eleven days of national mourning. egypt working to shape its post-revolutionary future by reestablishing ties abroad as the country's foreign minister heads to moscow. considering measures to protect itself from the potential demise.