stream media don carty dot com. day one of the late north korean leader's funeral ends but hopes of change under his successor could be overshadowed over by concerns that foreign nations may actually want to keep the status quo. post mubarak egypt seems to shape its international ties amid turmoil and uncertainty at home was ousted leader's trial finally resumes. and a russian court decides against banning a translation of a harry christian holy text which was suspected of being extremist.

five pm in moscow i matras are good to have you with us here on our team our top story thousands of north koreans were seen crying in the streets of pyongyang as they view the funeral procession carrying their late leader kim jong il's youngest son and successor levs a farewell ceremony expected to last for at least another day little is known of the era kim jong un but some are hoping his western education may see a more open country to a specialist dr tim beal thinks external influence could decide north korea's future as much as the next can. start as we know it was educated on the edge in switzerland and have the same but listen gets grossly overestimating is freedom of action. to the needles and systems but also many use think to the outside well known in respect to be the americans so it is not the north koreans since don't want to see america. they want to keep it.

contained some what's like they want to contain china around to do something differently but it's all part of the same plot the same package so what kindle 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 but journalist and war correspondent eric margolis shares the view that there is little chance of change in north korea though because of its excessive influence of its military. it's good speculation that is his uncle is than some other members of the family are kind of pulling his strings but i think more is the one point one million man north korean army for the father announced kim jong il and forty guys well are your go now to new policy of militarized career as it was in seclusion militarized.

the whole country is 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 terry 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 a force against change rather than for. well as he's managed to gain some insight into a man who holds the reins in north korea we caught up with one of his former swiss school classmates his impressions of kim jong un available a click away at our t. dot com. the tough period of post revolution uncertainty inside egypt isn't stopping the country from strengthening its international policy the foreign minister has been meeting his counterpart here in moscow where they discuss the arab world turmoil in the frozen israeli palestinian peace talks are going up as

following the meeting. 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 and of course syria was discussed at the meeting in moscow russian foreign minister sergey leveled off praise the fact that observers were finally allowed into syria at the same time both russia and egypt once again strongly criticized the violence in the country but stood against any foreign military intervention egypt is also removed poured into 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 parliamentary election with several islamist oriented the political parties taking court including 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. head of the arab league observers mission to syria has described the situation in the rest of city of homs as reassuring so far the flashpoint town was the monitors first stop to investigate the government's response to the anti regime arrest your arrival was met by a massive demonstration tens of thousands demanding international protection but there are doubts that the mission can bring any positive results the final report

will be a pretty much preordained conclusion that there will be findings that the assad government is not doing enough to to listen to the concerns of its citizens but personally i'm not sure what these more ridiculous about this story be the idea that the the autocratic focus of the arab league states are going to presume to pronounce on the democratic leanings of the syrian government to work with the international community is supposed to take what they see with any sort of moral authority but clearly these are not people in a position to be lecturing on this but i think as i say i think the the report has been pretty much preordained and i would be very surprised to see that said that it concludes anything other than the fact that so that the assad government is to blame for what's going on in syria right now. will stay with us here on r t still to come in the program. in the trying to reports and eventually to take us a sort of a case but time and sort of mid sentence just think oh my god i just can't pray for any more. just a few moments we'll bring you our correspondents personal reflections from greece

as our team looks back at twenty eleven the main story. and then basis another barrier has been lifted for the thousands of turkeys given the green light of the black sea well details with me in twenty minutes time. but first about amir putin says he's open for talks with the opposition that organize a parliamentary protest rallies but he says there is no one to talk to with the premier reaffirm that there is a need for a dialogue insisting there's always been an open channel between him and his rivals are teaser go explains. the russian prime minister meeting with journalist. earlier today when responding to their questions about the possible dialogue with the opposition he said that he is actually ready for that except for at this point according to logic which in their position forces do not have any concrete programs or any leaders and their motivation is not quite clear so it's really hard for them to understand in what form of the dialogue should take place. we've never been

against dialogue with the opposition we're in constant touch with them we're only against one thing and i am personally against it and that's any kind of extremism any there are a lot of different leaders in the opposition but they have to formulate a unified platform single out a position so that we can actually understand these people won't he also mentioned that seeing his own close close people close to him and his relatives sometimes interacting with certain authorities that he sometimes wants to go out and participate in a rally on his own he also finished up with a sort of a joke when asked about what would be the best present for him what present he would give to the russian people for new years he said that the president the best president for the russian people would be a fair and free presidential elections in twenty twelve of course all of this comes just days after a monumental rally which was held in the square in the aftermath of the problem entry elections is russia's state duma tens of thousands of people came out on the

streets protesting what they believed were unfair elections. parties across the changes in russia's political world and so can you by following our online coverage of r t dot com there's other movers and shakers there as well. in hollywood blockbuster about an important accountant this is no ordinary money man it's about women in power in the scandal that's how the former i.m.f. chief into the tabloid gutter plus how the cia taps into tweets a look at why its new powers plus millions of messages a day on social networks all a click away at r.t. dot com. britain's devising a plan to shield itself if there is a euro collapse the treasury wants to avoid

a flood of economic refugees and stop its currency skyrocketing which could harm exports plans include closing borders and evacuating ex-pats were affected countries for some analysts the euro kratz attempts of keeping the euro together may only deepen the crisis. paean leaders are trying to shore up the eurozone by having greater degrees of centralize ation a more having countries like france and germany have the final sign 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 milt's really needs either a massive injection of cash into countries like greece and italy to shoot up they have a cold amazed because another option would of course to recognize that the single common see has hurt competitiveness in many women 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. the people of greece will be

glad to see the end of two thousand and eleven a year of cuts riots and vilification by other european nations for bringing them to the brink of collapse furthur imports from the thick of it from the start and she's now sharing her firsthand impressions and accounts in our series reflecting on the years events that changed the world. i think in two thousand and eleven we really sort of felt the world shift and it's likely we saw people's protests nathan sort of spread around the world and greece is certainly for me very much on the front line if not 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 i remember in the morning. it was just still think cool in a 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 went on there and then going off and finishing. coming back 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. 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 on the. side of one of the streets as all the riot police. the anarchists and these guys just went back into the people sort of running at them and throwing rocks and metal and. it was absolutely i was 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 and i remember just saying just keep filming this just keep filming it and that made it. even to pretend to. be that difficult to find out about the bad. as we. 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 my getting caught in the middle of the take us and just thinking oh. this thing coughing and spluttering in. remember being quite embarrassed about that 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 is 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 fade everyone. right from the very beginning we wanted to see get a good story from

a different angle we were much more interested in getting the social side of what was going on right now there's a chance you might lose everything that we know in this country you don't know what . you can plug your lights 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 because i think a lot of their voices really have got lost in the whole political economic talk you 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 there just a welcoming. we'll continue to bring you the personal reflections from our correspondents worldwide on the headlines of two thousand and eleven and if you've missed any you can catch them all again at r.t.

dot com. oil prices have surged after iran threatened to block shipments to one of the world's busiest waterways if new western sanctions cripple its own exports and the country's navy commander says the cut off will be easy to inflict iran is currently conducting a huge war game near the crucial hormuz strait the u.s. maintains it also its own naval presence there mainly to ensure that the passage remains free political analyst chris bambery believes the west may be putting world peace on the line with its stubbornness on sanctions. that americans could probably force using the military which in the govt could probably force open the straits of hormuz but that would mean war with the rand and that would be a huge huge escalation and would threaten world peace and therefore i think the iranians are really challenging the americans sensing the american weakness we know that from british sources that there are plans to attack iran and israel is egging

all in america to attack iran over the question of its nuclear program but i think again in a comparison with iraq in two thousand and three iran is in a much stronger position a reunion nationalism should not be should not be underestimated you know even opponents armitage about who rallied to support iran's given britain and america's history in iran and there's a long history of unfortunate british and american intervention in iraq so i think we're witnessing quite a dangerous escalation and it's the sanctions which the west the talk of the importance of iran which is responsible for that situation developing i think we should be clear about that is the west who have racked up this situation every step . u.s. leaders have been prying into the affairs of middle east countries in all corners of the region but how much has the public know across the atlantic. you know the president of iran is now with the president. you know his name but a jet a giraffe or so we'll be talking to the people who'll be choosing

a leader next year to ask how much americans know about the foreign policy in which their country is deeply involved. but first a russian court has decided against banning a translation of the harry christian as most holy text or who connected with a christian orthodox church had claimed it was extremist are to tell you no overcoat has more. blue all started because of one of the translations over. as it is into russian which thought to have been sparking a racial and religious hatred now the case was filed after prosecutors look at the behavior of the hari krishna movements in the region in siberia was suspicious and of course with those people the book is sacred but he take a look back at the relationship between washington and the hari krishna movement it was never an easy one to make in the ninety's there when russia was going through one of its most difficult and periods over history so far the movement was simply

seen as a religious cults you can imagine the grim images of russia in the ninety's and all those people just bright and colorful clothes listening to rock music spreading to its russians still it was suspicious literature and is a convincing young people to join in and stay with them many saw them as drug addicts many believe that they were posing as threats to the society and so there was definitely a lack of understanding of the movement in the first place as this case was a lack of understanding of to sleep over the book even through russian as the court has proved today in all this time russian ministry of foreign affairs has been a saying that this trial has nothing to do with their original book. it is not the is the sacred sea even to people but rather whether this particular translation into russian was extremist or not. in the new year americans will choose who leaves their country for the next four years but given the us influential role in world affairs some candidates seem to lack basic knowledge on the world events or their

key players what's more they don't seem too bothered about it either or he's honest i sit here and i went to the streets of new york and discovered they're not the only ones. 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 and 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 you. get. 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 the pakistanis know i do not know what a bikie stands back and. do you know the us is an airbase there. or do we know about libya and i want you to spell libya. yes do you know the united states was involved in a war with libya. ok. you know why. i know absolutely nothing about this or that new mexico is that a state or a country what is the. i mean. you know this is my first or now. it's the old man under bush. actually. come on it was not that long ago you vote cheney who is the vice president of the

u.s. . you know i have no idea i know it's. the most positive. cheney so who is secretary of state police arise that 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 president. or the president of iran is. capital capital of iran do you know the capital city of iran. negative do you guys know what iran is oh yes yes what's the capital of iraq ok. was the president. president he just died look at the capitol and around the capitol yes i do but if

you're asking me i can't tell you that secret come on i don't want to. know libya or. anything. if the president of iraq iran iraq ok all right you know his name jetta jaffer so when it comes to picking a future for the u.s. choosing what comes next may be tough without the knowledge of what has gone on in the past and even the very present. he or. next with business stay with us. hello and welcome to business turkey has given the green light to sell strange because it's part of the black sea the pipeline is intended to carry gas from southern russia to europe bypassing the transit countries of the ukraine and belarus is planned to have a capacity of sixty building cubic metres

a year and will cost around twenty billion dollars to build gas pump owns fifty percent of the projects while twenty percent belongs is this any the rest is evenly distributed between france is e.d.s. and jam is winter still. a new era is beginning for the russian economy the country first applied the membership of the world trade organization back in one thousand nine hundred three finally that long negotiation is over and russia has been formally invited to join dimitri medvedev her looks at the changes this 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 the usual 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 ahau. 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 shall wait for how what you were treated from the guys that saw in the previous session very high on concerns tension in iran might cool supply disruptions another drive is improving u.s. consumer confidence and in your at the foot see the dax saw on the rise as trading regime following an extended holiday break on a tally in bold action showed a sharp drop in yields company's shares all seeing gains as the reason to has been

boosted by post christmas shopping. for the month is a mixed trading is that by year end holidays mixed economic news out of the us. has is losing ground even as all sets another high another record high. and that's all for now i'll be back in about fifty five minutes with another edition to join me them.

in two thousand and ten especially konami exulted for industrial production was established in russia's somalia region with a total area of six hundred sixty ect as. its investors are granted exclusive tax and customs benefits which includes a five year exemption from property land and transport taxes as well as an income tax reduction to fifteen point five percent of the special economic zone operates as a free customs own which enables manufacturers to market their products in russia free of in four g.'s the some are region as he said is currently witnessing a soup.