five pm in moscow i'm at tresor good to have you with us here in 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 behavior specialist dr tim björk thinks external influence could decide north korea's future as much as the next can't. stand as we know he was educated above the educated in switzerland nazi that's going to have an effect but i think that's grossly overestimating is freedom of action. to the north korean system but also mainly in respect of the outside world an immune respectively the americans so it is not north korea and

since don't want to see americans and want to keep it. constrained some what's like they want to contain china around to do something differently but it's all part of the same same package so what kim jong un can do is in many respects fairly limited. and we will again will have see but i don't really depend so 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. leaders good 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 for the father announced kim jong il forty god's will or your go now it's the new policy of

militarized north korea as it was in seclusion militarized and 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 happening to this great and suddenly true which to me says that it's unlikely there will be major western style worms here because this needs 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. parties managed to gain some insight into a man who holds the reins in north korea off to report up with one of his former swiss school classmates his impressions of kim jong un available a click away at our team dot com. a tough period of post revolution uncertainty inside egypt is a stop in 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 and the frozen israeli palestinian peace talks are going off was following the meeting. well first of all this is a great time for egypt to start we gaining some was positions on the international border go stage and syria is in the spotlight the arab league has been able to send observers into the country the organizations 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 totally 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 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 combine 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 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-racial human 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 is 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 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 they sort of a they came by the time and sort of mid-sentence just thinking oh my god i just

can't wait 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 in basis the now the barrier has been lifted for the dream of turkey's 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 to talks with the opposition that organize the parliamentary protest rallies but he says there is no one to talk to with the premier reaffirm that there is a need for dialogue insisting there's always been an open channel between him and his rivals artie's arena explains. russian prime minister meeting with journalists 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 people want 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 president 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 on fair 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 in a look at why its new powers plans for millions of messages a day on social networks all a click away at our 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. in 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 cause another option would of course to recognize that the single come and 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 on its axis slightly we saw people's protest movement sort of spread around the world and greece is certainly for me very much on the front line if that 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 you know 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. reporting and they had a protest planned i remember in the morning. it was just still cool in a very very close to central square at the year i think crisis rumbles on grief is once again found itself the focus of international attention and it seems like everyone had an opinion about it that you write on there and 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 we just you hear like popping sounds it's a take us going off on the other corner this entire can. do 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 abrupt 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 are backing down you know the people sort of running at them and throwing rocks and metal and it's just 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 you know we found ourselves right in the century and i remember just saying just keep filming this just keep filming it and the main street right now was very hard to even take that if it was even a difficult to find out about it but it. as we. the people. who were trying to reports and eventually to take us they sort of a became both time and sort of mid-sentence just thinking oh my god i just can't

breathe anymore. and i remember seeing the footage of me 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. to remember being quite in virus the bout 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 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 this is something that was going to fade everyone. right from the

very beginning we wanted to see get it get our 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 you can't blame 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 kind of forget what it's all about which is about you know the people who are there and you're talking to. who are the lucky in 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 again near the crucial hormuz strait 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 gove could probably force open the straits of hormuz but that would mean war with iran and that would be a huge huge escalation and was 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 even opponents armitage about who rallied to support iran's given britain and america's history in iran there's a long history of unfortunate british and american intervention in here 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've racked up this situation every step. he was leaders have been prying into the affairs of middle east countries and all corners of the region but how much does the public know across the atlantic. you know the president of iran is now the president. who that was the you know the name

that agenda jafo it's not the talk of 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 hairy krishnas most holy text a group connected with a christian orthodox church had claimed it was extremist artes to tell you novikov has more. lol started because of one of the translations of god as it is into russian which though 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 that film screeches in siberia was suspicious and of course with those people the book is sacred but he take a look back at the relationship between russia and the hari krishna movement it was never an easy one but in the ninety's there when russia was going through one of

its most difficult and boom periods over history so far the movement was simply seen as a religious cult you can imagine the grim images of russia in the ninety's and all those people just in bright and colorful clothes listening to rock music spreading to its russians still it was suspicious literature as 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 chintz lieschen of 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 that is obviously sacred to the hands of people but rather whether this particular translation over into russian was extremist or knowledge. in the new year americans will choose who leaves their country for the next four years but given the u.s.

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 want to the streets of new york and discover 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 was he's looking to to actually fire tens of. thousands of federal workers and eliminate an entire cabinet level position and you can even remember its name ask 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. the basic knowledge of those attempting to spearhead a country can leave much to be desired where does this leave americans choosing

their politicians and their country's potential future let's find out. heard of it or for some reason i don't know anything about libya do you know what his back is sam is no i do not know what the pakistan is pakistan. though do you know the us is an airbase there. oh yeah 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 the receipt for that new mexico is that a state or a country what is that i say you don't really think. that was my first or now. it's all been under bush. while i 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 vice president. cheney so it was secretary of state not kindly to rise stella 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 verbal eat am literally but how much do people really know about those faraway places. with her. it's her own here was the president. you know 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 yes is yes. what's the capital of iraq. with the president.

the president who just died but the capitol grounds the capitol yes i do but if you're asking me i can't tell you that either top secret come away is calling me. now libya rich pakistan anything you get. if the president of iraq iran iraq right all right you know his name but a jet a giraffe or so when it comes to picking a future for the you want choosing what comes next maybe talk without the knowledge of what has gone on in the past and even the very present the future cannot party we want. next with business stay with us. alone 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 crane abella routes is

planned to have a capacity of sixty building cubic metres a year and will cost around twenty billion dollars to build gas pump fifty percent of the projects while twenty percent belongs is less any the rest is even a distributed between falses e.d.f. and jem is we just saw. a new era is beginning for the russian economy the country first applied the membership of the wall trade organization back in one thousand nine hundred three finally that long negotiation is over and russia has been formally invited to join dmitri medvedev tolex of 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 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 the 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 yes 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 all has slightly retreated from the guys that saw in the previous session still very high on concerns tension in iran might cause supply disruptions another driver is improving u.s. consumer confidence and in your at the foot see the dax are on the rise as trading

regime following an extended holiday bright and a tally in bold showed a sharp drop in yields which our company shares are seeing gains as a result that sounds been boosted by post christmas shopping and involved in the market is a mess trading is that by year end holidays are mixed economic news out of the us. as is losing ground even as all says 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.

place. in two thousand and ten especially economic zone for industrial production was established in russia 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. the special economic zone operates as a free customs zone which enables manufacturers to market their products in russia free of employer duties to some our region as he said is currently witnessing

a sewage infrastructure construction to some our region special economic zone promises exceptional opportunities for developing your business in russia will come to the small region for more information log on to invest in somalia that are you. five thirty pm in moscow these are your r.t. headlines day one of the late north korean leader's funeral ends but hopes of change under a successor could be overshadowed by concerns that foreign countries may actually want to keep the status quo. please post mubarak egypt seeks to shape its international ties amid turmoil and uncertainty at home while it's posted leaders trial finally resumes only a russian court decides again.