right. from the studio. starts on t.v. don't come. to a one of the late north korean leaders funeral ends but hopes of change under his successor overshadowed by some concerns that foreign nations may actually want to keep the status quo. mubarak egypt seeks to shape international ties amid turmoil and uncertainty at home while its ousted leader's trial finally resumes. and a russian court decides against banning a translation of a harry krishna holy text which was suspected to be extremists. seven

pm in moscow and that tries are good to have you with us here on r t our top story thousands of north koreans were seen weeping in the streets of pyongyang as they viewed the funeral procession carrying their late leader kim jong il's youngest son and successor led the farewell ceremony which is expected to last at least another day littleness no one of the air can be own but some are hoping his western education may see a more open country but asia's specialist dr tim beale things external influence could decide north korea's future as much as the next kim. sun as we know he was educated in switzerland and having the same but listen gets. to me is freedom of action. and system but also. use fake to the outside well known in the respect to be the americans so he is not north korea and since don't want to see in the. ricans want to keep it.

contained some what's life they want to contain china iran to do something differently but it is 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 their view that there is little chance of change in north korea because of the excessive influence of its military but it's good speculation that is his uncle is and 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 for you guys well over a year ago now it's the new policy of militarized korea as it was in seclusion

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 in law to rule which to me says that it's unlikely there will be major western style reforms your business 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 a force against change rather than for. our team managed to get some insight into the man now holding the reins in north korea after we caught up with one of his former swiss school classmates his impressions of king john kim jong il and tom right now in water there tell us what you think will happen next in the north korea lines up in our online poll more than half think nothing will change at all in the secretive state less than a quarter believe the new leader will hold little sway against an increasingly mighty military seventy percent think there's going to be more openness and freedom

in north korea about the same number believes that the increase that this will increase the likelihood of korean reunification add your voice by clicking on r t dot com. a tough period of post revolution uncertainty inside egypt isn't stopping the country from strengthening its international policy the new foreign minister has been meeting his counterpart here in moscow where they they're still scuffed the arab world turmoil in the frozen palestinian israeli peace talks are going up as the latest. 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 a 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 saw me criticize 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 ongoing violent protests and the country being in the middle of the parliamentary election with several islamist oriented to political parties taking court 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 vote so this is a good time for egypt to start regaining its international contacts. the trial of egypt's ousted president resume wednesday after three months break hosni mubarak is accused of corruption abuse and the killing of demonstrators

during the january uprisings and may face death or the death penalty if convicted egyptian journalist or some of the says it's an attempt to divert protesters attention from their battle against the current leaders. well there is definitely a sense among especially among protests is that this trial is a mock trial you basically designed to cool down the public opinion one of the reasons they are losing popularity is that the islamists mainly the muslim brotherhood did leave the square because they now move busy with the elections and the muslim brotherhood strategy now is to bring change through the parliament for other than through the street. so who really remains in the square now is activists with socialist tendencies. and who did not do very well in the elections and they see they still perceive the street. that

main lobbying platform. of the arab league observers mission in syria has described the situation in the rest of city of holmes as reassuring so far the flashpoint city was a monitor's first stop to investigate the government's response to the anti-racial human arrest their arrival was met by a massive demonstration with tens of thousands demanding international protection but there are some doubts that the mission can bring 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 the story be the idea that the the autocratic so most 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 report has been pretty much preordained and i would be very surprised to see that that it concludes anything other than the fact that the assad government is to blame for what's going on in syria right now. well stay with us here on our team still to come in the program. and eventually to take us they sort of a became based best and then sort of mid sentence just think i just called breathe anymore. just a few minutes we'll bring you our correspondents personal reflections he looks back at twenty eleven the main headline. on business and now the barrier has been lifted for the south stream is given the green light to cross the black. out in about fifteen minutes time in the business. but first a lot of here putin says he's open for talks with the opposition that organize the parliamentary protest rallies but he says there's don't want to talk to the premier

reaffirmed there's a need for dialogue insisting there's always been a channel between him and rivals or explains. the russian prime minister meeting with journalists earlier today when responding to their questions about the possible with the opposition he said that he is actually ready for that except at this point according to legit. forces do not have any concrete programs or any leaders and their motivation is not quite clear so it's really hard for him to understand in what form of the dialogue should take place. we've never been against dialogue with the opposition because we are in constant touch with them. against one thing and i am personally against it and that's any kind of extremism and there are a lot of different leaders in the opposition but they have to formulate a unified plan for a single into position so that we can actually understand who these 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 the rally on his own he also finished up with a sort of a joke when asked about what would be the best present for he will what present he would give to the russian people for new years he said that the president the best present for the russian people would be fair presidential elections in two and twelve of course all of this comes just days after a monumental rally which was held in the square in the aftermath of the parliamentary elections and it's russia's state duma tens of thousands of people came out on the streets protesting what they believe were on fair elections. on top of the changes in russia's political world and so can you by following our online coverage of r.t. dot com there's plenty else online as well like this. in hollywood blockbuster about an important part of all this is no ordinary money it's about the women in power in the scandal that's former i.m.f. chief dominique strauss kahn into the tabloid gutter plus. how the cia taps into

tweets we look at why snoopers are plowing through millions of messages a day on social networks. well among the peoples happiest to see the end of the year will be the greeks who will see a big goodbye to a year of cuts riots and vilification by other european nations for bringing them to the brink of brink of collapse or our first reported from the thick of it from the start now she's sharing her firsthand account in our series of 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. we saw people's protests nathan sort of spread around the world and greases me very much on the front line. and it became really the sort of the child the financial crisis it turned into a political crisis became a social crisis and yet this does this 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 is exactly what happened. the first time in. and they had a protest planned i remember in the morning. they call in a very very close to central square at the european saying crisis rumbles on greece is once again found itself the focus of international attention and it seems like

everyone had an opinion about it that you're. going off and finishing to. getting a phone call to say that we need to do another one and that exact moment we could hit the noises that would just like. to take us going off on the other corner. 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 a 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. people sort of running at them and throwing rocks and. it was absolutely. going off in different parts in time everyone was just sort of running around 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 is keep filming it and i made it very hard to keep the faith that it may even be just not. that. bad.

but. as we. keep. 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 fit in the car and getting caught in the middle of the take us and just thinking oh. this thing coughing and spluttering in. do you remember being in virus the bout. then we realized that it only see that clip quite 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 with paul said 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 i think when we were we realized very very quickly that it wasn't just. something that was going to fade everyone. right from the very beginning we wanted to see. the story from a different angle we were much more interested in getting the 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 life 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 voices really have got lost in the whole political economic took kind of

what it's all about which is about you know the people. in this amazing people i mean every single time i've gone back they just say welcoming. more continue bring you the personal reflections from our correspondents world wide on the headlines that shaped the year and if you missed any of them you can catch them all again r t dot com. oil prices have surged after iran threatened to block shipments through one of the busiest waterways if new western sanctions cripple its own exports 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 strait of hormuz. some cutting edge torpedoes an unmanned aircraft taking the draw spares out on a president of a large area of international waters the u.s. also maintains a naval presence in the persian gulf mainly to ensure that the passage remains open

and clear political analyst chris bambery thinks the west is putting world peace on the line with its hold 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 the rand and that would be a huge huge escalation and would strengthen 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 on 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 iranian 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 iraq so i think

we're witnessing quite a dangerous escalation and it's the sanctions which the west the talk or 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. u.s. leaders have been looking into the affairs of middle eastern countries in the horn and in many corners of the region but how much does the public that cross the atlantic know about. the president of iran is now running. one of them was a day you know his name but a jet a jaffa it's not. the talk to people will be choosing a leader next year to ask how much americans know about the foreign policy their country is deeply involved in. but first a russian courts decided against banning a translation of a harry christian is most holy text a group connected with the christian orthodox church had claimed it was extremist parties and tell you know if it has more. well it all started because of one of the

translations over. as it is into russian which though to have been sparking reshow and religious hatred now the case was filed after prosecutors look at the behavior of the hari krishna movements in the 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 goon 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 musing spreading to its russians still it was suspicious literature and 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 chancellor over the book into russian as the court has proved today in all this time russian ministry of foreign affairs has a saying that this trial has nothing to do with their original book that is obviously a sacred see even to people but rather whether this particular translation over into russian most extremist or knowledge. in the new year americans will choose who leaves their country for the next four years but given the us in full influential role in world affairs some candidates seem to lack basic knowledge on the world events and their key players what's more they don't seem too bothered about it r.t. said a star future you know what visit visited 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 if 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 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 live you. 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 suspected 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. do you know the us is an airbase there. or do we know about libya not much 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 honestly about new mexico is that a state or a country what is that card every time you see because we don't like you know it was my first or now. it's the old me under bush. 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 might. cheney. so who is secretary of state police arise 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 her belief am literally but how much do people really

know about those faraway places. was the president. 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 yes yes yes what's the capital of iraq. was the president. president he 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. snow libya or. anything he guesses. is the president of iraq iran iraq all right you know his name jetta jaffer 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. we. can use up next with business stay with us. hello welcome to business the russian ruble is once again forming victim to global economic uncertain say it's off one and a half percent against the dollar in the last twenty four hours and it's down thirteen percent since may however presidential the talk over it doesn't believe the situation is cause for alarm. we keep on widening the exchange rate corridor as there is significant she's showing on the currency market but we don't think the ruble exchange rate will overrun the rational border said by the central bank the biggest impact at the moment is made by capital outflow which is due to many factors starting from situation in europe who are well known problems with

corruption in. turkey has been given the green light to sell strange across its part of the black sea the pipeline is intended to carry gas from southern russia to europe bypassing the transit countries of ukraine and belarus is found to have a capacity of sixty bidding cubit me to get i will cost around twenty billion dollars to build gas from fifty percent of the project while twenty percent but longs to its lows in ny and the rest is evenly distributed between france's e.d.f. and germany's winters hole. let's have a look at the market sell all has slightly retreated from the gains and saw in the previous session but it's still fairly high on concerns tension in iran might cause supply disruptions another driver is improving u.s. consumer confidence and now on ticket is u.s. stocks are now open for business that i've been just mildly lower this wednesday following on from the successful also sure it is it's late and in europe the

footsie and the dax are on the rise as trading resumes following an extended holiday break retail company shares all seeing gains as the retail sector has been pursued by post christmas shopping. rush in the markets are now closed and they did close the red the r.t.s. last a percent while the myself ended forty two percent in the red. and that's all for now be back in about fifty five minutes with more business here on r.t. .

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