seven pm in moscow i'm at treasurer 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 is known to be air coming in but some are hoping his western education may see a more open country but asia's specialist dr tim beal things external influence could decide north korea's future as much as the next camera. as far as we know he was educated on the edge in switzerland in having the same but i think it's grossly overestimate is freedom of action. to the north and system but also mainly use faith to the outside world to new respect to be 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 life they want to contain china around to do something differently but it is all part of the same the same package so what can join one can do is in many respects fairly limited. we will again we'll have 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 because of the excessive influence of its military. it is 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. father announced kim jong il forty done well over

a year ago now it's the new policy of militarized north korea as it was in seclusion 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 military rule which to me says that it's unlikely there will be major western style norms the business needs cutting spending on the military moves are 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. 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. t. dot com right now in water there tell us what you think will happen next in the north of here winds up at 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 lighting 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 our team 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 on the frozen palestinian israeli peace talks or he has 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 phrase 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 we 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 problem and shia lection of 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 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 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 protesters that this trial is a mock trial basically designed to cool down the public opinion one of the reasons they are losing popularity is that there is. mainly the muslim brotherhood did leave the square because they're now move busy with the elections and the muslim brotherhood strategy now is to bring change through the parliament rather than through the street. so who really remains in the square now is activists with the moves socialist tendency. who did

not do very well in the elections and they see they still perceive the street. the main lobbying. platform. that of the arab league observer of mission in syria has described the situation in the rest of city of holmes as a reassuring so far the flashpoint city was the monitors first stop to investigate the government's response to the anti-racism and 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 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 say 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 media report has been pretty much preordained and i would be very surprised to see that and 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. stay with us here on our team still to come in the program. to try to reports and eventually to take us they sort of a they came by that time and sort of mid-sentence just thinking oh my god i just can't breathe anymore and. it's just a few minutes we'll bring you our correspondents personal reflections from green this is art he looks back at twenty eleven the main headline. in business and now the barrier has been lifted for the south stream if given the great nights across this part of the black face now than about fifteen minutes time the basis but that's as. far as a lot of your putin says he's open for talks with the opposition that organize the

parliamentary protest rallies but he says there's no want to talk to the premier reaffirm there's a need for dialogue insisting there's always been a channel between him and rivals our teams are really delusional 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 hundred within their opposition 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 because we're in constant touch with them because we're only 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 platform single out a position so that we can actually understand what 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 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 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 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 parliamentary elections is russia's state duma tens of thousands of people came out on the streets protesting what they believed were on fair elections. all right he's 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 accountant all this is no ordinary money

men it's about the women in power and the scandal that sent 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 will a big goodbye to a year of cuts riots and vilification by other european nations for bringing them to the brink of the 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 a 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. it became really that sort of produced a child the financial crisis it turned into a political crisis to became a social crisis and you know this as a saying that if you're a hammer everything looks like a nail if you push people into a corner then they're going to come out fighting and i think increased that was exactly what happened. the first time in. reporting and they had a protest planned there remember in the morning. it was just still think syntagma 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 went on there and then going off and finishing doing my first live shows and coming back and getting a phone call to say that we needed 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. 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 and these sort of clashes erupt 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. one of the streets as all the riot police started pushing back late at the anarchists and these guys just when backing down you know the people sort of running at them and throwing rocks and metal and 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 sense of and i remember just saying try me just keep filming this just keep filming it in the mainstream right now it's very hard to know even if they come in it may not even be a difficult time that you got mad. at

. me. as we. the people. who were trying to reports and eventually to 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 footage of me in the car my getting caught in the middle of the take us and just thinking oh that's just. thing coughing and spluttering in. do you remember being quite in virus the bout. then we realized that it obviously that clip caught

a lot of people's attention and. 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 angry we realized very very quickly that it wasn't just. something that was going to fake everyone. right from the very beginning we wanted to see. the 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 become 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 took kind of what it's all about which is about you know the people around you talking to. him that's 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 worldwide 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 world's 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 larger 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 gulf 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 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. 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 will talk or importance of iran which is responsible for that situation developing and 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 in many corners of the region but how much does the public that process the atlantic know about. the president of iran is now running what was he to do the music that you know his name but a jet a task force not. to 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 the 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 to 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 a racial and religious hatred now the case was filed after prosecutors thought that the behavior of the hari krishna movements in the top screeching in siberia was suspicious and of course with those people the book is sacred but he takes 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 groom periods over history so far the movement was simply seen as the religious cults 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 and is it 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 a saying that this trial has nothing to do with their original book that is obviously sacred see the hindu 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 say 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. what spec is heard of it or 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 but is that. hard any time you think i don't know you know. it's all been under bush. wow 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 mitochondria. cheney. so when 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 verbal eat i am literally but how much do people really know about those faraway places. was the president. or the president of iran is now capital capital of iran do you know the capital city of iran. negative do you guys know what iran is oh yes yes yes what's the capital of iraq. was the president. the president you just look at the capital of the capital yes i do what is it you're asking me i can't tell you that either top secret come. now libya or. anything he guesses. if the president of iraq iran iraq ok 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. cain is up next with business stay with us. hello welcome to business the russian ruble is once again falling 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 the presidential. 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 song 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 which is 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 building cubic metres a gear 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 the rest is evenly distributed between france's india and germany's winters all. but have a look at the markets all has slightly retreated from the guys i 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 their good says u.s. stocks are now open for business open 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 for an extended holiday break company's shares all seeing geysers the retail sector has been boosted by post christmas shopping. rush so the markets are now close and they did close the red the artists on the percent well them i said ended two percent in the red. so for now be back in about fifty five minutes with business here on alt.

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science technology innovation all the latest developments from around russia we've gone to the future covered. seven thirty pm in moscow the zero two headlines day one of the late north korean leaders funeral ends but hopes of change under his successor overshadowed by concerns that foreign nations may actually want to keep the status quo. post mubarak egypt seeks to shape its international ties made turmoil and uncertainty at home while it's ousted leaders trial by italy resume. a russian court decides against banning a translation of the.