hello live from r t h q here in moscow it's kevin owen it is now midnight moscow time in our top story thousands of north koreans have been shown crying in the streets of pyongyang as they watched the funeral procession carrying their labor leader kim jong il's youngest son and successor to lead the farewell ceremony which is expected to last for at least another day it was known of course about the heir kim jong but some are hoping his western education may see a more open country now however his prices dr tim beal thinks external influence will decide north korea's future as much as the next kim. as far as we know he was educated in switzerland nancy that can have an effect but i think that's grossly overestimating is freedom of action. part of the north korean system but also

mainly in respect of the outside world and in respect to the americans so it is not north korea and since don't want to open up and see americans and want to. constrain somewhat like they want to contain china different differently but it's all part of the same light the same package so what kim jong un can do is in many respects fairly limited. we will again will have soon i don't really depend so much on the americans for war correspondent eric margolis who thinks there is little chance of change in north korea because he thinks the military's excessive influence will prevail. 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 four other

announced kim jong il. well over a year ago now the new policy of militarized north korea as it was insufficiently 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 military rule which to me says that it's unlikely there will be major western style reforms because this means cutting spending on the military military so powerful it's well fed it has all the prerequisites and good position so does the communist party so that they will be any force against change rather than for and how to manage to get some insight into the man and i hold the reins of north korea if we caught up with one of his former swiss school classmates his impressions of kim jong un or don't call me right now now while you're there as well you want to take

a poll all about that all about north korea what do you think is going to happen next is the very question that we're asking you this is what you're telling us in response that tonight more than half of you think nothing is going to change at all in the reclusive state as you can see there a fifth round about believe the new leader will hold little sway against an increase in the military might eight percent think they may be more openness and freedom now in north korea slightly fear of you believe a change at the top increase the chance of creating unification still a chance to have your voice. a tough period of post revolution uncertainty inside egypt isn't stopping the country from strengthening its international policy right now the foreign minister has been meeting his counterpart here in moscow where they've discussed the arab world turmoil and the frozen israeli palestinian peace talks can offer as our correspondent following that meeting. first of all this is agreed 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 sergei lavrov 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 problem and she alexion with several islamist oriented to political parties seeking 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 vote so this is a good time for egypt to start regaining its international contacts. and the trial of egypt's ousted president resumed on wednesday to after three months of a break hosni mubarak's accused of corruption abuse and the killing of demonstrators during the january uprising and may face the death penalty if convicted egyptian genesis summer diab told this is an attempt to divert protesters attention from their battle against 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 a move socialist tendency almost socialist agenda who did not do very well in the elections and they see they still perceive the street. the main lobbying. platform. then of the arab league observer mission in syria has described the situation in the rest of city of homs is reassuring so far just to warn you some these images we've got here are graphic the flashpoint city of homs was the monitors first stop to investigate the government's response to the anti regime on grass opposition reports meanwhile suggest that at least six people were killed in one syrian town but it would be forces only wednesday we'll talk more about this latest progress and today fergus hodgson's a policy adviser with the future of freedom foundation in north carolina united

states where he joins us now on the line vice. good to see retards and thanks for being with us given that in the arab league's already putting pressure on the assad regime how do you assess its impartiality and his fact finding mission there so far . everyone has vested interest in the situation room but all the parties that are being vocal about it we can assume that they closer to the action and more understanding of it so. they are better situated to assess it in other international players so. they're not perfect but at least they're in a position in most not perfect because the criticism is the there's a worry that they're not impartial enough right that the reason is just that they to me the people who many of the nations within the arab league they do not want to be at their fears intervene with and so. likely or could be more likely to.

give you information that would go against intervention in syria because they don't want that sort of intervention on themselves i mean as i just reported the head of the arab league observers mission describe the situation in in homs where we saw an awful lot of violence reassuring so far but the tanks are only pulled out yesterday just a couple of hours before those observers got there and it is it plausible that it could have come down so much in such a short time. well that there's a good question. how strong this. syrian government be in terms of closing down all activities at that time. what i've just received there are new reports out that that quelling the violence is not being successful but i want to point out that the arab league is bringing five hundred people they only get fifteen years or so i don't know how you can conceal anything from five hundred people over four months months period of time so it will provide a greater degree of transparency so even if they could quote in the short term and

i doubt that they can keep it contained in such a large investigation. and i guess the same goes for the worry that the opposition activists have that observers are going to be shown the real truth taken to the real places where the action is so to speak that they're not going to give in a completely free reign is that the worry or you think this investigation will be sufficient and big enough to counter any of that if it were to happen short shorts of worry but it's better than nothing i mean right now if there is such limited media access that it is getting much more transparency and again i just want to say that it's five hundred people that are coming that's it's a large group that would have to be controlled when it mean when if the syrian government makes actions to. constrain or hide things from their group they will undermine the very effort to make themselves look foolish and we know that they are under great pressure from international medical officials and face some kind of.

intervention so that it is in the interest to make this arab league investigation transparent and up with a clear outcome as well know russia's word of a terrorist group centering syria to fight the regime with us the case and present the side pulls out the troops is being demanded who then can stop the extremists on the street. well i don't think they're going to he's going to allow that to happen . that would require much i don't see that happening we what we can say you can call the troops but what are you going to do with people of foreign upon policeman now i can see that occurring and i. mean how much of a worry do you think it is that extremists are coming in there causing trouble i begin to grieve of course so i mean. all of this as it has received so much coverage in the in the western media the syrian syrian officials at least of claim that two thousand military and policemen have been killed so that's a huge. concern syrian leaders agreed to free didn't they seven hundred fifty five

anti government attorneys it was one of the conditions of the arab peace plan. do you think they happily agreed to that step or i mean is it i guess it was a sign of goodwill do you think to start with a good sign exactly the sort of goodwill but international still claims that fifteen thousand people going to tame so it's obviously not. still plenty more that could be done and we don't know exactly who is being detained or it's still a very bleak picture so yes it is a simple goodwill but there's plenty more that could be done in africa thanks ever so much with the program for policy advisor the future of freedom foundation based in the u.s. like thank you. here just a few minutes the year the money in the pay should run out to greece. to take us to sort of a they came they first time and sort of mid-sentence just thinking oh my god i just can't breathe anymore. surely our correspondence personal reflections from

greece's r.t. continues looking back at the events that shaped the year that we're just about saying goodbye to twenty eleven. but ima putin says he's open for talks with the opposition which organize the parliamentary protest rallies but there's no one to talk to the premier reaffirm that there is a need for a dialogue insisting there's always been a channel open between him and his rivals when it takes up the story. the russian prime minister meeting with journalists earlier today when responding to their questions about the possible log with the opposition he said that he is actually ready for that except for at this point according to your 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 because 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 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 said that the best president he would give to the russian people for new years would be 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. the people of greece will be glad to see the back of twenty eleven a year of cuts riots and vilification by other european nations for bringing them

to the brink of collapse r.t. sarah firth reporting for the very thick of it from the start now she shares again her first stand impressions in our continuing series reflecting the years of then it's the change the world. ok i think in two thousand and eleven we really sort of felt the world shift on its axis slightly we saw people's protests nathan sort of spread around the world and greece is certainly for me very much on the front line of the fight and it became really the sort of the child the financial crisis it turned into a political crisis to became a social crisis and it is 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 our hotel was just off the corner syntagma very very close to central square as the usa in 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 might honor him and 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 tear gas going off on the other corner syntagma. 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 angry that they feel to a point where they're having to turn out in these sort of clashes abroad i mean it's really scary because it's not just. a small hall cool. these people you know old people young people completely normal families that are turning up that have just reached the point where they don't know what to do anymore. we literally found ourselves in the center. just. one of the streets as all the riot police started pushing back late at the anarchists and these guys just went back into the people sort of running at them and throwing rocks and metal and it was just it was absolutely. five is going off in different parts in time and everyone was just sort of running around thinking very very lowest and we were just stunned to be honest i mean it just going from north to one

hundred in the space of sort of twenty minutes and we found ourselves right in the century and i remember just saying just keep filming this just keep filming in the main street right now it's very hard for people to take them if it was. a difficult time that. bad. but. we. must leave. the people. who were trying to reports and eventually to take us to a sort of a became by the 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. do you 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. 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 make 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 in greece getting their opinion across to the kids 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 a. really lucky in that's amazing people i mean every single time i've gone back there just a welcoming. what a year it's been well we'll continue to bring you more personal reflections from our team of correspondents worldwide as they reported on the headlines of twenty eleven if you missed any of them there online as well at r.t. dot com. just

a tad after twenty past midnight here in moscow next the newly elected deputies of russia's lower house of parliament been gathering for the very first sessions of the find that if the fresh faces were hurled any changes party talks to the man now in charge of the duma's foreign relations committee for the next have it. i'm joined today by alexei pushkov the newly appointed chairman of foreign affairs

and the russian parliament alexei thank you for being with us you come from a background in television what do you think that you're going to bring to this position that other people lack. well my big round is larger not larger than life but the i have started my career as a diplomats in the united nations in geneva i was part of the russian delegation in soviet legation of. the committee on these arms basically i never left the field of foreign policy studies so i would not say that i'm new to the area. what a person like me can bring i think during my work on t.v. i got a pretty accurate. feeling of. what

the russian population and the russian citizens sink of russian foreign policy what kind of foreign policy they would like to. and. what image they have of their own country of themselves and how they place russia and themselves on the global scene i think it's very important that. foreign policy measures the. image that the population would like to have of the foreign policy do you think that there's still a future for the reset and not reload policy promoted by barack president barack obama well i think that there may be a future for you. but i think that it's time to reset the reset there is a crisis. as stated in two thousand and nine when iraq obama came into power and when russia responded positively to. the

hillary clinton were offered. a lover or during that meeting in february two thousand and nine. my feeling is that a number of contradictions have accumulated since that time and the. biggest contradiction is the issue of the american a.b.m. system in europe. very tough statement which was made by me to me did it underscore . in which she mentioned a number of kontum measures that russia may take if the. system is placed by the united states and europe without taking into account russian worries on the score going summits where mid-term inventive. nato leaders in the vendor last year was declared. a success but it was maybe

a success in p.r. relations i mean. some of the spirit of the summit was positive but the results of the summit with neal basically we. russia offered a certain plan which could mean a compromise between russia and nato on the issue but this plan this suggestion was not accepted by nato do you think that both with russia and the u.s. having presidential elections and twenty twelve do you think that there's going to be some sort of impact on bilateral relations with that outcome. by that relations especially such complicated relations as relations between russia and the united states and my feeling is that these elections will not be an exception and the effect will be negative the republicans are taking obama from the right sometimes from far right positions and basically all those positions are quite

interesting to be an architect of the reset policy is considered to be by the some of the republican candidates as a sin so what kind of reset can we have. in this can do. i mean the administration will have to be sensitive to this attacks they cannot just. pay no attention for the election times and as we know policies are being modeled after the requirements of the electoral campaign obama cannot be insensitive to this criticism so i think we are in for a very hard year in russian you know solutions i think that in russia too there is a lot of disappointment with the reset russian. parliamentary also russian population is of the peony and russia has given more to the united states than it has received from the united states we made a number of steps which were quite important for the united states and to go to

support for those for their policies in the framework of the reset now what have we got in return the admission of russia in there will you go basically i don't think it's really a kind of payoff because those elections have been going on for almost twenty years and i seem russia was doomed to be signed a w t o it was just a question a matter of time and when hillary clinton decided that it is. affordable for the u.s. administration to attack. russia on the results of the election this has just shown that all this state of reset between moscow and washington is extremely fragile so i not very optimistic about the prospects of the reset in the electoral both in the united states and russia. like to thank you for joining us it's been a pleasure. i

think.

more news today violence is once again flared up. these are the images the world has been seeing from the streets of canada. trying to corporations rule the day. kevin only without seeing you with a live update of the headlines not a few day one of the north korean leader's funeral but hopes of change of his successor overshadowed by concerns that for a nation what actually want to keep the status quo. post mubarak egypt seeks to shake its international ties and inter milan said what it says to be just trial fun as he. puts it says he'd love to talk but there's no way to deal with that the prime minister urges the opposite.