subsections james corbett editor of the colbert report website says tensions in the region will only rise if the u.s. and its allies continue to pressure iran that. i think it's quite remarkable to think that france and the u.s. and other countries would be willing to step up sanctions that have already had such a profound effect on the iranian people on the basis of their hunch that erodes iran is developing nuclear weapons as as france has basically put it it's quite remarkable because that really does is tantamount to an act of war and and really the i think the only logical outcome for this is another increase in military tensions between the countries involved in that region that are already on the knife edge of military tension so it is quite an explosive thing to be talking about and i think of the escalation in recent weeks with the recent ten day military drill in in the straits of hormuz has to be weighing heavily on the minds of of the u.s. and others but but i think really the idea that iran would really close off the

straits of hormuz or attempt to do so would only be an absolute last measure resort for a country that relies on the importation of refined gasoline and other things through the very straits that they would be sensibly sabotaging and planting mines in so it's it's quite remarkable to think that that iran would do that in any other situation other than they felt that the entire existence of their country was under threat so adding more sanctions to to the mix is is really just a recipe for military disaster i think. you watching all of our news and much much more can always be found online at www dot com some of the items there right now including turkey sends up a new i. find out about could give the rest of the world a close up images of israel for the first time also online. check out predictions on how the russian economy will perform in two thousand and twelve it's all on our web site business section. to follow all the world trend

towards recession. news today. these are the images. from the streets of canada. before asian day. it is a five minutes past the hour here in moscow russia is speeding up the reform modernization of its forces the military hasn't been a top priority since soviet times but the kremlin is now right. reports change is long overdue. the russian armed forces the pride of the nation or are they the russian forces certainly falling behind enough for

a behind some of the larger arrivals new equipment is a priority there's also a dire need for reforms in organization recruitment training pay and military doctrine the government has promised six hundred forty billion dollars over the next ten years to buy new weapons but russian arms manufacturers are no longer what they used to be me she just army now is in need of contemporary modern equipment and if the russian defense industry can't yet provide us with what we need will buy into a broad new purchases include this london ship the mistral bought from france lorries from italy and flying drones from israel drones is through to particular problem the defense ministry dismayed by the russian company tasked with designing and building them yet. i asked them what was their problem and what prevented them from producing good vehicles we enterprises bosses found plenty of excuses such as the

absence of engines gliders exaction and i now know how much money they received and i saw the rubbish they produced not all new russian made weapons are falling below standard the su thirty four fighter bomber is widely considered an exceptional aircraft but so few have been delivered that the older models they were to replace are starting to fail although russian designers come up with some excellent hardware for instance in terms of fighter and combat aircraft some time the industry has trouble in maintaining these at a high level and actually reduce the number of the kind of numbers of the armed forces needed and the reforms still have angry opponents to both in and outside the armed forces many of them argue that the we are mint is going just fine and that buying foreign weapons undermines russia's military. independence commission because we are becoming dependent on foreign suppliers of spare parts for military

equipment and foreign military personnel training on foreign supplies will specifically fuel and lubricants and other substances needed for the new equipment nonsense say other servers in two thousand and eight russian forces pushed the georgian army out of south setia in just five days but experts were dismayed at how outdated and clumsy the russian army looked when faced with real opposition it reinforced the need for serious change the money being thrown at the problem is vast regiments of rubles on their own aren't enough most here at the defense ministry now know that before the armed forces are ready for modern conflict a very long and very demanding war for reform must be one here in the corridors of government and in factories around russia tom watson r.t. moscow. egyptians have been voting in the third round of the first post revolution parliamentary election the country's leading islamist party is expected to dominate with results now do you in about ten days the vote will see

a transition of power from the army which has been in charge since the toppling of president mubarak in february of last year. for the meantime is on trial he's charged with complicity in the killing of more than eight hundred protesters during february's popular uprising last month the previous round of voting was overshadowed by violent clashes between protesters and the army and government raids on a charitable organizations that last week of also added to the bad feeling saudis are reports now from cairo discontent continues to be running high. the revolution may have toppled hosni mubarak the manager patients accuse of corruption and suffocating freedom but now it's the ruling supreme council of armed forces which finds itself in hot water with the west calling raids on human rights organizations last week for this is a very dangerous situation because you have the elections on the one hand producing a majority but the people in the streets pushing for change and secularists who

have links with these groups so it's a sign that this big tension really between washington and kyra. cell phones and more than twenty boxes of documents were reportedly seized during raids by the police authorities promised all will be returned several questions are me what prompted the raids and what could possibly be so suspicious about entry operators in post revolutionary egypt. and the members of the arabic center for an independent judiciary never did get an official explanation for the confiscation of their documents or the vixen from their office that followed. we don't know what they were searching for we told them we could give them anything they wanted but they came in search everything and didn't give a simple answer. whether they wanted bank statements or anything else from the can sitting on a sidewalk by their former office the vix it angio workers point out a certain irony this never happened when mubarak was in charge. i would surprise.

the police but the. system. can't take a position. he moderates the activity on the station. is a. human rights activists in egypt believe the rays are attempts to punish them for accusing military rulers of failing to carry through democratic reforms but western observers say the authorities are becoming increasingly wary of the ever watchful eye from washington and the true purpose of raids is to prove foreign funding of argan is ations which authorities accuse of destabilizing egypt the seems to be a strand of opinion in the military inside the state machine that. is very disillusioned with the friendship with the west and may be trying to find

evidence to prove that some of the trouble on the streets. has been in some way fostered by. washington tirelessly repeats the old adagio of the importance of its relations with egypt as a key player in the middle east but blight talk may hide a very different agenda washington doesn't want stabilization they want to be permanent so that they can you know use that as a lever in the entire region egyptian activists aren't too happy with western help which they say can do more harm than good. and i don't like the way foreign countries put pressure on egyptian authorities that pressure has to come from the egyptians and we as a human rights organization should. divide it on the market time and money for must whatever the real reasons for the reserve n.-g. o. offices and the increasing internal strife in the country could portend a shipwreck not just for egypt's relations with the west but for the country's

revolution in cairo it in english school r t. r let's get some other world news for you in brief here in r.t. time for the world update first to libya where fighting has broken out in the center of the capital between two armed militia groups that's left at least five people dead the clashes sort of started after former rebels based in tripoli arrested fighters who belong to a rival group in the city of misrata this happening on new year's eve witnesses say in tripoli militia arrested six men brought them into a council building beat them up and detained them the resulting intense battle on tuesday involved machine guns rocket propelled grenades and anti aircraft guns and a month civil war in libya did end in october but there are concerns of a growing hostility between rival tribal groups. the arab league has called an emergency meeting to discuss whether to withdraw its observers from syria france's voice over the effectiveness of the league's monitors in the country amid concerns

that forces are still killing antigovernment protesters in the most recent wave of trouble a gas pipeline exploded in homs province which the government has blamed on terrorists five thousand people have been killed in syria since the uprising began last march . thirteen people have died in three separate bomb blasts in the afghan city of kandahar in the first day motorbike bomber detonated explosives at a police checkpoint killing four civilians and one officer officials say the target may have been in nearby police vehicle the second attack of the day thought to be against a nato convoy killed a child who was nearby. despite a dark past with fast. like many other european countries germany is seeing a surge in support for neo nazi groups it's a problem that sometimes divides whole towns between those in favor of extremism and those trying to make

a stand. off investigates now what's driving young people down such. a quiet down disturbed. a small community divided. it began with the appearance of nazi symbols then the local social center was burned to the ground your. office was also vandalized says for him the final straw was when your nazis marched through the town's main square. i used to be afraid but it helps not to act alone to have supporters i became a public person with our initiative and it sort of my protection the n.t. ninety initiative is actively supported by around fifty locals many are retired and armed with posters they stand up to those who are often much younger and looking not too friendly like this young man who openly calls himself a neo nazi and admits encouraging

a teenager to set the social center on fire he now faces up to two years behind bars and we won't let me go now sees rule here yet to not all locals agree the initiative is often criticised the neo nazi party even gained three percent of votes at the most recent local paul election the third on the incident split our town some say we're exaggerating and are only making things worse by attracting too much attention but i think they're simply afraid. activists say it's easy for new nazis to recruit new members especially among disillusioned and dejected teenagers with poor infrastructure and high unemployment and few social skills which the town can offer its often simply boredom driving them to streams when the population of just around six thousand people sausan is a typical small german town far away from large industries and financial centers

life here is called peaceful or at least it used to be before two thousand and nine mr vantine and the other activists are not going to back down until after it turns back to normal but unfortunately the problem with neo nazis in germany exists on a much wider scale thousands of new gather for a needle marches in dresden often clashing with police and fascist activists and in november german authorities caught two suspects believed to be members of a neo nazi terror cell that is keep them for years and were involved in killing at least ten foreigners but. it's money struggles with. the trouble. it causes families conflict and families. solved we have a kind of rage but now. as you know escalated

racist education germany's spending billions to call the eurozone crisis but ignoring economic trouble at home could be. if left unchecked it may be too long before disenfranchised youth drags the country toward some of the biggest mistakes of its past. or to germany and artie's come here live from moscow the first talks between israeli and palestinian negotiators in over a year have ended with no breakthrough jordan's farming. who hosted the meeting said negotiations were held in a positive atmosphere of the latest montes policy joining us now live from tel aviv paula good to see you so some it might seem no surprise that there's no breakthrough being made here in advance of the meeting both sides some feeling of pessimism but as we say no breakthrough or any information from your end on the major stumbling points in the negotiations. well as you say

these talks between the israelis and palestinians with representatives. from the jordanian government have ended with no major breakthrough and that was to be expected the stumbling blocks the positions that both israelis and palestinians hold the major position being that statement construction it's interesting that today tuesday while these talks were happening in the jordanian capital here in israel the israeli administration announced that it was issuing full three hundred new homes to be built across the green line so you hearing again from the palestinians that there is no real commitment from the israeli side to stop with the statement building this is on the table really issues of security issues of borders with palestinians again reiterate to make or the israelis to withdraw to the one nine hundred sixty seven borders to release all palestinian prisoners as an indication that they are serious about direct talks they have been no direct talks for more than a year the issues on the table of course coming from the israeli side is that they

want to see a real kind of commitment from the palestinians for there to be no third attacks no through the rockets fired from the gaza strip into israel. as you say oh this is the first meeting between the two sides in about a year or so and as you mentioned moments ago. some of rather poor timing on israel's part to be considering the construction of three hundred new buildings as they come to the table to discuss the peace process. what is the future applied they would. comes of the whole mideast peace process a faily on today's negotiations what you foresee in the future here. will be moot certainly is one of pessimism no one on either the israeli or palestinian side by and large really believes that they can be a resumption so a lot of direct talks anytime soon and that's why we've heard comments throughout the course of the day coming from people like the israeli defense minister it would be rather saying that these are negotiations about negotiations now we are hearing

from the jordanian foreign minister he says that although there was no breakthrough today the talks would hold in a positive light and that jordan is intent on holding teacher talks between israelis and palestinians in the future so there is of course some kind of some kind of optimism that perhaps there could be a breakthrough but certainly that breakthrough did not come today for the palestinians for this side have said that if there is no real commitment shown from the israelis they are considering a number of options and among those options are going to the united nations security council and cooling to the declaration of a palestinian state some something that they have not done in the past because of american pressure they're also considering going to the u.n. security council and calling for a resolution against israeli settlement building and also for the united nations to stand international observers here to the west bank but on the whole no real movement to look now to the next round of talks that we hearing will be held in

jordan but it gave no indication as to what will be new in the talks that will be presented in the future. you say there is in the future a plug for more talks between the israelis and palestinians we'll just have to wait and see about those artes policy good luck and tell them thank you. to you we do talk to a former german chancellor gerhard schroeder all about the benefits of being in the eurozone or perhaps the disappointments of being a part of the eurozone and how to stave off. the ongoing economic crisis.

gerhard schroeder was charles love germany from one thousand nine hundred to two thousand and five he's now chairman of the board at nordstrom's russia's new gas pipeline under the baltic sea europe mr further why should the e.u. increase its dependence on gazprom. opinion. we're not talking about russia's dependence we're talking about cooperation between russia on the one side and the european union on the other in the energy sector not stream is viewed as a priority project both by russia and the e.u. because it's been part of europe's energy networks since two thousand and six recognized by the european parliament and the e.u. council of energy ministers brussels wants all russian energy companies not just

gazprom to be allowed to export gas to europe what are the implications of that for gas problem and europe. regulator e permission is not the issue the e.u. germany and the rest of the e.u. nations need gas to sensibly reform their energy policy russia on the other hand has to sell gas to keep its budget in order so there's a codependency which is a good thing i would be happy to see european companies invest into russia and european markets open up to russian companies it's a good free market economy i think europeans need gas. gas has many uses here with the political uncertainty in north africa it's good to have a stable partner that you can rely on and russia is one if you know better than anyone else for instance that britain recently switched from export to imply that europe needs a gas supply to maintain a stable mix of energy sources but it's climatic conditions require it needs norway's gas but also russia's gas and therefore i think opening the market up to

russian companies would be a wise move of. the name to do some e.u. officials oppose russia whatever it does yet as is ford or does most moan i guess it is so we have to admit that what i hope we will get over it it's understandable that the european union needs russia geopolitically but the reverse is also true it's not a question of the time has come to start cooperating and stop looking back at ideological differences that misrata could russia switch supply eighth to china if brussels keeps up its hostility was that it's a known as it towards your informant's of wishes in a situation where it could ship gas to china and all of asia and europe i hope russia never has to make a choice the russian government is evidently pro european but europe cannot keep pushing russia or away it hurts russians pride we have to keep in mind that while russia has the alternative of shipping to asia europe has no such alternative and europe's geopolitical position will only improve if it manages to enter

a tiny hard to ship with russia one and at the same time grant a session to turkey that would be a sound strategy and into the future the rest is yesterday's debate alice and is dead but haven't guessed that with this huge debt crisis mr sarkozy says no hero no europe surely europe will survive without the euro so that there's an a and a former well this is a quote my successor in office likes to yours of course europe's going to have problems if the euro has problems but there's one thing you can be sure of. the euro is going to survive as a common currency even if theoretically things turn out differently which i find very improbable you we will still have a united europe it is. you were chancellor when greece cooked its books to join the euro should you have stopped athens from joining the single currency club in new. york i do not think that was our situation of the european commission its employees

that had to conduct an inspections they had let us know that we could take the responsibility for greece's e.u. a session on ourselves but it was a purely preparatory mission conducted by the european commission not the national government we had made the decision to take greece in we could not claim without having firm proof that the information we got then was diplomatically speaking not entirely correct very much keep in mind that the european parliament voted in favor of greece's membership almost unanimously including the conservatives who are now trying to distance themselves from that decision sometimes in politics you don't want to believe things that he wants condoned or actually happening. unless either the commission was wrong or the handling of greece has been wrong since it ended which which is it ends in. it's pointless to talk about how things were in the past we're talking about the future i hope we manage to keep greece in the eurozone for that to happen i hope the package of aid agreements that european leaders have

agreed on is implemented if that's the case then i think we can start taking care of stabilizing the market because it was a great deal of help from greece of course there is one point i would like to make in that the country should not be broken down not only does greece need a budget discipline which is of course true but what greece needs most are investments of that it would be good to see wealthy greek citizens who are currently investing abroad pay taxes in their own country instead of looking for investment opportunities is there a red line beyond which germans that they were. not going to bail out southern europe any more or does germany have a historic bit to europe has from putting its been there gave i'm not against discussing a red line the problem is that if you start to talk about a red line then you'd eventually have to correct it in germany is interested both politically and economically in a functioning europe that the economic interest is easily explained would forty percent of our export goes to the european union and beyond if those countries are

hit by a crisis then so is germany secondly or both the lesson we learned in the past and our prospects for the future dictate that germany is not strong enough geo politically to play a significant role in a game where the us is one superpower and an asian leader in this case china is the other new european state is only a united europe can take on a role like that if that's why germany is interested in a united europe it is not just because of the past but for the sake of our citizens future that will come from the lord of being gerhard schroder chairman of the board for the north stream gas pipeline thank you for speaking with r.t. .

i'm finding. it's getting bad out here. but. you know. you know i don't know what's going on here. with. technology innovation. to. russia.

if you are just joining us everyone. ratcheting up the tension at the pentagon says the u.s. warships will continue to sail in the gulf. way from an area has recently testified. between israel and palestine in fifteen my. with no breakthrough but they. say there has been a positive atmosphere new construction. is the main obstacle to resuming peace negotiations in the palestinian saying a building

a must stop but israel wanting no preconditions to. the russian military is trying to restore its former glory but the kremlin keen to reform. the military industrial complex has fallen behind technologically riddled with corruption. those were the headlines here and to stay with us next it's the story of a catastrophic environmental disaster and now a special report cold creek you're watching. will rogers once somebody asking about miami said well i just don't make much of anymore and we need. to be good they gave us we did a terrible job here we've got a terrible.