international news and commentary twenty four hours a day without t.v. it will be a soul searching weekend for the euro zone with credit rating agency standard and poor's downgrade ing nine countries the biggest blow it was to france the currency union second largest economy which has been stripped of its top notch status along with austria the e.u. commission has described a decision as inconsistent so are syria has more now from brussels. this comes at a time when optimism was just about going up when it comes to the euro zone with some positive data coming out first week of two thousand and twelve well clearly a new such as this would again dampen investor confidence and stall that process now france one of the countries is leading the efforts and bringing about this fiscal compact agreed upon by the european leaders now this downgrade of frenzy was

not entirely unexpected i mean s. and p. had given it warnings the last year and even a lot of the analysts we've been talking to had said that a french downgrade was imminent so now that it has actually happened still the markets reacted negatively to all of this is happening because of france's role in the bailout this is one of the reasons in the it's role in the bailouts of greece of italy through the european central bank as well as of portugal so it has left the financial system the banking system of france in a very vulnerable position now what it comes to italy now this is one of the countries that has been considered too big to fail and it comes just days after the premier mario monti had met at berlin with german chancellor angela merkel and french president nicolas sarkozy where they stressed the growth prospects when it comes to credit ratings agencies there's a lot of indignation coming from e.u. leaders there saying that all of this is happening at a time when the eurozone is trying to get out of the crisis and they've put out bad

news like this and in the past they have attempted to limit the influence of credit ratings agencies in the financial markets and if you remember we go back to the question the credibility of these agencies going back to two thousand and eight financial crisis is the role that they played in that crisis where they had backed assets as well as financial instruments that were essentially junk still the investor confidence one of the most important aspects of all of this which is more often than not psychological than rational and if this is affected we can see a chain of events unfolding and unfortunately it might more most likely be negative . well bess went on mr patrick young says the downgrade has been a long time coming this disastrous news for the euro it's been deserved frankly for several years i mean the french government has been economically incontinent for the course of several decades they've lived in never never land they have no concept of how to run a reasonable economy in terms of not spending more money than they can afford it's

a disaster for mr sarkozy but then again it's been coming since the start of his presidency it's been building for twenty five years and he did nothing about it so he's just as culpable as everybody else in this issue on the future of the euro everything is now up for grabs again it emotionally destabilizes every single aspect of the euro because we still have no leadership in the euro zone we've got situations like greece needing fourteen and a half billion euros to refund in march alone the euro cents on the precipice tragically and that's a terrible thing for all our viewers throughout the world but italy dropped two notches in the latest downgrade decisions to own thirty g.m.t. max keiser and stacy herbert expose those who is to meet in the spot the tough times. bob here now italy's number one bank as crisis bites the sky marial monti. running italy is

a leg breaker with ties to goldman sachs goes back years already so he's a cap of the cap world you know he's of course he's asking the go more or in the course of north korea from the south to come out of north baby we got a lot of people here you can find actually rape with your predatory loans marial marty says the three card monte. tunisia is marking the first anniversary of the revolution that triggered the arab spring and change the face of the entire region while the country can boast a peaceful transition radical religious ideas on the rise as we nicholas gruen ports. it may have looked like a successful revolution getting rid of authoritarian regime while retaining its westernized facade but in parliamentary elections that followed tunisians voted for a naga and islamist party which now firmly holds the majority of seats in the new

parliament. of political culture. the first experience. making the choice between. political programs it was hard. pushed people to choose either with muslims and then muslims. if you. go but western tourists need to have nothing to fear the party's leaders say beer and bikini's irregular staples of tunisia's holidays hot spots are here to stay yet recent events at the maneuver university one of the largest in the country show the tunisian ways are indeed changing their protests that erupted right here on the we're going to verse thirty several female students came in wearing what is a traditional islamic headdress which covers most of the face leaving does the eyes open we're going to versus the authorities have prohibited. so this went on strike

saying their freedom was being oppressed almost for. the majority of students were against the strike but they were threatened by those in the minority we held out on principle we are against girls wearing head dress and during the exams it's a question of security and of trust and professor bleby acknowledged the students right to wear whatever they please after all she says this is the essence of freedom but in the case with niqab she felt a different from the simple issue of dress code since usually head dress serves to protect the woman from possible unwanted advances and activists for women's rights in the country believe the underlying political tendencies are still living by the strikes at the new beginning versity. well there were one whereas any cop whatever else this thing's an important i'm not afraid of women's desire to wear head dress i'm afraid that this issue may be used to provoke other problems the parliamentary opposition meanwhile fears this may mean bad news for the new born tunisian

democracy you know because. you're worried that we may slump down to a new hedge monye rule by one of the representative parties and not to receive forty percent of the seats in the assembly the post of prime minister is also there's every tunisian is afraid that confrontations and riots may occur. numerous this year and says that they're not going to turn to me into strict sharia law states but maybe the country already saying that the worrying signs are here in the r t tunisia the middle east expert tariq ali told r.t. that the new islamist leaders are indulging in emotional populism instead of trying to bring any practical change. the way in which the young meats been operating that we in which this extremely unintelligent president mark good to see has been operating and the way in which the new justice minister than the slow

minister of going social and moral. to decide what can go on and what can even go on and what shouldn't go on television is awarding the real problems of photogrammetry which are social and economic problems and the plan needs to be implemented to help the boy of the people who outreach aapl addicted to the fact to be so-called moderate islamists are basically concentrating on moral censorship and what people should do in general is a sign of the bankruptcy it's because they are not of the people anything else so they are receding along these lights. coming while in syria there's a warning from the head of the arab league and the conflict torn nation is sliding into civil war it comes as tens of thousands rallied on the streets after the artists of an opposition group decided to boost cooperation action was to leaders continue to put pressure on president assad's debate is now

a priority at noon when russian proposed to draft resolution on the table fashioning a ban from the nepalese based conflicts forum told r.t. that the west is more interested in regime change. this is actually a project very much about regime change and the aim of it is that it's part of the war on iran which was effectively started and there were comments by the national security advisor from the us tom donilon by jeffrey feltman in his testimony to congress which has basically been very explicit about the regime change agenda of the u.s. they've been very careful up till now to acknowledge any kind. perpetrated by any others apart from the government forces in syria but i think just a few days ago the u.s. ambassador didn't met that actually there is violence there is there are. actors active who are not government forces. with the government meaning now rising

rapidly in nigeria often on the subsidy was axed if there is an arab spring started rationing lies ahead. the situation might turn out for one of the biggest oil suppliers states. how is this for a nutritious lunch in american schools we explore why pizzas are being lost as vegetables country where one in three kids are rude wait. a leaked cia report says the situation in afghanistan is mired in stalemate contradicting recent optimistic president's statements the sobering conclusion is deepening the visions between u.s. intelligence military but the outcome of the decade long report also claims that attempts to improve security are being undermined by corruption incompetence governance and taliban fighters operating safely from the brink pakistan on the fence unlist. believes america needed

a scapegoat and found one just across the afghan border. basically what the americans are not trying to do is their boss the responsibility of their failures and of what imus found upon baucus done and this is also corroborated from the fact that the nato supplies that pakistan has blocked today in pakistan then the military hardware which is then i envision level hardware almost nine armored infantry divisions and their support equipment supplies up on them ammunition bar stock and baucus tom and the concern pakistan army is that if the american the docking of the drawing from of honest on the docking or piecemeal is of a polygon then why would be americans need a bronze m one a one main battle tanks and almost nine ahmad in front divisions. of the pentagon's reputation has also taken a battering from scandalous footage that emerged apparently showing u.s. marines uniting on fighters. says so most of them are lies by their

mission turning out differently from how the army said it would the real challenge is to understand what is the motive behind such a despicable act presented by video of. afghanistan the main mission of the u.s. marines in afghanistan was supposed to be to break the bad bowl of the tale of. social the local warlords and drug lords in southern afghanistan instead the u.s. marines were employed as a free of charge guardians of the opium poppy fields that could have provoked this of told to explicate bull behavior in a full contradiction we were. of the u.s. marine corps. well fewer foreign wars while battling more issues on the home front

appears to be what most americans want from their presidential candidates. but they think the upcoming election bring any tangible change to u.s. policies. this year the us has the opportunity to elect a new president are they ready for a radical change this week let's talk about that changing that much i just don't think is realistic at all we don't move that quickly it's not the way our system works and it will move in different directions over time but i don't think it's going to happen do you think that's a detriment to us that everything takes so long. maybe but it's the way the system works and i think that those checks and balances in the way that it moves slowly actually in the long run well they thought they were ready four years ago for radical change do you think they had radical change so far i feel like they had a radical change in the wrong direction so what direction do you think it should go in the way of the people which is what which is when the government actually works

for us not for themselves the change i would like to see would be probably they would be complimentary because there are some libertarian ideas that are great but you just can't pull the social fabric out from the folks that need it you can't do it i'm a really hard time with the fed and i think we should be out of all countries you know we should be occupying anything but we need to take care of our own i think you need somebody who is prepared to stick his head out and do big changes like to say do you think that the u.s. people would get behind a leader that did that if they get desperate enough because of the split that's happening with people who are employed not employed to have money and no money they desperately nuff you look at it whether or not the u.s. needs radical change the bottom line is it remains to be seen whether or not they'll vote for it.

powerful unions in nigeria are warning they'll shut down all crude and natural gas production in the country on sunday if the government doesn't replace a fuel subsidy to keep prices down the situation is threatening to turn nigeria into the next arab spring style trouble spot as you only sewer from the sahara reporters dot com news magazine tells r.t. x. in the subsidy was the straw that broke the camel's back but it's clear that this is not some kind of mass action or strikes didn't by the union well you know this is the nigerian people rise in the. years of dictatorship corruption and mismanagement of their resources and they're the ones driving the fight against the government now just happened to remove. it was the stock market movement. just that it's a result of years of. disappointment with the government i was the only one hundred

not the war there will be more action across nigeria. the united states has a close eye on what's happening in nigeria as it depends heavily on the nation's oil and the young me as a kind of head of terror of the pan-african news wire has told r.t. that washington has every reason to be concerned. we have to keep in mind that right now as far as the united states is some twenty five percent of the all or less being important right now into the united states is coming from the african continent nigeria is the number one export to the united states and poland is number two in fact. all of that is export from africa into united states now seeing. all of the basics that exported from the entire arabian peninsula so he u.s. is very much concerned about maintaining stability in nigeria for the simple fact that it is so heavily reliant upon the all that's being imported from nigeria into

the united states. well now what else is making news around the world and first to the hundreds of thousands of muslim pilgrims who are gathering in an iraqi town cheers from across the country in order to clear the way to a holy shrine the city of karbala observing a high point in there with just one and about thirty thousand iraqi security forces are on high alert in the area to try and avert any trouble in the volatile country . a cruise ship with over four thousand people on board has grounded off italy's northwest coast at least six people are known to have died most of those on board the costa concordia were evacuated from the vessel after it hit a reef island of giglio late on friday several others are missing after jumping overboard as the ship began listing passengers reported aloud that ain't doing dinner we're told the ship had stopped because of electrical problems. the buses exploded into

a fireball in peru crash which killed at least eleven people was carrying dozens of passengers when it hit a cement lorry head on was in a massive explosion may on board suffered severe burns while recovery teams say they're having trouble identifying some of the worst affected victims it's not yet know why the two vehicles collided. polling stations are open across taiwan as voters choose their next president result is likely to have a major impact on its relationship with china which is still the key issue for most taiwanese despite a strong economy and high unemployment china regards the island as its territory recently signed a vital trade deal encouraging taiwanese exports to the main that aren't currently receiving a second term but is up against strong opposition. now millions of american children are classified as obese as a result of the u.s. government is making sure they get

a full serving of nutritious vegetables from the school cafeteria but there are still some unhealthy definitions making the menu in the guidelines. explains why. it's a super sized crisis impossible for america to disguise an insatiable love for food and big portions has served up a nationwide majority of overweight children none of us want this future for our kids as first lady michelle obama attempts to tackle the epidemic by advocating more exercise healthy eating and penning a book about the white house garden u.s. lawmakers are getting kudo's for stirring the how problem her efforts which i applaud in a single woman tension fear will go nowhere given the allure of. the recent decision by the congress to send pizza was a vegetable you heard correctly the greasy cheesy cheap meal known as pizza is served as a lunch vegetable to thirty two million public school children how because u.s.

department of agriculture guidelines qualify to tablespoons of tomato paste as an official veggie survey in november u.s. congress rejected a request from the department that would have changed requirements and ultimately removed from school menus congress has really shown who controls them and that's the big corporations and the big food corporations companies like con agra and swans these are the makers of the frozen pizza and they have huge financial interests in that obviously according to published reports food companies spend five point six billion dollars this year lobbying specifically to keep pizza friendly u.s.d.a. guidelines in place the social consequence of overweight kids has millions currently battling diabetes and millions more vulnerable to heart disease and shortened life expectancy granted issues such as corporate control and obesity are

not new problems for america but over the years the hunger for profits has come. as the health of an entire generation the u.s. department of defense says twenty five percent of the young americans are too overweight to join the military and that the damage is so bad experts say threats to national security. our short but quite telling unscientific poll found americans picking logic over the world of their lawmakers like pizza. it doesn't look good to me. we try to see through service but that's not what it's like it's much made of beer and all that's right. that's what the nutritional value of.

the terrible whatever it is i don't think whatever they're feeding in public schools is terrible knowing that u.s. leaders have a hand in cooking up the gravy and can also leave a bad taste in many mouths porton r.t. new york but if you missed any of our stories you can find them all r.t. dot com let's have a look at what else you'll find a russian pensioner gets five power instead of five would have to accidentally being sent a deadly arsenal kalashnikov rifles instead of winter fuel. and the pointing blame up to seventy six year old billionaire using water after breaking away to think a swanky restaurant in florida you can find the full story at all to dot com. more first hand experience what it means to be an entrepreneur in russia as pathfinders talks to experts who are discovering the country's potential.

yes russian managers certainly have a perception problem with domestic companies prefer to hire foreigners believing their talent isn't up to scratch but terry lindeberg who created the stuff well recruitment agency has a different story to tell. i am really fortunate that i've had a really good run with our business in russia i started sefl in two thousand and that was still during a time when it was a little bit of a crisis here after the ninety eight financial crisis and i think the key to our being successful one of them a very big one and we had an excellent chief accountant who really helped us set up the whole financial side of this business and that to me for going to set up any company in russia you have to have a good finance team we have one competitor here who set up their business right at the beginning of the actually right before the crisis so they came in about two thousand and seven and they really i mean they did not survive i mean they're here

but they've had to downscale their offices like a skeleton crew and that's because they i mean some of the things that they did you know they did wrong they had management that was not successful they had huge huge expenses i mean right now i mean we're still in an upswing at stafford which means that recruitment is moving along nicely i mean we're a little bit hesitant going into next year but we've all said we just need to get through the election period and then things will probably go very smoothly with any business for it to be successful you've got to constantly be on top of it and constantly motivate everyone to just keep going if you want to succeed no matter what the market environment is i think there's a lot of opportunities here you have to have the you have to have the drive to do that you know and that's what i think you know naturally in the world russia as well as anywhere else sometimes there's a fear of putting that drive into place or there's there are some you know barriers maybe but but anything can be done here if you just put your mind to it i mean look at me i open my company and it's you know one of the strongest recruiting firms in

russia and who was i you know i don't have the big education or the big experience but i had the drive and i had the will and i had a love of what i did and i wanted to succeed and i just pushed myself and i worked extremely hard day and night nonstop and i loved everything. that's the key i'm also really heavily engaged in sports here in russia so i i do take on do i play broom ball i would go bowling i play softball so a lot of different sports i'm involved with a metal really helps the first of all networking and the focus that a lot of it brings is really great like the type mondo for instance for me it takes away a lot of the stress that i may have sometimes on different things and i can bring it in here and just be much more focused and i am i'm always accomplishing it i think my family is you know it's extremely important to me and that's one of the things that has kept to being here obviously is we're here they're very happy here and now i get

a lot of support from them in terms of i mean everything i do it's for them really you know the love of my life my little boys are just incredible and i really have a great family and very close and that's why you do everything i think you know in life so it's very positive place to be and that makes me happy i think it makes a lot of people. so that from dentistry to the big screen that we've been meeting new kinds of ex-pat success stories in russia now far in the series if you missed any of our profiles you can find them all talk to talk i'll be back with headlines in just a few minutes stay with us. thank

you.

today violence has once again flared up. these are the images the world seeing from

the streets of canada. operations are all day. have a look at the main headlines for you now the eurozone suffers a fresh financial blow as nine nations get a downgrade from credit ratings agency standard and france have lost their top school and the markets into a shop for the single currency hitting its lowest market in three year. in his ear marks a year since president ben ali was toppled by an uprising but also spearheaded the wave of revolutions across the arab and celebrate tribute history.