gusting live from moscow you're watching r.t. a very warm welcome to our top story now it will be a soul searching weekend for the eurozone with credit rating agency standard and poor's downgrade in nine countries the biggest blow 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 the decision as inconsistent so syria has more from brussels. this comes at a time when often as it 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 france 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 bailouts is one of the reasons in the 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 it's comes just days after the premier mario monti had met in 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 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 . but vestment analyst patrick young says the downgrade has been a long time coming and it's 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 the edge of disaster for a forum 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 not up for grabs again it emotionally destabilizes every single aspect of the euro because we still have no leadership in the eurozone 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 where it's really dropped two notches in the latest downgrade decisions and in about twenty five minutes time next kaiser and stacy herbert expose those who are still raking it in despite the tough times. our italy's number one bank as crisis bites the sky mary on monday. running italy is

a leg breaker with ties to goldman sachs goes back years already so he's a cap with a capital you know he's of course he's asking that gone more or in the course of north korea from the south to come up north baby we've got a lot of people here you can find actually rape with your predatory loans mario monti's says the three card monte. in india is marking the first anniversary of the revolution that triggered the arab spring and changed the face of the entire region and while the country can boast a peaceful transition radical religious ideas are on the rise as renegotiate reports. 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 another and islamist party which now firmly holds the majority of seats in the new

parliament. political culture. of the first experience. making the choice between. political programs and towards hard. political campaign. pushed people to choose either with muslims and then muslims. but western tourists need to have nothing to fear the party's leaders say beer and bikini's irregular staples of tunisia's holidays hotspots 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 we're going to verse three several female students came in wearing. this the islamic headdress which covers most of the face leaving does the eyes open we're going to versus the authorities have evidence that's had. so the students went on strike

saying their freedom was being oppressed. 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 in lecturing and during the exams it's a question of security and of trust and professor believe be acknowledged as 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 thinly veiled by the strikes at the new beginning versity. a lot but bad about whether one wears any cap or 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 newly born tunisian democracy because i've had more worried that we may slump down to a new hedge of money ruled 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 to confrontations and riots may occur. a lot of leaders have with us a certain sense that they're not going to turn to media interest to sharia law states but maybe the country are already saying that the worrying signs are here. r t tunisia the middle east expert eric audi told r.t. that the new in this leaders are indulging in emotional populism instead of trying to bring any practical change the way in which the army's been operating that we're . extremely unintelligent president market will see has been operating and the way in which the new justice minister the

minister of blind 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 the goal of the people who outreach topple the dictators goes back to the so called moderate islamists are basically concentrating on moral censorship and what people should do in general is a sign of bankruptcy it's because they cannot other people anything else so they are receding along. meanwhile in syria there's a warning from the head of the arab league a conflict torn nation is sliding into civil war it comes as tens of thousands rallied on the streets of doubt a civilian opposition group decided to boost operation. western leaders continue to

put pressure on. the russian proposed resolution. rushing burn from the lebanese based conflicts or hold out 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 is 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 of being perpetrated by any others apart from the government forces in syria but i think just a few days ago the u.s. ambassador did admit that actually there is violence there is there are. actors active who are not government forces. and with antigovernment feeling are rising

rapidly in nigeria after an oil subsidy was axed the fair is an arab spring style situation lies ahead. revolution later in the program we are asking how the situation might turn out one of the biggest oil suppliers to the united states. was this for a nutritionist lunch in american schools explored pizzas are being classed as which tables in the country where one three kids or even wait. a leaked cia report says the situation in afghanistan is mired in stalemate contradicting recent optimistic pentagon statements a sobering conclusion is deepening divisions between u.s. intelligence and military about the outcome of a decade long war porter also claims that attempts to improve security are being undermined by corruption incompetent governance and taliban fighters operating

safely from neighboring pakistan nuri co-founder of the new world strategies coalition told r.t. the situation in afghanistan is so grim the u.s. might be having second thoughts on doing. it has been ten years that has not unified the country i said should happen it looks like there's no chance for the americans to see a government standing on the street however this could prolong americans. want to stand for quite a number of years i would say and the years are unknown at this time but it looks like it's going to be a long time because there's a corrupt government cannot function in the way that it is right now the fact is that there's a friction in the white house right now that some are say no basically the pentagon going to treat is the one that's calling up that same day you know we should not really rush in clark fast as we can. well the pentagon's

reputation has also taken a battering from scandalous footage that emerged apparently showing u.s. marines urinating on dead taliban fighters the minute you can see witness says soldiers are demoralized by the mission turning out differently from how the army said it would. be a real challenge is to understand what is the motive behind such a despicable act presented by this video from afghanistan the main mission of the u.s. marines in afghanistan was supposed to be to break the back bone of the taliban and their associates the local warlords and drug lords in southern afghanistan instead the u.s. marines who are employed as a free of charge the guardians of the opium poppy fields that could have provoked this type of total unexplicable behavior in

a full contradiction. ethar of the u.s. marine corps a few foreign wars while battling more issues on the home front appears to be what's most americans want from the presidential candidates larry half an ist now asks about his new york but they think the upcoming election will bring any tangible change to u.s. policies. this year the us has the opportunity to elect a new president are they ready for 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 is good 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 or i 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 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 the next arab spring style trouble spot any sewer from the sahara porters dot com news magazine tells r.t. axing 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 juden by the unions or liberal union this is the nigerian people rising up years of dictatorship corruption and mismanagement of their resources and yet it was driving the fight against the

government now just happened to remove our subsidy gosselin it was the stock market movement are you so you can become revolution. don't you guys the first. country a black people we were about to lose their leader and you know you know people are calling this dinner joint hamet town as opposed to the arab spring. united states has a close eye on what's happening in nigeria as it depends heavily on the nation's oil the editor of the pan-african news wire has told us that washington has every reason to be concerned we have to keep in mind that right now as far as the united states is it's are some twenty five percent of the all that's being imported right now into the united states is coming from the african continent nigeria is the number one export to the united states and it is number two in fact. all of that is. from africa inthe united states now see. a lot of it's

exported from the entire arabian peninsula so 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 look now at what else is making news around the world and first to iraq where fifteen pilgrims have been killed by a suicide bomber near the city of basra they were among hundreds of thousands of. the country and abroad are making their way to the holy shrine in the city of. over thirty thousand iraqi security forces remain on high and that. ship with over four thousand people on board has grounded off italy's northwest coast and the people known to have died most of those on board the costa concordia

were evacuated from the vessel after it hit a reef. late on friday several others are missing after jumping overboard as the ship began listing passengers reported a loud bang during dinner and we're told the ship had stopped because of electrical problems. the buses exploded into a far more than prove crash which killed at least eleven people was carrying dozens of passengers when it hit a cement lorry head on causing a massive explosion many on board suffered severe burns well recovery teams say they're having trouble identifying some of the worst of times. by the two vehicles provided. now millions of american children are classified this piece 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 parties 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 first stirring the health problem 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 pizza 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

compromise. as the health of an entire generation the u.s. department of defense says twenty five percent of young americans are too overweight to join the military and the damage so many experts say threats to national security so. 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. to some serious service but that's not what it's like it's much made of beer at all that's what. that's what the nutritional value of. whatever it is i don't think whatever they're feeding in the speech is terrible knowing that u.s. leaders have a hand in cooking up the ingredients can also leave

a bad taste in many mouths. r.t. new york. but if you missed any of our stories they can find them all at home. on the. russian pensioner gets five power instead of firewood accidently being sent to deadly arsenal rifles stood up to fuel. tank pointing blame at a seventy six year old lady and. after breaking away to bigger swanky restaurant in florida the story. but more firsthand experience now what it means to be an entrepreneur in russia is part fun to talk to experts who are discovering the country's potential. russian managers have a perception problem with domestic companies prefer to hire foreigners leaving the

talent isn't up to scratch but terry lindeberg who created the staff for 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 south pole 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 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 has a temp 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 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 occasion 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 taekwondo i. go bowling i play softball so a lot of different sports i'm involved with a medal really helps the first of all networking and the focus that a lot of it brings is really great like the type of 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 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 me 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 is 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. so it's very positive place to be and that makes me happy i think it makes a lot of people happy. well that's the street to the big screen that we've been meeting all kinds of ex-pat success stories in. the series if you missed any of our profiles for them all that. i'll be back with headlines in just a few. wealthy

british style. is not on the title of. markets why not come to. find out what's really happening to the global economy with max cons or for a no holds barred look at the global financial headlines tune into cars

a report on our. move. to choose. the books. if. news today. these are the images. from the

streets of canada. for a show through the day. you're watching the headlines for you down the. road as nine nations get a downgrade credit ratings agency standard and poor's. the single currency hitting its. present. spearheaded a wave of revolutions across the world celebrates.