mired in delhi. from our headquarters in central moscow you're watching are with me and you so now it's four pm here in the russian capital thanks for being with us our top story the french finance minister insists it's not a catastrophe but the markets are indicating otherwise a slew of credit rating downgrade has rocked europe depriving france and austria of their prized aaa grades and slashing the scores of seven other nations leaders hit back at standard and poor's the agency behind the move calling the decision in comprehensible archies tests are silly and has more on the wider implications. 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 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 this is happening because of france's role in the bailouts is one of the reasons in the this 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 when it comes to italy 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 i believe merkel and french president nicolas sarkozy were 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 . well investment analyst patrick young believes there's absolutely nothing surprising about as m.p.'s latest decision and that it's been a long time coming 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 of the future of the euro but 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 sits on the precipice tragically and that's a terrible thing for all our viewers throughout the world. but italy the economy too big to fail has also been dropped by s. and p. many there are doubts into the reality of austerity and among those is the country's notorious mafia more on that in the kaiser report coming your way next

hour. here now italy's number one bank as crisis bites the primary a month. running italy. a leg breaker with ties to goldman sachs goes back years already so he's a capital cappo you know he's of course he's asking the girl more and the cosa nostra from the south to come on up north baby we got a lot of people here you can financially rape with your part of torah loaves mario monti says the three card monte you know it's a global aspiration to be a gangster on a wall street make part of a loan to extort money. it's been exactly one year today since the popular uprising brought an end to president ben all these rule in tunisia but little has improved in that time as the country

is still plagued by unemployment and a crippling of conning me it is seen a wave of suicide protests with a attempts through twitter for people setting themselves a light inside a week and as a rima go to school reports the only real change since the revolution has been a surge in radical religious ideas. 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. pushed people to choose either with muslims than 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 what is that this the islamic head dress which covers most of the face leaving does the eyes open we're going to versus the authorities have evidence that's being worn on campus so the students went on strike saying their freedom was being oppressed by 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 lectures and during the exams it's a question of security and of trust and the first be 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 thinly veiled by the strikes at the new beginning versity. a lot but bad about whether one wears any cap and 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 it had the cove kimock were 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 that confrontations in riots may occur or. not our leaders have with us a certain says that they're not going to turn to media interest or sharia law

states but meaning the country are already saying that the worrying signs are here . r t tunisia. the middle east expert tariq ali told r.t. that the new islamist leaders are indulging in emotional populism instead of real solutions to the country's well was. the way in which the army's been operating that we're in. this extremely unintelligent president market will see what has been operating and the way in which the new justice for him is to be slimy to start applying social and moral crozier to decide what can go on and what can even go on and what shouldn't go on television is avoiding the real problems of third country which are social and economic problems and the plan needs to be implemented rid of the ball of the people who outreach aapl the dictators go back

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. well as the country that gave birth to the wave of revolutions in the arab world cup the consequences of those events will pour on another day or may soon be following in their footsteps. years of. research and nationwide op rising in mind dear young spark fears that the world is facing a new bloody spring this time with africa under the spotlight. will look into what america stands as good nutritious food for their children find out how pizza can be served as a vegetable in school of a country where one child in three is dangerously overweight.

he was defense secretary leon panetta says the american campaign in afghanistan is suppressing taliban activity and heading in the right direction however a lead cia report presented to the white house earlier has cast doubt on that optimistic rhetoric suggesting that the u.s. operation has sunk into a stalemate. well several top commanders have signed a letter of dissent in response to the paper saying it doesn't so what understanding of taliban tactics and is based on flawed evidence the report concludes that troop reinforcements have been ineffective because of corruption incompetent governance and attacks by taliban fighters who are hiding out in neighboring pakistan well this may result in an even longer stay by american troops beyond the planned withdrawal in twenty fourteen that's according to comey a lorrie new world strategy coleman said. it has been ten years that has not

unified the country i said should have been it looks like there's no chance for the americans to see it could government standing on its feet however this could prolong americans be on a stone for a 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 the victim of a corrupt government cannot function in the way that it is right now the fact is that there is a friction in the white house right now that some or say no basically the pentagon good military is the one that's calling off that same to you know we should not really hear that rush in play out fast as we can. well just ahead with popular disapproval of u.s. forces broad growing americans will soon have the chance to vote on. changing that match i just don't think it's realistic at all we don't move that quickly that's

not the way our system works with the president later this year we ask what policies americans are looking for and whether they think we'll get them. and this woman created the most profitable recruitment agency in russia and now she's afraid to share the secrets of her success some of them at least join her in a few minutes in the latest of our pathfinder series here on our. powerful unions in nigeria plan to resume talks with the government after five consecutive days of nationwide protest against skyrocketing fuel and food prices the move comes after the unions threatened to stop all crude and natural gas production this sunday. from the horror of reporters dot com says financial decisions made by the government drove people to the wall but it's clear that this is not some kind of mass action. by the unions. this is the people rise in the.

years of. corruption and mismanagement of their resources and it was driving the fight against the government now it just happened to remove subsidy. it was the spark. movement. so you could become a revolution. the. country of black people we were about to lose their leader and people are calling this an urgent how my turn as opposed to the arab spring. well there are fears that the total shot down an oil export from nigeria could deal a major blow to the world's wobbly economy the editor of pan african newswire has told r.t. that the west has every reason to be concerned we have to keep in mind that right now as far as the united states is concerned some twenty five percent of the all that's being and right now into the united states is coming from the african

continent nigeria is the number one export of the united states and britain is number two in fact. all of that is it's poor form africa inthe united states now see the amount of all of this that 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 heavily reliant to a part of all that's being imported from nigeria into the united states. well with tensions in the middle east and oil fears dominating the world stage you can always keep up with the latest developments on our web site r.t. dot com among the stories there russian former envoy to nato throws a farewell party an orange thank you interfering in an arab players and military affairs where wrong could turn the arab spring into a. summer also. phone craze turned ugly in china

crowds help apple's flagship beijing store with eggs after the management refused to open up a cue that began in the early hours of the morning that and much more for you it dot com. obesity has long been a major problem for many children across america law many look for solutions the government stands accused of turning a blind eye to a trend that's causing diabetes and heart disease that spells profit for giant food corporations arches were reported i tasted what's on the menu in u.s. public schools. it's a super sized crisis impossible for america to disguise an insatiable love for food and big portions has served up

a nation wide majority of overweight children none of us wants 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. 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 serving 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. 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 comp. in my eyes the health of an entire generation the u.s. department of defense says twenty five percent of the young americans are overweight to join the military and at the time that so many experts say threats to

national security. our short but quite totally unscientific poll found americans picking logic over the word of their lawmakers like pizza. it doesn't look good to me. we try to some research that's. not just what it's like it's much made of the earth that's what. that's what the nutritional value in that. period whatever it is i don't think whatever you're feeding in treme about the cheese 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. a look now at some other stories making headlines around the world fifty

three people are reported dead and over a hundred wounded in the bomb attack on shia pilgrims in southern iraq according to local officials a terrorist in police uniform approached the checkpoint and blew him self up in the middle of a passing crowd hundreds of thousands of shia believers are making their way towards strine in the city of karbala bridges festival scores of pilgrims have reportedly been killed in sectarian violence in the past few weeks despite stepped up security. at least three people have been confirmed dead as a cruise ship carrying over four thousand passengers ran aground off italy's northwest coast most of those on board the costa concordia were evacuated on lifeboats or swam ashore the vessel had assembled are near the island of giglio late on friday several people are still missing after jumping overboard as the ship began with. iran's foreign ministry has said it has proof that the u.s. was behind the assassination of

a top nuclear scientist in tehran on wednesday meanwhile thousands of people have been mourning his death in the streets shouting anti-american anti israeli slogans he was the four scientists assassinated there in the space of two years all in similar circumstances the us has strongly denied any involvement. and now it's time to feature more trailblazers among russia's ex-pat entrepreneurs' as they share their stories of success. in russia foreign job seekers have often been preferred over local talent but terry limburg who created the staff well recruitment agency took many of the country's homegrown and gifted candidates out of the shadows and she and they have never regretted it. i am really fortunate that i've had a really good run with our business in russia i started 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 we just need to get through the election period and 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 every single minute of it so that's the key come on. really heavily engaged in sports here in russia so i i do

taekwondo i played broom ball i would go bowling i play softball so a lot of different sports i'm involved with the metal really helps the first of all networking is fantastic 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 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 is kept to be 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 you know in life so it's very positive place to be and makes me happy i think it makes a lot of people. well fewer wars abroad more action out of pressing issues at home those appeared to be the most popular demands from americans for their

presidential candidates more harford is takes to the streets of new york asking whether it's change they can believe in. 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 was 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 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.

on the way shortly for you we explore rome's russian influence and that's after a short break and a recap of our top story they were but. this

is art. to reclaim the american dream and reaffirm that fundamental truth that out of many we are one that won't we breathe the we hope. to me the american dream is to live in peace and prosperity and freedom and a government under socialism is not a government of free. you . have very motivated out cross the country who are activists who are willing to fight for what they think is rights for themselves but the fact is forty four bridge. we are counting. property counting and i think it's spread by

it's cutting off our. it's making real democracy. all but impossible. the official tee up location to on the phone called touch from the. video. smiling. and feeds now in the palm of your. question on the dot com.

about four thirty pm moscow time these are the top stories on our team the finance despite the downgrade france says it's not panicking in the wake of losing its top credit rating status as standard and poor's deems the eurozone increasingly on face to deal with its debt crisis. your sense news is president ben ali with ousted the new as well as leaders are years of ignoring the real issue the from poverty and unemployment in favor of spreading our broader global vision for.