active democracy the impact of people that are upset over inequality or is this about figuring out where the best investment opportunities lie that's what we'll have to find out we'll keep you posted but for now i'm lauren lyster here in davos . russian representatives at the forum in davos also have something out of this course of the business desk. and in the business bulletin board does russian business dream about the most that's right cheap all loans now that dream may come true speaking at the world economic forum in davos they have a new state agency tells business r.t. although might become three times less expensive for russian exports pretty tells join me in about ten minutes see that. russian that progress cargo spacecraft has launched from the baikonur cosmodrome in kazakhstan was now on its way to international space station this is the first space flight of twenty twelve

is expected to reach the us this after a two day journey through the ship is carrying more than two tons of fuel food in the equipment as well as personal packages for the crew members from their families currently six people stationed at the isis monitoring and conducting scientific experiments. for some world news in brief for you doubt this hour an eighteen story building has collapsed in the center of rio de janeiro reports say that two people are dead and up to eleven could still be trapped on the bubble dozens of firefighters and paramedics are working at the scene looking for survivors pick layers of dust and debris cover the surrounding area making the search difficult i would say there was a strong smell of gas in an explosion before the building collapsed. libya's defense minister has arrived in the town of bani walid on the lists of former daphne seize control of the area on monday the minister has begun negotiations with the militiamen who drove out pro-government forces three days ago

people were killed and twenty five others were wounded in the battle retaking of the town as a first major challenge the new government of pretty. one of the owners of the cruise liner capsized off the italian coast denies telling the ship's captain to change the vessels route this comes after captain francesco schettino told a friend he was pressured by managers to steer the ship to the area where the collision occurred because he says the captain was going far too fast to be so close to shore duty anyways house arrest facing charges of manslaughter and abandoning his ship before all passengers were evacuated from the us. now the farms of rural america produce around thirty nine percent of the world's corn every year but not all of it ends up on dinner tables instead of feeding the hungry most half of the u.s. corn supply goes to making ethanol the waterpower american cars as artie's

christine reports this has many asking which is more important food or fuel. it is a process that comes. with a price tag for the american way not just from farm to food. but from farm to fuel and this is where it all starts where the thieves are planted and the corn rows it is the most simple part of a process that has become anything but simple the production and youth of ethanol once largely considered an environmental one has become very political being blamed for everything from the power of the state of iowa to world hunger fifteen percent right now of the food increases in this country that you've seen in the last year are directly associated with this policy that policy a subsidy paid by the u.s. government to encourage the production and use of corn ethanol it lasted thirty

three years and cost more than twenty billion dollars oklahoma senator tom coburn led the charge to do away with the subsidy and won but the government mandate requiring oil companies to use ethanol is still in place so just about anywhere you go ten percent of what you put into your car is ethanol. even if your car is a race car. nascar's partnership with ethanol a sign that the pressure on the corn supply will continue forty percent of last year's corn crop. went to ethanol now leaves the other sixty percent to go toward food for people and animals and with the price per bushel more than doubling in the last five years it's no wonder food prices are going up when demand goes up the

corn for farmers plant more corn. and they can't. research scholar tim searching or says that leads to the shortage and increased prices of other crops and is not just this country in other countries where people rely on corn meal as one of the only meals for their families. the price hike has been devastating. ethanol farmers and plant workers argue that the claims are exaggerated since left overs are actually used to make high protein animal feed everything else from the fire or from the protein. and the fat though the corn oil is left over that is what overrated for animal feed and still it doesn't change the fact that one sixth of the world's corn supply is burned in american cars that is enough corn to feed three hundred fifty million people for an entire year. raising the question of fairness in the increasing competition between fuel and

food. in iowa christine for south r.t. . the business news is next hour with an attorney. almost twenty four minutes past ten am here in moscow you're watching business on r.t.e. russian exports will be able to get cheap loans things to a new agency created by a giant state bank the e b it will give up credits of just three percent annual interest rates that compared with an average of nine percent russian banks charge now in an interview at the world economic forum in davos they had a venue holding theater fraud called explained why now russian firms have a hard time competing with foreign rivals. additional purchases is so simple it's clear for example in order to support what you brought from brazil but if you're going to do it it's a double the going to brazil in the lead up to or with the exporters this three

foot or so close for the two in future years that's the deal so the russia looks good for a wide let's say civil group to the point for example where such resources are more if you will of the are doing this for the boys for the work we do we get started so we used to be ready to be called up to do the right the first. emerging markets are suffering some from the biggest capital outflows since two thousand and eight and vestment advisors calls were capital says in the past four months it reached two and three quarter trillion dollars and russia is no exception last year money was leaving the country faster than predicted but speaking at the davos economic forum the head of the country's direct investment fund told r.t. the negative trend should refer south to the presidential elections in march. if you put people to the elections. soon successful people come before the

election where do you think you took the risk so we believe that the pickup will be kicking off if you like free because russia my group called the stories told us what to do you know sort of the slow discussions with the leading investors to the world let me ask the russian we would do would open up the sections of the next twelve months to the full selection. and the sign now to have a look at the markets oil first and it's heading higher this hour but it got a major boost on wednesday when the u.s. fed reserve kept interest rates at record lows the low cost of borrowing supports the u.s. economy boosting oil demand this hour the w.g. eyes topping one hundred dollars a barrel brand is at around one hundred and ten and a half dollars. and now on to equities asian indices are mixed tokyo's nikkei continues to slip further into red sliding down from wednesday's close near

a three month high and hong kong the hang seng is gaining value at some more than one and a quarter percent higher this hour as traders come back after the lunar new year holidays. and the russian markets are quite bullish on the opening in fact the r.t.s. has already managed to put on. well more of those three quarters of percent and the my sexy is gaining one. and three quarters of a percent looking ahead to thursday strait and russia have gained from alpha capital says the focus will be on external events today we're going to see rule of bulk of us macroeconomic data which is to be pressured into so it will happen initial jobless claims will have home sales data will have global goods orders so all this should give us a bit clearer picture on what's going on in the us economy of course the market will be sensitive and also think that some solution of the greek problem is to come out shortly probably this is the major factor which changes the markets from

raleigh. russian banks increased their assets by a quarter last year and while the t.v. managed to grow almost sixty percent this burbank is still ahead of a trival its assets succeeded three hundred seventy billion dollars which is twenty percent more than the year before bank of moscow rounds out the top five that managed to increase its assets by almost twenty percent after it went through as sanitation procedure and received a record state support. and that's all the latest from the business team i'll be back in about fifteen minutes see that.

well good. science technology innovation all the developments around russia we've got the future covered. this is out of the headlines now vying for votes online the new dynamic in russian politics millions of people take to the internet and the presidential elections borrow videos and creative campaigning holding most sway the never. un is under pressure to act on syria or on the departure of six gulf nations from the arab league observer mission to become the security council is expected to vote in the coming days on a resolution that calls on the syrian president to step down. and plans to enforce

an anti-piracy though in poland thousands of people onto the streets after wave of cyber attacks on government websites testers are saying agreement designed to protect intellectual property rights will lead to censorship. talks to a british author whose recent book entitled after the arab spring predicted the egyptian revolution he gives his expert views on the middle east next. i'm talking to joan all broadly he's a foreign correspondent he's dedicated his life to writing about the middle east to publications all round the world in the wake of the arab spring he says fall from the democratic pluralism that the west assumed would take over was in fact rushing into the power vacuum is islamicists john albright the thanks very much for talking to us today now we'll start with the situation in iran because it's very much in

the news at the moment the e.u. has banned all new oil contracts with the country and it plans to extend sanctions on the iranian central bank how much do you think that's going to cost iran the e.u. and the global economy in general it's certainly going to cost to run we've seen today the local currency. level against the u.s. dollar in history and the fact is that iran exporter sizable amount of its oil to the you and coupled with american sanctions unilateral sanctions are already in place against iran it's going to hurt but what we're seeing essentially is the first phase of economic warfare against iran and the problem is the west has iran all wrong just as it has the middle east all wrong he believes that sanctions will increase the divide between the regime and the people and historically this doesn't happen there's no proof that this happens whatsoever people feel pressured and they look where that pressure is coming from and that's the west and so it makes them

more anti west and that's the only logical outcome he also hopes that if there is serious instability as a result then because iran is very ethnically and geographically divided that certain groups will rise up against the regime or there will be a popular uprising but again it's wishful thinking it's not going to happen at all and we saw years of sanctions in iraq didn't we it is is that a comparison that you draw you know and then we saw a war on all. all of this is leading to war hawks in washington there are allies in saudi arabia and israel are absolutely absolutely determined to bring iran to its knees and it seems like it's now or never and they're going for broke so what will happen next do you think was what does that usually involve what they're hoping for is that iran is backed into a corner and some incident occurs whether by accident or design that makes it seem

that the rain in the first hour and then because there is very little support in the west for unilateral strike against iran the fact is especially if it's done at the behest of israel and they need iran to do something whether it's the u.s. carrier a mine in the strait of hormuz or whether it's just rhetoric on the part of the iranian regime. it's everyone's up. to the extent that something has to happen and the americans wouldn't militarized to the extent that they have if they weren't expecting the final out to be war do you see that that could be the a rainy and looking the straits of hormuz the gulf oil export reach is that now promising that they well you know though it's not saying that it will do that just as a result of sanctions it's threatening to do that in the event that it attacked and

that's just one of many things that iran is threatening to do and has the capability to do it you are very worried about ethnic divisions all through the middle east comes the fore in both iran and also in syria certainly is a mistake in control of most of the middle east what do you think the outcome could be for the majority shiites iran obviously all of this is news for iran and in fact if you look back at the arab spring the turning point. in late february when saudi arabia was given the go ahead by washington. and what happened then is related very much to everything that's happening now because it's the only country that is a majority ruled by a sunny minority and iran has the story claims to the island and the u.s. navy's fifth fleet is based crucial to containing iran and so essentially what we've seen is a sunny divide reemerge in the middle east with washington clearly backing sonny

powerhouse saudi arabia close american ally and saudi arabia in turn along has taken control of the revolutions out swearin so for example its funding and the main islamist party in tunisia the muslim brotherhood and more extremist groups in egypt are on the record as saying they go substantial funds from saudi arabia the yemeni government has openly criticized for interfering in its internal affairs and funding radical islamists and of course in syria they are the main opposition is made dominated by the muslim brotherhood and the so-called free syrian army is dominated by not only radical jihadi is from within syria but also you have these from throughout the region where we're told constantly that there's no real threat because these are moderate islamic parties but of course the definition of moderate makes absolutely no sense in any rational because saudi arabia is often described

in the western media as a moderate arab state and i lived in saudi arabia for three years and i can assure you there is absolutely nothing moderate about our country that's all you say that . isn't a screen have stepped into the breach in many of these countries are you saying these weren't genuine people's uprisings at the time. the idea. behind it is that they hijacked the revolutions and. precisely because they were in fact islamic inspired the beginning in tunisia could never have been because it's right there in prison or and the muslim brotherhood in egypt openly came out against the revolution in a shooting the problem is that the motivation for these revolutions was economic internees here for example it started in the deep south in. south in syria it started in a city jordan which hadn't been experiencing

a drought for three years and in egypt an extensive opinion poll carried out even among those who went to her just after mubarak fell only nineteen percent of the free and free elections and free expression and so on of the top of their agenda their main priority sixty five percent was the economy now the people who are evolutionists foolishly declared their revolutions leaderless and they didn't have an agenda anyone who knows anything about revolutionary uprisings in the past and specifically you're the most ready for the seventy nine revolution in iran knows that what happens in the post-revolutionary chaos is that the groups that are most disciplined. and most ruthless politically then fill the vacuum and so when you couple that with the fact that they're then with the funding that we've been talking about from saudi arabia. able to manipulate the electoral process. they were perfectly poised to to step into the into the cap and fill the vacuum and

that's what they've done what about the free syrian army is what they're fighting for a genuine democracy and you'll see whether or not they're fighting for democracy is an open question what kind of democracy we then have to just took hold and go to the coverage that this jihadi outfit is being given you can't get a word in edgeways and trying to criticize it all trying to illustrate just what a horrible bun. extremists these people are very string of credible reports that are showing that. especially another gulf states have been funding jihad is not only from within the country but from libya for example and elsewhere i find it very difficult to believe. that it's all to go western style democracy in pluralism and freedom is what we're seeing in syria basically and islamic revolution

absolutely if we've been hearing constant greatly exaggerated predictions of the syrian regime's d. minus for eleven months now if a popular revolution was going to happen it would have happened already the fact is though they may have no great love for the cucumber face president. the. general feeling of better the devil we know and you talk about the arab really do you think the mission in syria has essentially played into the hands of those who are existing pressure on the syrian also or sees it. think it's mock when it makes demands while the mediating the arab league essentially has no credibility on the arab street and everyone knows that it's the top of the g.c.c. and its aim is not to create momentum that the arab league itself can then implement all very cunning and has imposed sanctions and suspended syria and could possibly impose a no fly zone what they're going to do is what they did with libya before you

remember before the un resolution on libya the arab league convened inconveniently almost all of those who voted were from the gulf cooperation council in support of the no fly zone in libya what the arab league mission is trying to accomplish is get enough evidence concrete evidence about human rights abuses on the part of the very seen to then take that to the u.n. and the evidence will be so strong that even russia and china. as of now one month after this mission started they seem to know the monitors seem to know more about what's going on the ground than they did at the beginning and so it all looks like it'll be going back to square one and in contrast to libya so far western nations to be an absolutely adamant that they're not going to go into syria why do you think that is it doesn't have a seaport. in the way that it's not on the coast in the way that for example. benghazi was on the coast in libya and so it's far more difficult militarily to get

in supplies it's also not resort to resource rich. you know obviously they went into libya because it has a great deal of oil and they continue to support saudi arabia and because they have a great deal of oil and gas there is no great pale immediate payoff when it comes to syria but there is a great deal to be gained politically but they can buy time and they're hoping for an internal collapse or barring that the arab league somehow money she's to weaken the regime enough that we've heard for example the. mayor of cutter saying that arab league troops should be sent in and so the west is quite happy for the time being for the arabs to do their dirty work john albright they thank you very much thank you.

we have seen the damage it has done to our environment more chemicals what the poor props we do not want any more new dmoz. our core system is just so that was a dismal experience and i'm just i'm just appalled but that's allowed to go on america. eating this unfortunately because we don't know what's in it there's no labeling there for it being used like the board to experiment you could be used as guinea pig. well now we have more questions than we have matches the words. like.

you know sometimes you see a story and it seems so you think you understand it and then you glimpse something else and you hear or see some other part of it and realized everything you thought you knew you don't know i'm tom harpur welcome to the big picture.

vying for votes online a new dynamic in russian politics as millions of people take to the internet at the presidential elections with borrowed videos and creative campaigning holding more sway than ever. the un is under pressure to act on syria following the departure of six gulf nations from the arab league observers mission to the country the security council is expected to vote in the coming days on a new solution that calls on the syrian president to step down. and plans to enforce an anti piracy door in poland thousands of people on the streets and the wave of cyber attacks on government websites testers are saying egremont designed

to protect intellectual property rights would lead to censorship. tough sport. hello there sport or not to good company again this coming up in the program. in the australian open victoria azarenka of belarus beat defending champion came close to in three sets to make her first ever grand slam final. still beat. fast on home court in basketball if you're really to claim that twelve straight wins in the twenty minutes. and in england scotland carp liverpool are fruit to the finals to face second tier side cardiff city. so let's start with

the australian open way victoria has reached her first ever grand slam final after beating defending champion kim clijsters of belgium in three sets the third seeded belorussian to open a six four but lost the second set six one in the decider it was strong again claiming it six three and the match next start for the twenty two year old. rushers marish up of all of the czech republic the two are currently in action in their heat of last year's wimbledon final the latest score there is two one two the czech player in the decider. side of the action will see the top four in the world playing in the semi only one match is shadowed for thursday rafael nadal and roger federer will chart on court in several hours time world number one and defending champ another jockey which plays on friday.