it's good. more people are expected to protest in the egyptian capital with terrorist square already full once again and it comes a year after the ousting of hosni mubarak thousands of protesters are desperate for the interim military government to immediately relinquish power dozens have been killed in recent months us troops clamping down on several demonstrations mubarak for the meantime is currently on trial but activists are angry that some of his key allies are still pulling the strings a new parliament has been elected and is drawing up a new constitution while the military still reigns supreme a mubarak era state of emergency law has finally been lifted but it gyptian author and filmmaker philip risk says that change is very little on the ground. i don't see it as being that big of a shift i mean we lived under military rule for thirty years and that gave the government the authority to do just about what they wanted today we live under

military rule so to me it's just a formal matter and that they they lived emergency law while we live under the rule of a military dreamt up since the military took over january twenty eighth over fifteen thousand civilians that we know of have faced military courts and they have received trials of anywhere between six months to fifteen years and a formal matter like lifting emergency law means absolutely nothing when we have a newly elected parliament that is still under the thumb of militarily they've tasted power they have massive economic interests in the country again everything that's happened in egypt really needs to be looked at from an economic perspective in that there's a group of cronies of one box and his government that were in power they've been moved out of power and there's a new group of cronies that are in place and central to that group of power hungry rulers today are the military generals and they will not just let go and hand over power like that without having guarantees that their interests will be secured.

with r.t. let's go to some other world news for you now and. surgeons have bombed a house in iraq killing ten people inside the home located about fifty kilometers south of baghdad it was owned by two policemen who were brothers they died in the attack ousted two infants a police spokesman says the house was leveled by the explosion of. a suicide car bomber has killed at least four and wounded thirty one in southern afghanistan it was targeting a nato sponsored construction team as they passed through the rest of helmand province they were in the area to bring aid and support for the afghan government helmand has been one of the most volatile areas in the taliban's fight against nato troops. libya's defense minister has arrived in the town of bani walid after loyalists of former leader moammar gadhafi seized control of the area on monday the minister has begun negotiations with the militia who drove out pro-government forces three days ago four were killed twenty five others wounded in that battle

the retaking of the town is the first major challenge to the new government or already. one of the owners of the cruise liner that 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 that he was pressured by managers to steer the ship to the area where the collision occurred the company says the captain was going far too fast to be so close to shore sixteen bodies have been recovered since the ship ran aground and the search continues for seventeen more. the farms of rule 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 almost half of the u.s. corn supply goes to making ethanol in order to power american cars as artie's christine has our report 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 grows it is the most simple part of a process that has become anything but simple the production and youth of ethanol one 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 and 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 for corn for farmers plant more corn. and so other research scholar tim searching or says that leads to the shortage and increased

prices of other crops and it's 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 fiber from the protein. and the fat though the corn oil is left over that is what over and rated 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. or now natasha is here with the latest from the world of business.

almost twenty five minutes past two pm here in moscow you're watching business r.t. emerging markets are suffering from their biggest capital outflows since two thousand and eight investment advisors or of capitals in the past four months it reached two and three quarter trillion dollars and russia is no exception money is believing faster than predicted but speaking at the dallas economic forum the head of the country's direct investment fund told r.t. the negative trend should reverse after the presidential elections of march. people if we can evolve you know we got the election. to the successful people all to come it will do the elections for you to do it yourself she risks we believe we

do so will we recover they could include hope to do like to bring you those russian magritte called the stories told me because what do you do when you go for blood serves the slow discussions with the leading investors in the world lead you to have to rush we would do would open up literally seconds into next one loves the bulls election. and less now take a look at the markets oil first and it still in the black but the gains are more modest than earlier in the day and got a major boost on wednesday when the u.s. fed reserve kept interest rates at a record low the low cost of borrowing supports the u.s. economy boosting oil demand this hour the w.t. guys topping one hundred dollars a barrel brant is just under one hundred and eleven dollars. and now on to europe the european markets are higher as a sour following that u.s. fed decision i just mentioned they expected the potential strength of the u.s. economy to benefit those across the ocean both the footsie and the dots are trading

roughly one percent on the block the sour and the russian market second ten uing to climb this hour and the r.t.s. has once again pressed the times points since last november it's up almost two and a half percent this hour now trading at around one thousand five hundred seventy mark and the my six is also keeping up the pace it's up one and a quarter percent. and on to the biggest movers on my six a boost in the demand for metals that is pushing the metal stocks who are obviously severstal is not almost four percent whereas now when it's steel is trading up around three percent and banking stocks are continuing to rally unimproved sentiment about the euro zone's debt crisis with their bank trading almost. four percent in the walk this hour and now into currencies the ruble is slightly lower to the euro but it's continuing its rally against the dollar all thanks to that fed reserve decision the dollar itself has dropped against the euro.

russian tycoon victor has once again posted the old has cooled assets he now says the listing of come chocobo will happen no sooner than next year's the companies you have to finalize plans to improve production the i.p.o. is expected to take place in hong kong. that's all the latest from the business desk i'll be back in less than an hour.

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. world into the future this month chunks by particles that make up the fabric of the universe find what you're looking for in the deep siberian forest prevent

a fire with the help of lasers in fibers pull out your tablet of a new gaming religion and let me in future begin all of that here in novosibirsk technology update here on r.g.p. we've got the future covered. half past the hour here in the russian capital this is ont he. plans to enforce. the law in poland thousands of people onto the streets and a wave of cyber attacks on government websites protesters saying the agreement designed to protect intellectual property rights will lead to censorship. call for action the u.n. faces arab pressure to adopt a resolution on syria to push president assad from power but russia has made it

clear it will veto any security council move that allows for military intervention . and vying for votes online a new dynamic in russian politics as millions of people take to the internet ahead of the presidential elections with viral videos and creative campaigning holding more sway than ever. when we talk to a british author and middle east expert who predicted the egyptian revolution doing so long before the eruption of the arab spring. i'm talking to joe in all broadly he's a foreign correspondent who'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 that power vacuum is islam ists john all broadly 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 that the mavens 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 only going to cost to run we've seen today the real local currency. level against the u.s. dollar in history and the fact is that iran exporter sizable amount of it's all 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 people leave the sanctions will increase a 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 western 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 still use of sanctions in iraq didn't we it 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 thing 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 as well 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. 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 reaches 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 if you are very worried about ethnic divisions all through the middle east comes the fore in both iran and also in syria if sunni islamists gain 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. what happened then is related very much to everything that's happening now because the only country 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. what we've seen is

a sunny divide reemerge in the middle east with washington clearly backing sunny powerhouse saudi arabia close american ally and saudi arabia inter along has taken control of the revolutions out swearin so for example its funding and into the main islamic 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 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 islamist parties but of course the definition of

moderate makes absolutely no sense in any rational it's 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 at all you say that that is that is the miscreants who 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 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 initially the problem is that the motivation for these revolutions was economic internees here for example it started in the deep south in operation in the south in syria it started in

a city jordan which hadn't been experiencing a drought for three years i mean 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 is the economy now the people who use revolutions foolishly declare 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 typical that we're going for a. goal western style democracy employers only 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 league do you think that the mission in syria has essentially played into the hands of days to existing pressure on the syrian also or sees it overstepping its mark 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 the recounting and has imposed sanctions and suspended syria and

could possibly impose a no fly zone what they are going to do is what they did with libya before you remember before the un resolution on libya the arab league convened conveniently 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 of human rights abuses on the part of the very scene to then take that to the u.n. and the evidence will be so strong that even russia and china. but as of now one month after this mission started they seem to 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 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 cut 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 thank you very much thank you.

the enemy. to . the be. pain and.

the big. thanks. down the official. your i pod touch from the.

lights on the go. video on demand. my old calls. are a sense feed now with the palm of your. question on the dot com. headlines on r.t. plans to enforce an anti piracy law and poland comp thousands of people onto the streets and a wave of cyber attacks on government websites protesters are saying the agreement designed to protect intellectual property rights would lead to censorship. a call for action the u.n. faces arab pressure to adopt a resolution on syria to push president assad from power but russia has made it clear it will veto any security council move that would allow for military intervention. than vying for votes online

a new dynamic in russian politics as millions of people take to the internet ahead of the presidential elections with viral videos and creative campaigning holding more sway than ever. for i do a true there are the headlines for you but now are the latest from your world of sports and from the australian open found favor at maria sharapova through to the final rory. to a plate victoria azarenka there but it's not only the title which is at stake for could become world number one if she wins by the russian opponent more of that just right. hello there welcome to the sports updates here not coming up in the vault. sharapova versus. russian and russian will do battle for the australian open title

and the winner will become world number one. still on beats and defeat on a dollar. in basketball's euro lake to play in the twelve straight wins in the tournament. and then england scotland carved liverpool through to the finals to face second to cardiff city. so let's start with tennis where maria sharapova has advanced into the women's singles final of the australian open after beating world number two in the last four the twenty four year old russian needed more than two hours to knock out czech opponent wrapped up a six two three six six four victory in the decisive match russia's top political stories our. first ever grand slam fire.