we've got those huge earth harbored. georgian scans the ballots for a new more powerful parliament and while scandals hold president saakashvili is ruling party. the russian punk band pussy riot said to appeal against that so you get prison term after staging a punk brainwashes main cathedral. the u.k. admits to political benefits to plans for secret courts with a voice in complicity to torture charges they may have tracked ten. years for russia and around the world this is r.c.

with me. thanks for joining it's georgians are heading to the polls and what is billed as a long multiple entry vote for the country president to be held saakashvili his ruling party faces a tough challenge from a united opposition companion hit by allegations of corruption and a prison abuse scandal he's an exterior shots reports now from tbilisi. fourteen parties running in this election but the main battle is understood to be between the party of the ruling president the ruling party of the united national movement and the party of a businessman whose fortune makes up almost half of the country's budget really has sponsored georgian dream it's actually in fact an alliance of six opposition parties on saturday the country saw the biggest political rally in its more history with two hundred thousand people protesting in the streets and definitely this adds a lot of spice to this election the importance of this election is that. when he steps down next year the parliament of the majority parliament will be able to

elect the prime minister who according to you amendments in the constitution will have almost the same powers as the president so definitely the party which wins this election will have the future of georgia in its hands right now the service suggests that the ruling party is in a slight lead but still the opposition still has a very good chance to be victorious in this election as this election seems to be pretty much unpredictable given the latest twist of events in georgia with the political campaign the election campaign ahead of this vote has been very very turbulent first the businessman mr manish really announces his participation in the election and he is then being stripped of the georgian citizenship fined for about ninety million dollars for as it was alleged using techniques in winning the electorate then in september the footage of prison torture and abuse was released in georgia which caused massive outrage in a country with hundreds of thousands hitting the streets and

a thing which troubles the opposition and many in georgia the most is the allegations by the opposition that the country is gradually emerging into a police state with the torch in prisons with the ruling party with the government suppressing any kind of opposition on television and the judicial system also being very much under the thumb of the current president and his party. the former prime minister in fact a former ally of saakashvili. once described saakashvili as a new or bolshevik ruler and that his country is getting more authoritarian so this definitely promises to be a very tight race we will certainly be bringing all the latest exit poll results as they come out later during the day. at a massive price has fallen georgia's prison abuse scandal many refused to buy in president promises of transparency and democracy is going off reports now on what's behind the country's modern image. brand new boutiques banks ras translate

a western style facelift in general is definitely something georgian authorities can be proud of glass was in police stations and many other new government buildings aimed at creating an image welcome we transferred state system but is it merely an image that the recent footage of alleged torture and sexual abuse of inmates in prisons has shocked the georgian public i mean you're comparing it to cases from guantanamo except it contains suspected terrorists and these are ordinary georgian inmates. you were the former senior staff member of one of the prisons who leaked the footage claims president saakashvili is perfectly aware of the torture thousands took to the siege and brutus demanding the arrest and prosecution of all those responsible while a burning bloom has become a symbol of the opposition since this is what the authorities are accused of using for torture in some of the videos i mean this will not be tolerated opposition

activists dutchy is a good idea claims over six hundred people have been tortured in prisons nationwide many died he says are to me our goal is to make sure the election is without provocations and the people who committed these crimes are punished especially mikhail saakashvili duchy was arrested by trying to kill me. the day after we met officially. he was given in prison meanwhile to see fees president saakashvili was busy sacking the police chief arresting all the officers shown in the video footage and substituting the stuff in all prisons with the police but both his ruling parties readings still dropped when you reach twenty percent. of lurch portion of the government supporters used to come from civil servants many of them resigning and crossing over to the opposition with an average salary around four hundred dollars a month is another issue sparking public disapproval in shiny new buildings can't

hide that. georgia with a population half the size of paris changes. the question is how the georgians want them to skin of. the sea and coming up later this hour calling for an end to the rule of brasil thousands more crowded to the streets of paris to demand an end to tough austerity that plagues the people. later prepares to leave afghanistan and its long standing war behind we'll look at the results for an intervention has reaped. the three members of the russian punk band pussy riot are to appear in court in moscow to appeal against their prison term they were sentenced to two years in jail in august for inciting religious hatred during a political protest as choir have cries the savior cathedral a verdict sparked controversy in russia and abroad thomas joining us now live so

what can we expect from court today sean. well certainly today is a part of the appeals process and specifically for the sentencing and what that means is that no new evidence will be introduced in fact there will be no evidence heard at all it is strictly a review of the sentence. now let me go back and tell you a little bit about the facts of this case and what that sentence is back in february february twenty first members of the punk group pussy riot performed what they called an anti putin punk a prayer in the crisis of the savior cathedral in central moscow they were then arrested and detained in march and then the trial began during the summer and then this past august that three of the members of pussy riot were convicted of hooliganism specifically motivated by religious hatred and that sentence was it two years now they could have gotten up to seven years but they were given two years

for this stunt that they pulled a crisis savior cathedral now today specifically in court they will be reviewing at that sentence it is not expected that there could be an appeal that is something i'm not appeal but an acquittal rather which means that they're completely let off that is something that lawyers do not expect but they are hoping that they can at least get a reduction in sentence possibly up to six months but of course at this point court hasn't started yet let's wait and see the case proved highly controversial with voices for and against the bond and that sentence in russia and the rule bring us up to date chung. will certainly immediately after the event itself ended the following. chaos i guess that you couldn't sued internationally it's bond series of mimic events if you will in ukraine in support of the members of pussy riot some crucifixes were down in crisis savior another icon was over by another

protester and then in cologne there was another incident similar to the one that happened in crisis see the savior cathedral and the members who were part of that stunt they go on trial in cologne this week in fact now also there was international condemnation of what happened in. looting support from people as prominent as much donna but inside russia it was far more just divisive in fact russia's a very religious community and people were very offended by what happened in the cathedral some people even calling for a more harsh more stiff sentence even saying that they were offended by some of the previous stunts pulled off by members of the pussy riot group now president medvedev has said that he doesn't see any reason for them to spend any more time in jail. that was excuse me prime minister medvedev president putin has said that he will not get involved at all now the orthodox church who initially said that this

was blasphemy and that the devil themselves had come to laugh in the face of the church they have called for leniency if the women of pussy riot are to repent of their actions and that's not really expected from them at this moment in time so it has caused quite quite a contrast firstly internationally very divisive in the country and again. people here are waiting to find out exactly what happened because he's. a moscow city court sean many thanks indeed. london's plans to set up a new system of secret courts has been rejected by one passing in the coalition the liberal democrats but might still see the light of day documents to show the government of the missing secret hearings would allow the u.k. to ease it defend itself from such allegations as being complicit in torturing detainees abroad his last message looks at all the emotion and. lifting charges of complicity in the bud that's what the u.k.

government admits it's trying to do with its plans to secret courts ministers have more secret courts a need is to protect sensitive information and the workings of security agencies but in documents seen by the guardian newspaper the government acknowledges it would benefit politically able to defend itself. from allegations like complicity and torture without the details becoming public there have been a number of cases where the government has the government's lawyers have tried to shut down court hearings and have things heard in private as a minute has transpired through the judicial process that what they were really trying to cover out was a lot of government embarrassment about wrongdoing. with the media agencies that these proposals if they're passed will sweep away hundreds of years of a british legal tradition the proposals follow a law suit brought by binyam mohamed who was held in guantanamo and all good the

british government was complicit in his rendition and mohammed won the case to the d.p. merely a student of the government and now they're trying to change the north so that government often a party in these matters would decide if a case should be heard in secret it wouldn't just be kept from the public if the proposals go ahead neither the defendants nor the defendants legal team would be able to hit the evidence against the human rights lawyers are concerned it would trample on the principle of a fair trial in effect a large chunk and presumably a very important chunk of the case that you're trying to run about if your client you're going to be. there we're going to behind closed doors closed sessions you are not allowed access to so if there is an inherent on furnace there is a huge scope for. future miscarriages of justice evidence m i five and m i six knew that britons were being tortured in guantanamo m i six helping to deliver

libyan dissidents into the hands of gadaffi secret police critics say that's the kind of information the bill is designed to suppress so begg who was held and he alleges tortured him by graham and guantanamo has a special interest in making sure that all. no more secrets fairly i remember the discussions that were taking place at the time it was very odd former guantanamo prisoners on one side sixteen of us and a whole bunch of government officials on the other side having a discussion negotiating a settlement we would have been able to do that basically we would have been able to certainly try to take the government to court but we would have to do it without hands tied behind the back even the government admits that black and asian muslim men will be disproportionately affected as if they who are most often involved in cases where said steve information is being considered and still the bill rolls on the plans for so-called secret justice

a proven so deeply controversial that they've been delayed but like a bad penny they keep turning up and every time they do it gives human rights groups another opportunity to weigh proposed legislation they say goes against one of the founding principles of the british legal system not only that justice is done but that it seemed to be done laura smith r.t. london and don't forget you can always log on to our website r.t. dot com if you missed any allow stars and here's a little of what's lined up for you there right now the power of nature in full view now as a powerful typhoon blasts its way towards talk here option for all these you tube channel. glass wedlock around the clock brides and grooms in the u.k. can now get hitched any time more details for you on our table.

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you're watching r.t. welcome back thousands have sworn to streets of paris to call for an end to topple state regime measures that take decision making from the hands of brussels president or land has unveiled thirty seven billion euros worth of cuts and tax hikes but people are most angry at the proposed fiscal parks which would see over spending nations paralyzed by the aussies were a few national explains why the treaty is so unpopular. it was prepared earlier this march by e.u. leaders including the president of france nicolas sarkozy and and german chancellor angela merkel and and forces stricter fiscal discipline from the u. members and it requires them to slash the public deficit traumatically oh to be punished to be find critics and people who've come here say peace pact is all about control the brussels want to have over the european union members if they streety

is ratified that means france will have to will be obliged to reduce its budget by thirty billion euros and of course it will affect life in france dramatic life of ordinary people i mean this budget documents this is what was already ready it's been reviewed recently and it says that it proposes to save thirty billion euros by cutting public spending and by increasing taxes and of course this is something it's not going to help economy growth but instead may lead to stick nation this is what people of com hate are protesting against. the city we don't want. the pressure of to stop our country from when you're resting in public sectors like education don't put this out we are protesting against the sincerity in europe at all and everybody knows that are staring he leads to recession going to live from the streets we are against the imposition of the austerity plan he will be very

difficult for us of course we don't want that. story to measures have led to the national wide protests in many countries and the protesters have been clashing with police well ols road to europe and many here fear that france could be the next country to face this reality was dramatic reality and they say they've come here to protest to avoid these negative consequences and not to repeat the mistakes of other e.u. members. team paris. the u.s. military death toll in the war in afghanistan has reached two thousand after a firefight as a checkpoint in the east of the country a nato soldier and a civilian contractor died when there are going to colleagues of gunfire and political analyst one hundred courageous she believes these so-called green on blue attacks have been created by americans. it's quite obvious that the united

states military is leaving behind a new war or a new militia in afghanistan in addition to the dozens that already exist in a move for him to the of go national army at least parts of that are well trained by the u.s. military and the national army is not turning against its benefactors as mentors of gun national army is is one of the blunders of the u.s. military in afghanistan in addition to. the midst of created a country with three thousand american citizens died on nine eleven the u.s. military blunders resulted in an additional two thousand americans dying out of one is done over the past decade and these are the american soldiers and of months to this nurse basically belongs purely to the u.s. military to pentagon to the cia because of limestone has been their baby and brave from around the world. muslims and if you are a photo of the burned koran on a facebook account have top ten but this temples the picture was allegedly posted

by a buddhist teenager a riot has a tongues buddhist community is injuring dozens of people the boy however said the photo appeared on his account by mistake his parents have been detained and an investigation launched. japanese police have forcibly removed protesters and dismantled barricades from around the u.s. marine base indices here. local residents protested against a deployment of american also great planes and staged a sit in front of the entrance to the base the demonstrators say the aircraft safety record is not up to start that following a series of crashes in the past. thousands of haitians have protests against president michel martelly in the biggest rally since he took office in office and twenty eleven people are angered by polling living conditions and mounting food prices and widespread corruption all aggravated by the devastating earthquake that hit the country. two years ago nearly a million haitians remain homeless after the quake. turkey's prime minister as

a while has been reelected as leader of the country's ruling party but his support has suffered switched his position of a neighboring syria the prime minister once again slams the assad regime saying turkey will stand firm by the armed opposition and won't provide them. provide them logistical support and dr hussein there made lays technical university says such rhetoric won't help them score political points the turkish government has miscalculated to be. expected that the arab spring would be. like in libya and like indonesia or in egypt a. lot of believe but in case of syria turkey has been good in the last five years particularly very very close to certain their ground. if you want and suddenly this change of turkey has done here. what the us is of

america and european union so just look at and this is why the turkish people do not support the policy of the government. right time to talk business when the time and the flush are good morning many believe currency was all underway so we're sure we punk. well actually many believe that the russian ruble has a pretty good investment potential i'll tell you all about just a moment but first let's check out the equity markets going straight to asia where japan's nikkei is shedding value in the first trading session of the fourth quarter and that's after the bank of japan survey shows the mood among manufacturers is actually worsening and chinese manufacturing activity is also deteriorating hong kong's hang seng would have reacted to it if it had been closed for a holiday this monday and u.s.

stocks ended friday's session in the red for the years so far the dow jones industrial average is actually up around ten percent and the nasdaq is up nineteen point six percent not bad at all here in russia equities ended friday's session with gains as you can see this optimism seems pretty unlikely to continue when the markets reopen and a less than two hours on the currency markets the ruble closed a last week a lower to the currency basket let's see those numbers there and the euro this hour is shedding value to the u.s. dollar. spins debt will continue here they are then as i said the russian ruble was down to the currency basket skate spain's debt will continue to rise next year piling pressure on the state as it struggles to cut spending the nation's debt will reach eighty five percent of the g.d.p.

this year and up to ninety eight percent to twenty thirteen that's almost three times more than before the property bubble burst and twenty two thousand and eight analysts believe it's only a matter of time. for spain requests a bailout and experts also talk of course about a new round of currency wars as the central banks around the world continue to print money many are hunting for a place to park their money and some see the russian a ruble as having a pretty good growth potential that sees itself through. the financial world wide be on the brink of war a currency war investors believe the emerging market currencies may now see sharp gains as the new look we did so flows into the global economy from the world wide stimulus measures local central banks in their turn are starting to him to be in to stop the car and says oh those trains sitting in fact the best is already selling

the brazilian free all the czech crew not found even the japanese the young and the government's made it clear they will defend their money from overheating by comparison russia's central bank is weakening control and pledges to move to a free flow to the next three years that means the ruble may be one of the few emerging market currencies by taking speculative capital of the central bank will allow the ruble to be. free floating essentially largely free floating and then there will should find it's a cooler bring value which we believe is stronger than we're currently is right now because of the factors associated with high oil prices because of the scale of capital outflows that we've seen previously that we're starting to see decelerate now however the effects of newly printed money could be lower this time experts

argue that central banks in emerging markets face a tough decision over whether to weaken their currencies to help struggling exporters and stimulate growth both allow them to strengthen. to offset the impact rising food prices that's you know what you call a business party boss goes. all in there you have it you would have also you back here in fifteen minutes good stuff thank you very much for that natasha i'm sure really well look at why some critics are saying israeli democracy is a contradiction in terms. of issues that so much there's a huge music history. to be here and winter we are doing this great liberation project stand to me here middle east and we are sick only for the forces of reaction. my parents really truly honestly believe that what had

happened was as a result of my father's exposure to agent orange i was born with multiple problems . i was missing my leg and my fingers and my big toe on my right foot i use my hands a lot in my artwork i find myself drawing my hands quite a bit. for my hands you know just as if anyone would. but they do tell a story they tell us story of. oxen. with

me i have who is the former head off the zionist organization and also the former head of the israeli parliament so i thank you very much for joining us here on our t.v. israel defines itself as a jewish and democratic state does this definition hold or is there a contradiction between the two and marketing why this sounds from plastic oh maybe it's.