it's midnight here in moscow the headlines tonight from r.t. fresh violence in egypt on the eve of a crucial vote as thousands of israelis clash with those opposing the controversial draft constitution and the fighting leaving dozens injured because the latest for you also. with us has already. a million documents being prepared to be released surely the promise is no country in the world remains unaffected by the new wiki leaks revelations that are planned to come out in twenty thirty. and russia's lower house of parliament approves a law banning americans from adopting russian children in retaliation for america's

so-called magnitsky act. for good morning from moscow if you just joined us it's kevin owen here at the new center this morning our top story first in egypt dozens of people have been injured in fierce clashes which are up to between islamists and their opponents in the country's second largest city of alexandria police used tear gas to disperse thousands of protesters took to the streets on the eve of what is going to be the second leg of voting on the new draft constitution there that has split the country carol based reporter bel true as the latest. cousens of pro constitution protesters gathered at cardiff pretty mosque in the second city even second city exam tria this is the central running point in the city in support of this

constitution they were chanting for the implementation of sharia law what happened is that rival for a change breached rights and picked a fights with some of those protesting because of the constitution throwing began between the two signs which is going to change with cars being burned as well as heavy heavy violence on the streets police intervened with take us in attempt to separate the two sides which it ended up being successful so far we think that the least thirty two people have been injured in the first round of the forenoon this took place last week there was fifty seven percent approximately thirty seven percent of the country said yes the constitution this round people on both sides are saying it's likely to be yes again this is because the seventeen governorates that are about to go to vote tomorrow a largely rural agricultural communities where the missing brother heads has a significant base in addition the opposition which is headed up by the national salvation front in

a coalition of opposition political parties that movements say the first round was rigged human rights groups who were observing the polling stations definitely saw a number of electoral violations which the opposition forces say proves that this is why she's actually yes the constitution or no saying they want enough judges to supervise it so we'll see what happens tomorrow in terms of what the results are still very much dissent on the streets behind me hundreds gathered on her again against the constitution so we still seeing a divided egypt with not much future of people coming together in in a short time. what does get you can always check twitter for the latest updates from egypt you can follow the course the referendum for most plus what's happening on the streets the school call home. a u.s. marine staff sergeant who your night on dead taliban insurgents and pose for photographs with the bodies has been demoted and will forfeit five hundred dollars a month in pay the officer pleaded guilty to charges of involvement in desecration

is taught to political activist david swanson he's author of the book war is a life joining us live on the line from virginia good evening morning actually from here what do you make of the sentence well it's absurdly low it's insultingly low but so is the charge and i mean this is someone guilty of creating corpses of killing human beings who is then prosecuted for having desecrated them after the fact this is this is the problem with our culture of violence that we that we think we're going to civilised war that if we didn't cut off the fingers and you're an aid on the body stand it would be ok so we have a long ways to go to get into or to a better legal as well as moral understand the crucial question of course how will the sentences be received in afghanistan where people reacted so strongly to the ins that when it happened i have to assume the reaction will be outrage i

would hope that nonviolent outrage but i would predict incredible anger that the insult because it because it's understood that the murder is unnecessary as well and that the murder is driven by the sort of mindset that allows this sort of desecration this sort of mindset that we that we see in all these failed applicants for the u.s. marine corps who go on to slaughter children in our schools here in the united states domestically. there is outrage across afghanistan at the cruelty at the racism at the lack of respect for human rights. how do you see the sentence affecting us afghanistan relations now the. i don't know that it will have a terribly enormous effect that will be lasting i think that u.s. afghan relations are are outrageous to begin with that the u.s.

has a real mission ship with a government in afghanistan that does not represent its people that the united states is talking about getting out of afghanistan with with nothing to be accomplished in the meantime and yet refusing to immediately do so and we now have . both thousands of the u.s. congress and various people in places of high authority within the u.s. government and prominent figures in our society as well as afghans of course asking why in the world not get the u.s. military out now and there's been no no plausible explanation given for continuing the occupation and so each such incident just stirs up that the debt the debt that sense of of wrong that outrage that is is constantly brewing for over eleven years now yeah i mean if you

look but of course if you're a nation incident with just one activist series of rather distasteful rather distasteful very distasteful a baby by american soldiers in afghanistan including the burning of qur'an in the u.s. run prison look at all these cases you touched on it just i'm looking at all these cases what i say about america's continuing presence in the country and whether going to go from here. well it is because americans like to think that their government must have some justification for what it does it builds the idea that it is ok to occupy the nations of other people of darker skinned people foreign language speaking people and muslim people we had an incident this week in the united states of other former soldier attacking a mosque to seek revenge for u.s. soldiers who had lost their lives of broad without stopping to understand that they were occupying someone else's country so we have this grew in hatred for muslims

for afghans for pakistanis in the united states it is it is the doing of the u.s. government and its occupations and its drone wars but the longer they go on the more the ill will builds both at home and of course in the nations the not hide and being subjected to drone strikes the level of of dislike and disapproval and and animosity for the u.s. government in places like pakistan and yemen that are suffering under the drones the u.s. is as high as we've seen in any nation for any other than this has to end david u.s. senator john kerry's been announced today as the country's next secretary of state president says as we turn the page on a decade of war kerry understands that we have to harness all elements of american power can you put a bit of flesh on that what is the main. well you would hope that he means something good that he means cuts to the level of the military and its activities

of broad it's hard to take it seriously because it's hard to take senator kerry seriously someone who just stored it in reversed and flipped his opinion so frequently in his failed effort to achieve the presidency himself that one has to assume that like most secretaries in the u.s. cabinet in recent years he will do. ever the president tells him to do you know there are those taking some encouragement from the floating of the name chuck hagel as a possible army for secretary of so-called defense there again he is likely to do whatever the president tells him but at least he admitted he was wrong and clearly and decisively admitted he was wrong on the war on iraq decided it was a disaster as opposed sanctions on iran and has been rejected by the us media as insufficiently subservient to the israeli government and insufficiently eager to attack iran and launch new wars you can't say that about kerry you haven't seen

that same pushback against kerry because kerry will be happy to go along with new war say this promise and thank you for your thoughts prevail at first on the line there from virginia appreciated thank you. to miss sanjay's promise a wiki leaks will release more than a million the secret files over the next year in publications that will affect he says every country in the world the whistleblower gave a christmas address from the ecuadorian embassy in london where he's been in skulls for for year and what was his first public appearance since august of his horse with. the world's media and a lot of supporters have come out for him to see even also holding a candlelight vigil he called the crowd when he came out a sight for sore eyes and then he mocked his six month in the embassy by talking about it saying me entered the building and it's become his home and his office right to the principles of ecuadorians as he called that who had taken him in and then he said that he is able to communicate to the people here unlike two hundred thirty two journalists who are currently in jail all over the world he named

a few of them and he also spoke of bradley manning who have put is accused of leaking documents to wiki leaks and he said he submitted journalists and others to the stand up to repression let's listen in to what he's got to say people often ask what can i do. the answer is not so difficult. how the world works challenge the statements and intentions of those who seek to control those behind of. democracy and more nikki unite in common purpose and common principle to design build document. challenge act now two thousand and twelve has been a busy year for wiki leaks he has written a book he's also made a show for r.t. and wiki leaks has continued to release documents but it seems that two thousand and thirteen will be no less busy a team have prepared a million documents which they promise to release with information that he says

relates to every single government around the world and he also reiterated his plans to run for the australian senate the message here is he might be cut toughest ideas or an embassy based certainly not resting on his laurels if you catch it last night we've got two new songs useful christmas address streaming on a website called where there as well you can also get more of the top level exposures he is planning next year. today violent games. these are the images the world. can be. trying to corporations rule today. the russian parliament has passed a bill targeting americans accused of abusing the human rights of russians abroad

it also bans americans from adopting russian children the move comes in response to the u.s. is so-called magnitsky and it's caused much controversy here in russia lindsey france says more than all the ongoing tit for tat. the most divisive part of this bill is definitely the provision talking about adoption of russian children by american families it was approved overwhelmingly by the duma four hundred twenty four to six seven and it's been opposed by the education ministry and human rights activists citing that many of these children that do get adopted by american families have disabilities and they're given a better life in another country now bill backers have been unhappy for some time about the adoption process that takes place between russia and the united states nineteen children have died at the hands of their u.s. adoptive parents in the last several years and the moscow has wanted to be more

involved in securing the human rights of children that do head overseas with those families this russian bill is in response to so-called magnitsky act adopted in the u.s. now this all began when that lawyer sergei magnitsky died in pretrial detention here in moscow in november of two thousand and nine he had accused russian officials of major tax fraud and died in jail while under investigation for investment u.s. lawmakers have wanted to hold responsible the people who it thinks may have been responsible for his death by freezing assets and revoking visas moscow has seen this is a very anti russian piece of legislation so this bill is in response to that it will not only freeze assets and revoke visas of americans that it feels has

violated the human rights of russians it will also doubt bad the adoption of russia's children over to the united states that the next step for this it's got to pass the upper chamber of the russian parliament and then it's got to go for a signature. by the president. in france there are growing racism violent nationalism and abuse of rights of minorities and prisoners these are just some of the things russia is accusing the european union of highlighting a decline in liberties lately a stinging report indeed focusing on the e.u. also points to an abuse of power in dispersing street demonstrators constantine dog of the foreign ministry's commissioner for human rights explain to us at r.t. the reason behind moscow's targeting of your. weight the european union because the european union positions and most of its members position themselves as. blue works of democracy as certain yardsticks by

which the international community absolutely must measure its own record wreckers in the field of human rights and nobody disputes by the way the fact that european union is surgeon the european quite a number of its members not all but quite a number of its members develop democracies but what we see is there despite those effects there are some other facts there are a very serious challenges and problems in the european union and the in each and every or its member countries. if you have cameras. so yemen's president attempts to break away from the political heritage of the country's ousted leader whether washington showing increasing interest in the internal affairs of the gulf state now we pick out

a part of it later we find out why. it sounds like a dragon crashing through the forest but it is in fact technology versus trees and would you believe it this machine can fail and strip hundreds of them each day when building this facility we wanted to use advanced technology that would increase efficiency and allow us not to use manual labor but also this provides for better quality goods as a result we were able to conquer western markets the demand for korean birchwood is high since our production line is quite efficient where over to work for higher wages to our employees the trunks end up here where they turned into planks which branch off for all manner of uses these would export a march but not all of it goes with gold. given the museum island of traditional

methods they used to build and maintain churches and dwellings dating back hundreds of years in this whole what can we use of what. complexity these planks are about to become part of something which exemplifies the combination of tradition and technology. but here at the valley are all viking boat makers what is fashioned into their souls new and old they range from small private boat to replicas used in the historical t.v. series hornblower are going away with my boat some are all special they're like children to me we have to design and build them from scratch it's always sad when we have to part ways every time you see the way well we remain a dark and powerful. gets much of his timber from karelia saying custom is pine for it's high quality wood. which brings us up to the first six million cubic metres of

wood is cut down in careers forests every year that goes to make everything from farm houses to firewood and with growing is proximity to europe and the baltic states big forests big business. you know sometimes you see a story. you think you understand it and then you glimpse something else. and realize that everything you. are.

following this is r.t. it's nice prime minister mario monti has resigned tonight it means the country is therefore preparing for early elections expected in february the been outspent comes out of the country's upper house of parliament approved next year's budget earlier monti warned italy's president. that he would resign after this vote this is happening now three months before the shuttle the end of his term he said he lost the backing you need after silvio berlusconi's party withdrew its

parliamentary support for. four of greece's largest banks could be in line for a bailout after reporting huge losses this year together they'll need about twenty seven billion euros worth of loans to stay afloat greece has been relying on international bailout funds since twenty ten leading to tough austerity measures being forced upon the population economist dimitris you're not. the only greeks who bear the brunt of the bank's losses. the loans on which. this recapitalization of the banking sector is going to greece are coming from the troika the e.u. the i.m.f. and the e.c.b. and they are going to be repaid they are going to be part of the greek it national debt which is going to be paid by the greek taxpayer we had forty thousand small businesses closing in closing this year alone three hundred additional

thousand of job losses as a total unemployment rate of twenty six percent so we have really. on the one hand austerity on the other hand bank inability to provide liquidity for the market russia cooperation should be defined by choice and not forced by necessity that so europe sees future ties with russia and indeed it's a view that second by president putin too is in brussels right now for talks with the blocs leaders for the first time since his return to the kremlin and his electorate esky as well. a lot of speculation happened before the summit that this will be a meeting of confrontation rather than a corporation but it actually turned out absolutely the opposite scenario all these speakers but also one started off by saying that the trade turnover between the e.u. and russia has grown significantly now it's exceeding three hundred billion euros a year and this is a good sign but both sides expressed their willingness to make it

a corporation by choice not by necessity our relation as a huge potential that can still be explored as we have proposed to president putin we should drill for an interdependent spend their society into an interdependent space shows but clearly the biggest contradictions still remain in the issues of the energy supplies from russia to the european continent i'd like to remind to our viewers that the e.u. still has a certain accusations and certainly has some things they say about their russian gas giant gazprom wanting them to allow the access to the governmental access to their pipelines in europe while gas from certainly says this may not happen but today we've heard a lot of statements from both the european union leaders and putin on that issue in particular. saying that russia is not against all these kind of regulations but the only problem is that the two thousand and nine legislation made by europe in terms

of the monopoly on the gas pipes now concerns the deals which had been struck before that and the russian president described that as completely uncivilized still hoping that the sides will be managed will manage to find some sort of compromise or during the press conference the energy issue took the majority of the of the time from the speakers and in the end of the press conference was even humorous about the very rather long reply by mr barroso. my friend of many years mr barroso has been explaining his position on gas prices for so long. because he realizes that he's wrong just read our cooperation agreement with the here plus gas prices are dictated by markets not by government. definitely the energy sector is very important and certainly dominated the talks but of course size they also talked about the visa free travel for e.u. citizens and russians saying that this is a possibility in the various nearest future and also touching upon the geopolitical

issues such as the syrian conflict where and certainly reiterated russia's stance that this has to be dealt with behind the negotiations table not by the violence not by a military conflict and there seem to be lots of understanding between the e.o.p. and leaders and reporting on that and there were yet that conflict in syria has also been raised by russia's foreign minister to an exclusive interview he gave to us so he believes that nato is recent decision to deploy patrick missiles on the turkish border may not be just designed to protect against drugs from syrian territory he is now suggesting there are indications the systems could also be useful against iran talking about a possible regime change in syria the foreign minister insisted that russia will play no part. in the business of regime change. some of the. regional players were suggesting to us why don't you tell president to leave we will arrange for some safe haven for him

my answer is very simple if indeed those who suggest the stores have this in mind they should take it directly to president that's why show the use ourselves. if present us of those interested this must be discussed directly with him. yemen is in for defense shake of the u.s. backed president tries to break away from the legacy of the country's ousted leader the former president following must protest almost a year ago under a power transfer brokered by washington and the country's gulf neighbors he's going to check on that explores why the u.s. and so engaged in yemen's internal affairs these days. as washington continues to make a moral case for its covert wars on terror yemen is presented as a place that is full of terry getting ready to attack america but very few think of yemen as a chokepoint

a vast economic interest yemen is the poorest country in the middle east but the poorest country on one of the most important trade routes in the wall the bubble manned up straight most people have heard about the southwest canal well of course we almost broke out over the canal right that's how important it is but bob amanda doesn't instantly ring a bell although it's basically an extension of the suez canal and is of similar strategic importance almost all of europe's trade with china japan india and the rest of asia passes through babel manned up every day that's how important it is some argue that washington sees terrorism in yemen as a problem in a sense that it could have an adverse impact on economic interests at stake the united states wouldn't be engaged in such a conflict in yemen if it didn't hold very specific geopolitical and strategic excess city for the u.s. i think most importantly of course is access to bob all month straight which is one

of the highest trafficked waterways in the world. the u.s. already has a vast military presence in the persian gulf to secure key oil shipping lanes under the banner of chasing terrorists the us is setting up new drone bases on the arabian peninsula including one in djibouti which is on the other side of the strait of babel man that the arrangement of the united states government has with the yemeni government is basically one of bribery we bribe them with money and weapons and in exchange we get to bomb their country with impunity. but it may be a dangerous proposition for the yemeni government because of the uproar this crisis of caused among the population. an american plane this place and killed seventeen people they were innocent they did not deserve to die we wanted so late to go we were protesting a year for it to happen he left what do we have now americans are coming to our land to kill us the journalist who shot these images of

a two thousand and nine drone strike in yemen that killed fourteen women and twenty one children is now in jail abdul a high to shine was accused of aiding terrorists he was about to be released but the yemeni government reverse this decision after a call from the white house because of the secrecy surrounding the program there is no way of knowing when the administration is out of target and some fear washington might continue the bombing to maintain control in the region the challenge here is something similar to what happened in the former yugoslavia when when they were looking for targets to buy in serbia prior to the dayton accord and the military. planners came to to richard holbrooke and they said well you know honestly we've run out of targets we bombed everything and he's in holbrooke so we have to keep this bombing up and they say we've already had these stories to bomb them again by insects.