the meteoric rise to stardom a once in a century meteor hits central russia exploding with the force of around twenty bombs and leaving more than twelve hundred people injured. egypt's support saeed is gripped by mass protests led by football fans who are furious over the damning court verdict that blamed local supporters for a stadium riot that left more than seventy people dead last year. incumbent rafael correa claims that victory in ecuador is presidential elections with votes still being counted partial regime results show him a well on the way to a big win. recapping

the week's top stories and today's top news this is with a weekly good to have you with us now the world was wide eyed of this week over dramatic images from central russia plunging meteor exploded with a blinding flash before crashing in the early on a friday now it's not hard to imagine the shock of the people living in the region as a fireball went across this guy check this out flashing across their heads it took a while for people to realize what was actually happening the blast set off a powerful shockwave smashing windows in buildings while injuring a b. will during those inside you can see some of that footage here from inside one of those buildings after a struggle to locate traces of the space visitor a team from the russian academy of sciences has reportedly found some remnants of the meteor or piece going off takes a closer look at how it all unfolded. it

was like a scene from a movie but with one exception it was real first the brilliant flash was big bright like he was shining across the sky you know blinding brighter than the sun the skies were lit up by a meteor streaking across the skies above the russians. over want to have thousand kilometers east of moscow where not just any usual glare on the floor i thought it was lights from a car then we ran to the window and saw this strange cloud and then and then this. would turn around and the wall was a gun and someone had moved it the series of massive explosions rocked the entire city damaging buildings and shattering windows. nasa said the explosive force of the media were breaking up was the equivalent of twenty heroes shimon bombs over twelve hundred people were injured including over

two hundred children mostly from pieces of shattered glass. the windows just exploded i saw one girl he then her head and a growing his hand we were told to quickly put our clothes on and run out so many were able to film the owner of the phenomenon later flooding the web with footage as rumors spread of what it might have been a stricken airplane a satellite that fell out of orbit even the beginning of the end of the world would mrs reported seeing fragments of the crashing all across the region. i saw a small can there was a weird smell but it was not a fire so i think it's a piece of meteorite and it's small during them no for now the immediate priority is to look after the injured and repair the damage to buildings especially the broken windows in schools and residential areas as temperatures. drop below minus fifteen celsius is going to take time to clear everything else but for now science

like this collapsed factory or a clear reminder no matter how advanced technology gets nowadays often when it comes to nature we can only watch helplessly and hope for the best r.t.g. go to peace can offer putting from the year olds where it all took place now despite the huge size of the meteor its appearance in the russian skies was a surprise it entered the earth's atmosphere completely unnoticed by anyone artie's explains why. you may wonder why the scientists haven't seen this thing coming after all it was quite a doozy was really large as a matter of fact buzz at the same time the scientists are saying that there's way too many things flying out there in outer space and although this one was a big one they can't really keep track of everything that's coming but seriously this thing waited more than ten thousand tonnes when it was approaching earth so the scientists say of course would have entered the atmosphere a mind blowing speed of thirty kilometers per second that's really really fast when

it entered the atmosphere it broke into several pieces and those went scattering all over the region this is the region that we're actually concerned with but it actually went all around the place we're only going with what the scientists and the emergency ministries are saying and they're saying that this icy pits this is a crater where the fragment one of the fragments has fallen of course we have to understand that this actually has been the biggest thing to hit this planet in over a century or so other scientists believe the last time something like this happened was in one thousand nine hundred eighty when the crash landed somewhere in siberia destroying thousands of square kilometers of forest causing acid rains to fall causing me and plants and forests but it's also one of the biggest mysteries in the universe because nobody has ever found a crater from the meteor or no no fragments of the meteor have been found so this is kind of a big mystery that a lot of people who are trying to cash in on this the even even today one hundred

years later but back to reality back to present day region of course there has been plenty of damage you have seen the pictures of the damage to plants and buildings but actually a lot of people are saying it could have been a lot worse if history is any indication they're all too. massive you will cause me. in russia the european space agency others that are out there trying to detect its record afterwards but honestly there's a lot of there's hundreds of thousands and their biggest focus is on the really large ones ones that are hundreds of meters in diameter zero kilometers in diameter that could potentially you know do to us what happened to the dinosaurs and another thing to have been scraped in is actually something of a nuclear hotspot in russia in fact during the soviet era this was the place for nuclear research so it has at least seven nuclear facilities that are located in

the region and a lot of people are saying that if at least one of them was hit with one of the fragments from an asteroid we would have been dealing with complications infinitely worse than we're having on our hands right now we would be dealing with a nuclear disaster but thankfully that did not happen and although this entire event was rather frightening and quite damaging still things could have been a lot worse and it's a good thing that everything turned out the way it did well as you can imagine the dramatic strike led to an immediate online response one might even say from the universe to the twitter verse with video being shared in the bloggers speculating as to what exactly had happened the impact also triggered an entrepreneurial impulse amongst some locals who wanted to sell parts of what they claimed was the meteor the most expensive pieces would set any potential buyer back around a cool ten grand however the offer left many skeptical as even scientists at the scene had trouble locating what was left of the meteor after it broke apart or to

easily be friends and kevin owen have been looking at the online reaction the twitter sphere is blowing up the internet is just chock full of funny outrageous just odd things people are posting with maybe a little too much time on their hands you know all this video is great and wonderful but then you hit twitter and you see posts like this tanks are passing down the streets citizens are urged to get down to the shelters lunchbox handouts probably have been arranged only if the. and you realized ok this is not really happening this is not just the same guy sits there and starts tweeting about what's happening in town saying we're being given chemical protection and gas masks the city is almost entirely evacuated we're setting up barricades and in islam you know we're joking about a lot of know the power of these things i mean it was a frightening of if you didn't know what was happening at the time if you're reading this it could spread it would startle you and you'll just think why is he why does it have so much time to tweet about all of this happening and then you've got you've got to do merely funny stuff to the citizens of chile i've been scar

already checking to see which superpowers they have god knows of you know the radiation from the explosion may have caused them to have extra to bring someone to mars what on earth for you come to our local weather reports it's negative seventeen degrees celsius in chelyabinsk there's wind and a slight meteor what's more clever yeah. i think so ok and then you know who is the guy who you know it's that one liner that happens around valentine's day pluck a star from the sky who is that you know what who promised to pick a star from the sky on valentine's day you're certainly going to town that are going to change of course and then you've got people from over you know english speaking countries tweeting about breaking news baby found in the middle of a meteorite crash that he's miraculously unharmed wrapped in what seems to be a red cape and allusion to superman if you get that i got when i saw that thought that was nice and then of course you've got the photoshop action angry birds flying in on the tail is

a meteor coming and then you've got the russian or bruce willis popular boy are going the worrying sign of sorts this stuff killed my brother please don't laugh. as years ago yes you never know you got to have remained in what's going to you just norsk in iraq right over there russia from the united states killed karate hero. because you know you had to go i was aware of these friends or whatever then of course you couldn't get out of our of the rock and down to. the crash site as he does you know as i think about it that's nice excellent lots of photos of his well also we've got one as well a football fan was over in britain for a couple of this one football speculating over that much for three rushes in the. hole just a day before he said it's going to be red snow for a meteor or a meteor shower would come down and say what did he know that we didn't when i saw this i was thinking you know what i want to know when the red snow is. you play spread so much or at least i just won't let you get on with it thank you very much

where you can find out more about the meteor on our website our t. dot com there for you we've got a special section devoted to the unexpected to space guest including at the exact time line of the incident as well as more images and firsthand accounts. of. egypt in the city of port side has been brought to a standstill by protests spearheaded by local football supporters the strike action affected transport communication as well as other government services this follows a wave of unrest in the city unleashed by a court decision to convict local soccer fans for inciting last year's riot that left more than seventy people dead. true has the latest on that from cairo. the ultra hardcore football fans who call these actively defense house said they will escalate in the next few days if their demands

a not match so we're expecting tomorrow and then the following the next three days for that to be similar occiput disobedience across this very restive city what happened today is we saw about three thousand people come to the streets of port saeed basically showing anger against the president the authorities they reportedly surrounded the governor building they managed to actually get government employees on science and they stopped the harbor from working and even went to the telecom buildings this however was not just the ultras the hardcore football fans who are in both other sections go to there were students teachers who staged protests after the death of a young student over the past few weeks in clashes in port sayi and as i said government during dinner as well so what we're seeing really is taking quite a step towards independence from the country expressing that this is stretching across different parts of the city what they're saying the reason that they're

angry is on twenty six january there was this court verdict to sort twenty one citizen sentenced to death after this deadly couple months ago that happened last year in february and basically pushed i.e. to people are saying this is unfair in addition they're saying that the anger all of the security forces so the way that they reacted to protests by following this very contentious decision saw dozens die they said that this committee forces attacked the people of saif live ammunition so a lot of the anger here is also got to do with the reaction of the security forces off the protests following this very contentious verdicts as i said they will escalate in the next few days people are predicting violence and they want to continue to break the coffee which is on the city. continue these activists opinions possibly bringing the city to a standstill for the next week well after the break we bring you the latest on the ecuador's presidential elections where the polls have closed and counting is under

way. new year's celebrations on the move without the traditional t.v. or festive food surprising meetings and new adventures stories of love found and love lost our russians teach foreigners to celebrate them biggest holiday of the year from let's go to st petersburg by train and you give them may be miracles. we are busy a lot of. the girls know what. school. when you've been southpark. other local what's not enough wealth is a law in the local needs you might want to community l.n.g.

moulton will be. done for the program for up artist i was fights about how much fights. fights. are right. and live from moscow this is r t i'm sean thomas glad to have you back with us rafael correa has claimed victory in ecuador's presidential elections as the first official results show him with twice as many votes as his nearest rival the socialist leader has strong popular support within the country thanks to spending programs targeted at helping the poor president is also known for granting asylum to the world's most famous whistleblower join a songe who is holed up in the country's london embassy geo political analyst eric

draitser believes korea's challenge to american influence in south america means washington does not want to mend power we've seen repeated attempts by the united states and other international forces to subvert the korean government to subvert the morales government in bolivia as well and of course chavez in venezuela we saw against a korea government an attempted coup a couple of years ago using some strategically bought off officials within the police apparatus we should also remember korea's oppositional stance. the united states and to us imperialism a courageous oppositional stance to multinational corporations such as chevron and other corporations which seek to exploit indigenous populations in places like ecuador now close to our heart here at r t he is known for granting asylum to julian assad last year something that angered america as well was that considered a pre-election move to gain some support here i think partially that's part of it i

think it was also a way of kind of striking back at the united states after their attempted coup against him in two thousand and ten it was a way of announcing to the world that ecuador was not within this fear of influence of the united states or rather that ecuador was able to make its own decisions to stand on its own two feet and also that it was promoting human rights and peace to the u.s. now where during his state of the union speech president obama said america needs to boost its help for libya and its neighbors to bring security to the region defending his counterterrorism framework he talked about the fate of arab spring countries and outlined plans to end america's afghanistan military mission by the end of next year more commentary from artie's going to church account in washington in his state of the union speech president obama outlined some of the external threats that the country is facing first of all pair of spreading to different

parts of the world for what he said although the u.s. is pulling troops out of afghanistan america's war on terror will continue to listen it's true different al qaeda affiliates in extremist groups have emerged from the already reagan peninsula to africa the threat these groups pose is of all . but to meet this threat we don't need to send tens of thousands of our sons and daughters abroad occupying other nations we will continue to take direct action against those terrorists who pose the greatest threat to americans although there was no mentioning of the word drone everyone knew that's what the president meant when he was saying direct action with no u.s. troops involved what he did not talk about was the limits for this war that they've missed ration is waging with a remote control the justification that the administration gave in john brennan's words is we don't punish people for past strike before they take action that offers a very broad scope for the use of drones to afghanistan president obama wants to

leave some troops on the ground perhaps twenty four thousand when they're supposed to be all out in the speech you mentioned ongoing negotiations with the afghan government on that issue and it's going to be a hard bargain because the afghan government wrists further spearing anger of their own population over foreign military presence one could sense a change maybe even your concern as the president on the results of the revolution in the arab world he said it's quote unquote messy he said the u.s. cannot dictate the course of changing countries like very cautiously very briefly on syria and there was a change of tone for those who remember how the u.s. was cheerleading for revolutions in those countries just a year ago with radical forces gaining momentum in places like syria like libya maybe the changes that we've now in the region are not much to their liking among other threats america faces the president talked about cyber attacks he said he had

issued an exact. agencies and key infrastructure from cyber attacks but he did not mention is how the u.s. government itself is carrying out cyber attacks like the reported cyber attack on iran's nuclear program while there's no proof that they're building a bomb this administration said it would view a serious cyber attack against the united states as an act of war but apparently when the u.s. carries out the attack it should not be seen as an act of war. borders closed international flights suspended security forces on high alert well that's how libya is marking two years since the beginning of the uprising that resulted in a bloody civil conflict foreign intervention and the toppling of the longtime leader moammar qaddafi artes and he said now explains why any celebrations are being overshadowed by desperation with the current government and fears of more unrest.

from our going off he has lost legitimacy to lead and he must leave the shoot at their feet it's impossible to imagine a future for libya with get daffy still in power he must. well gadhafi is long gone and we don't need to imagine but can take a close look the revolt which began in benghazi was followed by an eight month nato bombing campaign costing thousands of lives and left libya torn apart drowning in conflict and suffocating in stagnation still rich in oil libya economically is a mess despite rampant unemployment and an overwhelming housing crisis huge construction projects are on hold and violence reigns if you look at the country before the bombardment and the invasion by nato and nato supported militias. the country now you can clearly see that the country is suffering from the front problems that the not exist before the country's infrastructure has been destroyed

and you have militias running. free on the streets attacking people killing people and doing whatever they want so yes a lot has changed but not for the better amnesty international describes tribalism post gadhafi as armed militias acting completely out of control hundreds of them across the country arresting people without warrant detaining them incommunicado and torturing them all these points gadhafi was accused of by the rebels and the west now the watchdog says this is happening while the government is unwilling or unable to rein the militias and another problem is the south in december libya closed off its borders without niger chad and sudan citing a deterioration of security and declared the region a military zone well recently a video has emerged of representatives of the south libyan tribes declaring

independence for the region the federation of south libya they claim the government has failed to secure the inside of the country and borders and this is a result of stalled economic activity and discontinue a. and of essential infrastructure projects that have been driven by international partners well it's still not clear how that news is being taken in tripoli but it cambodia well for any chance of stability and finally who is reaping the fruits of this revolution well some analysts say it's an economic powerhouse putting lots of money into the region that the west just doesn't have while at the same time benefiting from their military efforts it's china the chinese have no boots on the ground they have no army was there they're basically getting a free ride from the military to. the west countries like france so two years after the revolution for libya the only certainty is still gadhafi is gone.

let's now take a look at some more international news for you in brief this hour in northern nigeria a security guard has been shot dead and a seven of foreign workers have been kidnapped when militants attacked a construction site among the nationals have been taken hostage are two lebanese and italian and one greek national militants abducting foreigners and wealthy nigerians for ransom has become a relatively common occurrence in the country last month's deadly algeria oil plant siege left many fearing such attacks would surge in west africa because of regional instability. in pakistan people have taken to the streets to voice their outrage at the killing of eighty one shia muslims in the city of kheta protesters in islam a bought and karate have demanded that the government boost security and to take action against the sunni militants who carried out the attack some families even

refused to bury the victims until they see that their demands have been met. israel's former foreign minister is being tried for fraud and a breach of trust hearings started on son. they have a door lieberman is accused of trying to promote a source that leaked details of a police probe into his business activities the former top diplomat had to step down from his post last december when the charges were first brought in a close ally of prime minister benjamin netanyahu if convicted he will be banned from holding any government post for seven years. in northern indonesia landslides and flooding have less left at least eighteen people dead and more than eight thousand homeless rescue workers are still searching for survivors flash floods were sparked by almost continuous torrential rains over the weekend. spain is engulfed in protests with thousands gathering in madrid and several other cities

and simultaneous marches but over quite different issues employees of the spanish airline iberia are angry at its british based parent company's plans to layoff almost five thousand workers that's a quarter of its staff and in a separate rally thousands marched against government proposals to partly privatized public health care political analyst miguel on home believes the protests are becoming more generalized with more anger being directed against the political system as a whole. the way the the work is so far yes he needs this magic that was affected between nigeria and which is there was two years ago has favored massively which is a ways off from above but the fact is that it is true that. the leadership of these holding is mostly ricci's best and they have been unable to see you to find a compromise with hispanics were forced by land them but that's that's the way to use with we have seen last year was mostly security of protests health care or.

education workers etc now we're seeing a more generalized anger of the system not just of the government but of the whole political system and this has to do with this kind those of corruption which are now very prominent in the spanish media people are very angry about that and what we've seen is actually something very new in spain very wide and deep from test that is it goes far beyond a stage here all the problems caused by this that. were coming up we explore what goes on behind the scenes of european politics that in brussels business after this break on our team. choose your language. if we can without any financial literacy there.