we need. a meteorite rise to stardom a once in a century media or hits central russia exploding with a force of around twenty hiroshima bombs and leaving more than twelve hundred people injured. egypt's sports i eat is gripped by mass protests led by a football fans who are furious over the damning court verdict that blamed a local supporters for a stadium riot that left more than seventy people dead last year. incumbent celebrates victory in ecuador's presidential elections as his nearest rivals concede defeat despite votes still being counted.

and recapping the week's top stories and today's top news this is r.t. with the weekly i'm sean thomas glad to have you with us now the world was wide died this week over dramatic images from central russia a plunging media or exploded with a blinding flash before crashing into the urals early on friday now it's not hard to imagine the complete shock and surprise as people saw a flash of light zipping across the sky in fact a blast set off a powerful shockwave smashing the windows taking people a while to figure out exactly what was happening now inside buildings glass smashing causing chaos you can see in some of the injured is the images that we have here now injuring a group of people as well archie's you could piece going off takes a closer look at what happened and how it all played out.

it was like a scene from a movie but with one exception it was real first the brilliant flash this big bright like him 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. or one of the half thousand kilometers east of moscow where not just any usual glare on the floor i thought it all lies from a cockpit then we went 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 or breaking up was the equivalent of two

one to hear oshima 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 had and a bring 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 sam perjures. drop below minus fifty celsius is going to take time to clear everything else would 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 because you've got to keep going off reporting in there from the urals 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 parties eating a 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 are just 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 weighed more than ten thousand tons when it was approaching earth so the scientists say of course when it entered the atmosphere it mindblowing the 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 this scientists believe the last time something like this happened was in one thousand nine hundred eighty two when the door crash landed somewhere in siberia destroying thousands of square kilometers of forest causing acid rains to fall causing mutations and plants and forest but it's also one of the biggest mysteries in the universe because nobody has ever found a crater from the meteor no no fragments of the meteor have been found so this is kind of a big mystery that a lot of people are trying to cash in on this the even even today one hundred years

later but back to reality back to present a 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. and 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 over kilometers in diameter that could actually 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. the dramatic strike led to an immediate online response with a video being shared and bloggers speculating as to what had just happened the impact also triggered an entrepreneurial impulse of sorts 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 a cool grand however the offer many skeptical was even scientists at the scene had trouble locating what was left of the meteor after it broke apart. lindsay france

and our own cabinet oh and i have been looking at the online reaction. the twitter sphere is blowing up with 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 out of the shelters lunch box handouts pardon had been arranged only at the end 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 engaging islam you know we're joking about the power of these things i mean it was a frightening event if you didn't know what was happening at the time if you're reading this it could spread it would startle you and everyone else why is he why does it have so much time to tweet about all of this happening and then you got you got they did nearly 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 expertise and so when tomorrow what i'm going through and you come to our local weather reports it's negative seventeen degrees celsius in chelyabinsk there's wind and a slight meteor. but really when you hate earlier 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. in the sky on valentine's day you're certainly going to town that entertain of course and then you've got people from all over you know english speaking countries tweeting about breaking news baby found in the middle of the media right crush that he's miraculously unharmed wrapped in what seems to be a red cape and allusion to superman if you get if you get that i got it pretty quick when i saw that but that was nice and then of course you've got the photo shop action angry birds flying in and the tail is a meteor coming and then you've got the russian or bruce willis popular boy going

around the world dinosaurs this stuff killed my brother please don't laugh. dollars years ago yes you never know you got to have remained in what's going to be just norsk in iraq right over there russia from the united states shield karate hero. because you know you have to go as a way out of these friends or whatever then of course put an hour of the rock down to the crash site as he does you know as you do i think i'm going to go that's nice excellent lots of photos. also we've got one as well a football for was over in britain for a couple of this one football speculating over that much for three rushes in the. hall just a day before he said it could be read snow or a meteor or a meteor shower would come down and. 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 a loser just won't let you get on with it thank you very much. and you can find out

more about the meteor on our website dot com there for you we have a special section devoted to the unexpected to space interloper including the exact timeline of the incident as well as more images and firsthand accounts. the egyptian city of port site 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 are true has the latest on that from cairo. the ultra hardcore football fans who call these acts that we didn't see how upset they will escalate in the next few days if their demands

a not match to be 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 show anger against the president and the authorities they reportedly surrounded the governor's building they managed to actually get government employees on the science 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 were involved other sectors got involved there were student 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 protests during dinner as well that so what we're seeing really is taking quite a step towards independence from the country expressing their anger and 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 side citizen sentenced to death after this deadly couple months ago that happened last year in february and basically poor saeed 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 poor following this very contentious decision saw dozens die they said that this committee forces attacked the people of. live ammunition so a lot of the anger here is also got to do with the reaction of the security forces on the protests following this very contentious verdict as i said they will escalate in the next few days people are predicting violence and they want to continue to break the curfew which is on the city. continue these activists have been forcibly bringing the city to a standstill for the next week. after the break we bring you the latest on ecuador's presidential elections where the polls have closed and the counting is

underway. new year's celebrations on the move without the traditional t.v. all festive food surprising meetings and new adventures stories of love found and love lost our russians teach foreigners to celebrate then biggest holiday of the year for a must go to st petersburg by train over you may be miracles. we are focusing on the problem. because no one. when you've been southpark. other local what's not going up up is a law in the local needs you want a community l.n.g. molton would be. done for

a match up artist i was fights about how much fights. fights. fights are right. live from moscow this is our team welcome back now rafael correa has claimed victory in ecuador as presidential elections as the first official results are showing 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 the president is also known for granting asylum to the world's most famous whistleblower julian assange 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 him in power we've seen repeated attempts by the united states and other international forces to subvert the korean government to subvert the morale is government in bolivia as well and of course chavez in venezuela we saw against the 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 to 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 assange as 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 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 and america's afghanistan military mission by the end of next year more from artie's going to church account with commentary from washington and 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 to this true different al qaeda affiliates in extremist groups have emerged from the already raven 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 america although there was no mentioning of the word drone everyone knew that's what the president meant when saying direct action with no u.s. troops involved what he did not talk about was the limits for this war that there's an inspiration is waging with a remote control the justification that the administration gave john brennan's words 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 twenty fourteen when they're supposed to be all out in the speech you mentioned ongoing negotiations with the afghan government on that issue to be a hard bargain because the afghan government risks further spearing anger of their own population over foreign military presence one could sense that 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 change in countries like very very briefly pressure on syria there was a change of. 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 the administration sees now in the region are not much to their liking among other threats america faces the president talked about. he said he had issued an executive order to protect government agencies. from cyber attacks

but he did not mention is how the u.s. government itself. the record of cyber attack on iran's nuclear program while there is no proof that they're building in this administration said it would view a serious cyber attack and. the united states is 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 to international flights suspended security forces on high alert 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's now explains why any celebrations are being overshadowed by desperation with the current government and fears of more unrest. ramadan's he has lost legitimacy to lead and he must leave the shoot at their feet

is impossible to imagine a future for libya with good definitely 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

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 in 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 use there and 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.

and now let's take a look at some other international news in brief for you this hour in northern nigeria a security guard has been shot dead and seven foreign workers have been kidnapped when militants attacked a construction site among the nationals thought to have been taken hostage or to 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 the 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. protestors in islamabad and karate have demanded the government boost security and take action against of the sunni militants who carried out the attack some families even refused to bury the victims until they see their demands answered israel's former

foreign minister is being tried. israel's foreign minister now is being tried for fraud and breach of trust hearing. started on sunday adore lieberman is accused of trying to promote a source that lead to 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 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 rain over the weekend. and spain is engulfed in protests with thousands gathering in madrid and several other cities in 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 rado believes that 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 high here yes seeds this magic that was affected between nigeria and we just a waste two years ago has faber's massively which is a ways off from pot but the fact is that it is true that. the leadership of these holding is mostly pretty spaced and they have been unable to to to find a compromise with the spanish were forced by land them but that's the way to east with we have seen last year was mostly sick tory 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 with this kind those of corruption which are now very prominent in the spanish media people are very angry about that and we see actually something very new in spain a very wide and deep throat test and that it goes far beyond a state see all the problems caused by this that. well that's all for me but to bring military my colleague will be here next hour to get you up to the van we continue our exploration into what goes on behind the scenes of european politics not in the brussels business that's watching. movies be pulling.