test lead to deaths human rights groups claim international pharmaceutical giants are endangering the lives of patients in india by using them as guinea pigs.

setting the pace for the first man in space it's fifty years since he saw the space program saw a pair of dogs become the first living things to spam more than twenty four hours in orbit. also is russia's first seaport and the one of the country's diamond center parties close a team visits the multi-faceted northern city of a congo. it is ten am in the russian capital you're watching r t with marina joshua all come to the program now human rights groups are raising the alarm over india turning into a global hotspot for drugs trials they claim hospital patients are being used as guinea pigs for the world's pharmaceutical companies and some cases without consent they also say many of those who sign up don't understand the risks and side gloomy

statistics showing drug trial. deaths in the country have been increasing over the last few years the first six months of this year nearly five hundred deaths were down to drug trials more than the combined total for two thousand and seven and two thousand and eight artie's current seeing reports. any india government run hospitals provide low cost treatment to the poor but there are increasing claims that being made guinea pigs in drug trials for western pharma companies without their knowledge here at the. hospital in indoor the north has been taking pills for the last six months on the advice of his doctor he suspects these we experimented upon let me get to me i had a pain in my abdomen they did all sorts of tests and gave me all sorts of pills to have in the morning afternoon and night but i haven't got any back on a minute totoro rational account they can test any medication they like on me.

allegations have surfaced in the media that the hospital conducts illegal drug trials on patients police are investigating the complaint the hospital officials say any trials are being conducted in accordance with government guidelines india is fast becoming a global hot spot for testing new drugs with two million people estimated to be taking part in clinical trials routes without their consent cothurnus year drug trials are increasing here because they cost just one sixth of what they do in the west the regulatory system here is comparatively corrupt inform the companies can easily register patients and begin trials in developed countries it would take six months to register five patients whereas in india in the same time they could conduct trials on two thousand people. giving informed consent to be part of an experiment is the golden rule of all clinical trials but many patients here sign on

the dotted line without understanding the nature and the consequences of what's being administered to them and they are americans are treating indians as guinea pigs the patients being used for trials are really through pool they don't even know details of the drug or that it is a drug trial this is unethical to replace. without proper consent without. taking part in a drugs trial it is both an ethical and illegal indian patients sometimes sign up out of desperation to them experimental health is better than none at all but has agreed to let her child be treated with a new drug which she's been told will bring his fever down. the cheek ministry sound happy with it. there are regulations in place to monitor drug trials including setting up ethics committees and hospitals to ensure patient safety but these are often used by doctors to simply rubber stamp trials so maybe the ethics

committee has the important responsibility of monitoring drug trials but it's a very out of hook system that is misused for instance a medical institute in faraway mumbai gives permission for a drug trial in cities like indoor. poor how can you use permission from an ethical committee of another institute in another city to justify drug trials in an institute here with over one thousand three hundred drug trials currently being conducted in india this industry is already said to be worth one billion dollars yet it's clear that the laws against unethical trials are not working and the government will have to come up with other ways to stop the country's poor from being enticed into medical experiments that could potentially have serious side effects got unseeing r.t. india. still ahead for you this hour here in our trip to diamond fields in the russian north. this side right here is one hundred meters deep and it produces

about half a million carrots worth of diamonds each year now this is just the beginning because they want to go deeper into the earth where the soil is richer and where the a lot more of that precious stone many women called their best friend. find out how the city of her hung goes home to russia's first shipyard turned into a diamond hotspot in archie's close up series. stopping terrorist and stemming the flow of drugs that's what was agreed upon at a summit of central asian countries president dmitry medvedev host of the meeting in the russian city of sochi where the leaders of afghanistan to stand pakistan's former white house drugs policy spokesman robert wiener sayings the u.s. has failed in afghanistan mainly because wiping out drugs is not part of your mission. the u.s. military regrettably has determined that a policy should be had of not. interdicting and not eradicating the drugs in afghanistan because it would destabilize afghanistan what a mistake of

a policy and it's a policy mistake both by the military by general petraeus by ambassador holbrooke because it's the drugs that that fund al qaeda which is the reason that the united states went into afghanistan in the first place drugs are seventy percent as much as seventy percent of al qaeda is in the taliban's funding according to senior democratic senator charles schumer and if that's the case what are we doing making happy farmers in afghanistan or is our job to secure afghanistan stop the drug trafficking create alternative economies and then stop the killing that goes around the world both by the terrorists and by the drugs themselves that have killed millions throughout asia and europe america's only option in afghanistan is to withdraw all its troops as self

a soviet afghan war veteran the full injury is coming up in just over twenty minutes time but here's a preview. you should so motivational but. you cannot depict the country as a den of terrorism or its people as terrorists by default this is not true there is a faction of people within the rebel movement that use terror methods some of these people do indeed have links to al qaeda in no way does this mean that any afghan or any armed afghan is a terrorist the us is facing a philosophical problem they spent nine years there by december two thousand and ten the length of their military presence will match that of the soviet contingent now over this period they have failed to understand the afghans outlook on life they do not understand afghanistan barack obama is now facing the gorbachev dilemma of whether to withdraw u.s. forces if he pulls them out it will be bad if he doesn't it will go from bad to worse i'm deeply convinced that barack obama should do the same thing as mikhail

gorbachev do with afghanistan there is no other way. police are still searching for the main suspect in tuesday's terror attack in russia's north caucasus they are hunting for the person whole left a car packed with explosives outside of busy cafe in the city of peshawar thirty people were injured in the blast investigators also believe in a tourist chechen militant with links to al qaeda may have mastermind of the bombing while authorities have stepped up security across moscow fearing more attacks police received two alerts on wednesday of bombs planted in a business center and near an apartment block in the capital people were evacuated from the buildings but no explosives were found. and they say every dog has his day but for two dogs the soviet union it was a days of launch them literally to international fame it's fifty years since belka and santa to orbit and returned safely

a day or becoming the first living things to survive such a flight that pave the way for the first man a space. months later. looks back. at. sixty. watts just. became the first ever human in our space. return i don't know if the first space. before manned space yielded to man's best friend at least fifty seven dogs were sent into orbit by the soviet union arguably one of the most famous travelers were too much steam bilker or whitey and little arrow fifty years ago after months of strenuous training they and a bunch of mice rats flies plants and a rabbit boarded sputnik five all. the most important criteria was the dog's size there was only that much space aboard the spacecraft also dogs are much better

tolerating cold temperatures but it wasn't every dog that was acceptable their character their physical condition all that was taken into account. he worked with the soviet space program for decades he remembers bill can stay as they really were under different names. the dogs got named assistance on the girl's name these two dogs and mark they liked the sound of those names but then our boss found out and he was not impressed be criticised us for giving these dogs foreign and politically incorrect names so we changed them and that's how they became famous and. still continued on the ground she had six pups one of which was presented by the then soviet leader nikita khrushchev to j.f.k.'s daughter caroline and international room and believe in between or fluffy and another kennedy dog called charlie they in turn had puppies which the u.s. president jokingly referred to as pop nicks man's best friend became not only

a link between two friends in these of the cold war dogs were also the guarantee. the scientists needed to safely send a man following in their pop prince. nobody knew you see whether a living organism could survive in space how a body would react to those conditions which is why bill constrain were the first giant leap for mankind you could see that belka was more agitated and that the dogs were at times uncomfortable but they made it safely home and scientists knew that it was man's turn to reach for the stars. the door and stamps calendars became the subject of tales and news reports fifty years after their flight their trip fascinates young and old alike and the museum where there displayed is proud to tell their story again and again catherine as our of our r.t.e. . staying in space we've gotten out of this world blog by

a russian cosmonaut on our website r.t. dot com and there's plenty more there as well let's take a look. the first apps of the stars find out what it is to prepare for space wide and help take man to the moon. moving whole body men to what you really need appears in france as part of a series of tributes to twentieth century thinkers. at the white house is adamant the u.s. economy is recovering but was the unemployment rate still near tampa or santa major problems in the real estate sector some say the ministrations spending the story that's according to gerald celente from the trans research center. what they're trying to do is to convince the public that if they'd only build their confidence

and they would go out and spend more and that as businesses had more confidence they would hire more he is a constant in. what did they create they dumped in nearly eleven trillion dollars that was lead. and gary and t. this stimulate the economy the job numbers are terrible weighed way below what they had forecast let's look at the two losing wars america is fighting what's the word they use where making progress progress is the white house favorite word every time they're losing it's the same old story it when it's the war more men more money more time and whether it's the economy more time more money it's all recovering from an illness if you're not getting a healthy you you're only on drugs that are that are hiding the symptoms as the disease keeps rotting away your body and that's all this stimulus has been it's

been a money drug and our chief financial analyst max geyser is also far from positive about america's economy next hour he questions whether the u.s. is still a superpower and tells us what he sings lies ahead for the country here's a quick look. there is debt on america's balance sheet that they're counting as an asset as their net worth america the economy of the discrepancy comes when you say america is the world's superpower in the world's wealthiest countries because they include on the balance sheet the debt but the debt is no longer serviceable and once you write that debt off which is bernanke is only choice at this point then you go from being in the first world to being in the fifth sixth or seventh world forget being in the second or third world america is going down to the bottom of the heap but that happens to empires those of.

you watching aren't you live from moscow let's not take a look at some other stories from around the world and the last u.s. combat troops have left iraq nearly two weeks ahead of schedule the planned withdrawal deadline have been set at august thirty first over fifty thousand troops are to remain in the country through twenty one to advise rocky forces and protect u.s. interests in pakistan many of those in need of vital supplies following the devastated flood say aid isn't reaching them international donors have pledged millions of dollars more to help the country following criticism from relief groups that the response to the disaster has been too slow floodwaters are still at their peak levels in some places hampering relief work pakistani officials say sixty thousand troops have been tasked with helping the effort. and we continue exploring russia's varied regions in our close up series it's an in-depth and personal view on the everyday life of local people and the history of the country.

and today we are in the northwest of russia and they are hunger squeege and once the country's only sea port recognized as the capital of northern russia it has everything from ship building to diamonds we sent tess are still you to explore all the appealing sides of the street. where now with the north of russia and out how girls region a region which has a coastline on three arctic seas now because of its location it was extremely important in the seventeenth century as russia's first and only seaport as well as its first sea route to the west now this region became extremely wealthy because of that sea trade and monasteries were very much involved in the business in trading salt and wood and it was also here that the first arctic expeditions were outfitted as seen off who ever went cicutto is where it was found at sea trade was moved from here to st petersburg at the honduras lost its importance now today of honda's may

no longer hold the titles it once did but it is still able to make glorious history as well as thriving trades in shipbuilding and lumber as well as a budding diamond industry take a look thanks to its waterways one hundred is known as the gateway to the arctic but this wasn't always the case in the one nine hundred twenty s. it was called the national hard currency shop as its rich timber and paper pulp industries yielded the lion's share of the treasury's hard currency earnings it's a controversial part of its past these industries flourished thanks to tens of thousands of prison inmates forced to work into north during stalin's time but on hunger else did make a more positive and lasting mark in history when peter the great founder of russia's first shipyard here and it became the motherland of the country's fleet our crew visited a ship repair plant in the region which has also recently started making vessels the facility was set up in the one nine hundred fifty s.

especially for repairing and retooling soviet ships and submarines in the ninety's and whenever the suv hit government radical become the number of defense contracts and the plants output phone they had no choice but to diversify and went into diamond cutting. well you know the dining putting was one of the alternatives the idea of cutting rough diamonds in the direct vicinity of the diamond field looked attractive. that diamond field is the mine name down to the local scientists and pull with me. back in the seventeenth century he said that there were diamonds in the region but the gems weren't found until much later this period opened in one nine hundred eighty two and the first diamond was extracted just five years ago not an easy task in a water rich region the field is located smack in the middle of the marshland amid rivers and springs engineers had to build an eight kilometer long canal to divert

the water flow. i don't know of any other diamond fields where the extraction conditions are so complicated. their work is like looking for needles in a haystack in every truckload of rocks only two or three diamonds can be found but they're no ordinary diamonds. it's produced transparent barely colored gems here we find them intensely colored diamonds green even pink and blue . this side right here is one hundred metres deep and it produces about half a million carrots worth of diamonds each year now this is just the beginning because they want to go deeper into the earth where the soil is richer and where the a lot more of that precious so many women call their best friends. but before anyone could even see a single sparkle a long process has to be gone through and what you get are rare gems jewelers as well as women from all over the world called it. today is still an important

industrial and commercial region here in russia and if you do see foreigners in the city more often than not here on business there are a number of foreign companies based in and to tell us more about doing business with the region we're joined by gary. thank you very much for joining us now could you briefly tell us what how do you valuate the economy of. our companies in the light coating sector for the oil and gas market our company is excited about the future developments in the ark and we greatly look forward to working with our russian partners what do you see. as a competitive advantage. is strategically placed for the arctic circle the ports of the know you're around so supplies are easily accessible and it's quick to get the oil and gas fields the infrastructure and the manpower we found to be very good for our specific market currently we are starting to employ and we've found the skill

sets to be very good ok thank you very much now i'll come a long way from being just a seaport and it will continue to reshape itself as more industries develop in this region. just are simply reporting they are now it's time for the business news with danielle bush i don't think you want to good morning to you know so we're hearing down while not so good news russia is no longer has enough grain to feed itself it was once a major exporter may now have to buy a brood more a little later but first this hour russia's economy has rebounded considerably since the beginning of the year a recent decline in industrial output has raised doubts about the strength of the recovery the drought and heat have been partially to blame but economists warn some of the problems run deeper than that michael question carports. the volume of russian industrial output declined a sizeable ten percent in july compared with june which in turn saw a contraction from the previous month although much smaller just half

a percent economist worry that a further decline in august which would be a third successive job would suggest this sigman of the economy is slowly falling back into recession we do expect that the russian economy is likely to slow considerably in the second half of these yeah so i guess the saw down of the manufacture of a batch of this but in light of that. would have meant that the pace of that for the government was not because of the feeling the base effect of something actress but also says that the nation of investment demand or other reversal of the fiscal stimulus the weak demand for russian made goods can partly be attributed to the increase in the value of the ruble since the beginning of the year this is made products for export more expensive while handing foreign goods sold here a price advantage moreover economist warned that any sickness in manufacturing could start to infect other parts of the economy of banks see that the growth rates

are not that strong they might be more reluctant to give out loans so this growth in lending that we started to see a couple of months ago it could be undercut by this. stagnation. and from zero performance and this is i think the bigger concern because then potentially you can have a vicious circle whereby slower growth leads to slower landing best and turn leads to slower growth as well clearly russia is not an island unto itself its prospects are heavily tied to the wider global economy and if its biggest customers in europe continue to grow more quickly than expected as the recent data indicates then there is little prospect of the wider russian economy suffering a double dip recession even if industrial output temporarily stalls michael have changed business r.t. . russia was the third largest grain exporter in the world in two thousand and nine

but the brick or drought across the country this year may turn it into an importer russia may import up to five million tons of grain up to the end of next year but it was the daily reports not named source within the agriculture ministry says the matter has been decided only the details remain the grain is expected to come from kazakstan. time for a quick check on the stock markets exporters in tokyo got a boost on reports the bank of japan will take new steps to fight the rising here and automakers. are up around one and a half percent. the r.t.s. the short top at the start of trade here in moscow energy stocks peers from lukewarm on higher as the price of light sweet stay these above seventy five dollars a barrel the most experienced you see there are closing figures from yesterday it opens in a few minutes time. the big economies of the u.s. germany france and u.k. are at greater risk of a credit rating downgrade than they were previously but still comfortably in the

aaa bracket that's according to a new report by the world's biggest ratings agency moody's because but he stresses all countries are carrying unsustainable deficits and that time is running out to impose a solution also points that the world has changed since the sovereign debt crisis in europe large countries can no longer assume will be credit worthy without having to provide proof by contrast spain's rating is on another review for a possible downgrade of the first be warned back in june. russia's biggest lenders burbank says it's happy with its performance over the first half of the year and confirms it's on course to achieve its full year targets on that chief as burbank's board spoke exclusively to r.t. business. we should all of four years experiments performances follow the plan we set out and the results for the first half of the year meet the forecasts we made at the beginning of twenty ten looking forward we believe we will be able to achieve our plans for the second half of the year and reach an annual profit of around three point two billion dollars it talking specifically about the loan

segment in the first quarter we saw a decrease in the lending portfolio from may the trend turned positive in our lending portfolio has grown i can say the trend is going to continue to strengthen that there have been signs of recovery. what about the un going post this of privatizing the bank will still being used to finance a for russia's finance minister alexey could do in has been saying it is time for some shares in state companies to be allocated for privatization well the markets are behaving favorably giving and he also meant spin banks should be included when he said this we're not talking about a controlling stake here well there are about the eight to nine percent that is in the hands of much the central bank in excess of the controlling stake of fifty plus one share we see why the private ownership is a positive step it would increase the volume of shares in circulation on the market if this decision is made to go ahead we would support it used but it's a new report says they'll be told the prospects for the russian economy will be

live with the author of that report next they'll join us that. the united states of america is waging war within its own army. jono advantage is on no one sign. on human losses are quite significant. is it possible to win the war against sexual assault in the u.s.

armed forces sex in the army on r g. the close up team has been to the kaluga metion when the car industry is rampantly development. r g goes to the area where the first russian fleet was morning.