in the. deadly cured human rights activists accuse the pharmaceutical giants of using people in india as human guinea pigs as the number who die in drug trials in a country sold. shadowy influences newly declassified documents

reveal israel's covert attempts at shaping the u.s. media agenda and american policy in the middle east. judgement day court is expected to give its final say on the u.s. bid to extradite russian businessman victor boot held for more than two years over allegations he supplied arms to colombian rebels. and the true pioneers of its fifty years since two dogs from the soviet union became the first living creatures to survive space travel paving the way for future exploration. and good morning you are watching our t.v. where it is six o'clock in moscow and now look at your top stories this hour pharmaceutical companies are accused of using the people in india as guinea pigs to

test a new drugs without their consent human rights groups say even those people who are on the test and who are allergic to them do not know the possible dangers and are not told the full story meanwhile india's health ministry says the number of deaths linked to clinical trials has risen this year alone more people have died than in two thousand and seven and two thousand and eight combined archies consing investigates. 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 he's being experimented upon and maybe 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. the ranch or

account that 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 but in this 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 can 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 or treaty indians as guinea pigs the patients being used for trials are illiterate and pool they don't even know details of the drug or that it is a drug trial this is unethical to replace. in without proper consent without. taking part in a drugs trial it is both an ethical and a legal. patient sometimes sign up out of desperation to them experimental healthcare 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. to cheat men to screen sound happy with it. there are regulations in place to monitor drug trials including setting up takes committees and hospitals to ensure patient safety but

these are often used by doctors to simply rubber stamp trials so. the ethics committee has the important responsibility of money touring drug trials but it's a very ad hoc system that is misused for instance a medical institute in foreign women by gives permission for a drug trial in cities like indoor popal enjoyable tour how can you use permission from an ethical committee of another institute in another city just to find drug trials in institute here. with over one thousand three hundred drug trials currently being conducted in india this industry's 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. within the next few hours tied court is expected to give its final say on

the fate of a russian businessman the victor boot wanted by the u.s. over allegations he supplied autumn's to colombian rebels the forty three year old was arrested two and a half years ago in bangkok after a u.s. sting operation since then the u.s. has been seeking his extradition the charges were thrown out by a thai court a year ago ruling the charges lack legal grounds and were politically motivated but he's been held in prison cents. while the u.s. launched an appeal against the decision submitting more allegations as evidence the appeal the ruling today will mark the end of the legal road for the extradition bid the decision will determine whether those free or is sent for trial in the u.s. or he could spend the rest of his life in jail if convicted on the gun running charges victor boot has been accused of arms links to wars across the world allegations he denies as well as u.s. claims former u.n. expert on arms trafficking brian johnson thomas believes washington's battle to

jail has become personal. i think the trouble is that. the americans have got a lot invested in this now in terms not just of cash but also national pride and if you look at the revised in darkness which they put in some months ago i far not even strangers on the original sting operation i mean i worked for the united nations over the years i was an arms trafficking expert and it's always seemed to me that if there was a case to a recipe for arms trafficking offenses that would be fine by me i think there was a lack of evidence or whatever of the reason they didn't do that and i think the new charges are just because they're quite keen to point something they complained on back to i think it is worrying i mean what worries me also is a part of back to boots during the time when he was crying allegedly trafficking arms was also flying on behalf of the american pentagon into iraq flying for the

british defense ministry and other things which we thought were quite good. you are with and later in the program a trip to russia's seaport and a place to search for diamonds parties closer to visits the northern city of. secret files declassified in america have revealed a covert public relations and a lobbying activities by israel the national archives made the documents public following a senate investigation they suggest israel has been trying to shape media coverage of issues it views as important the files are available for download at the website of the institute for research on middle eastern policy grant f. smith a director of the independent washington d.c. based organization told r.t. about what's been uncovered. these files are from a sealed senate investigation which was the result of the senate foreign relations

committee as the u.s. department of justice looking into groups that brought thirty six million dollars into the u.s. to plant stories in the us media and promote israeli foreign policy objectives in the united states they're extremely relevant because they revealed for example of vast effort to divert us attention from the israeli dimona nuclear weapons facility by saying it was merely a research center they carefully tracked how that story was playing in the us media and they also were using outlets such as the atlantic magazine funneling fifty thousand dollars into that magazine in a major effort to disrupt the u.s. peace proposal which would have involved bringing some palestinian refugees and allowing them to return to their homes and properties in israel it's extremely

important for people to see this media influence and the mechanics of it because over the passage of time this is only gotten worse they have successfully built a campaign financing system in the united states that's extremely at fact of at pushing israeli objectives by withholding or dispersing campaign funding to u.s. politicians so there is a high degree of control that's in place but firm for your average american it's almost completely hidden and sticking with that same story alison weir of the council for national interest in the us a pressure group on middle east policy believes israeli influence is corrupting the american media which no longer represents the views of the country's people. this is not hyperbole these are the facts that when we really study the u.s. media coverage on israel and when you study the u.s. policies around middle east they do not represent american interests or american

values they seem to represent what a certain faction with very close ties to israel wants u.s. policies to be and this kind of manipulation the american media is very disturbing in some ways it's not surprising to me i have done my own studies and found how extreme the israelis centric the coverage is that we're getting but the specifics that this has revealed are extremely important and very troubling i think is really lobby is very central to the whole ball of a legend war on terrorism i think they're very complicit in the coverage of muslims and arabs that make them seem dangerous that make them seem alien to americans i think that the israel lobby is pushing them and it says very sadly part of their agenda i feel and this is supported by the facts instead of their agenda is to make americans fear and hate arabs and muslims and also i fear to me muslims and arabs

fear and hate americans. this is very troubling and it's. going on a variety. russian president dmitri medvedev has a said that those behind to tuesday's car bombing in southern russia should be punished or wiped out if they resist arrest he was visiting a pythagoras square of last outside a cafe injured thirty people on tuesday as well as discussions with his security chiefs medvedev visited the victims fourteen of them are still in local hospitals the president said the key to restoring stability in the north caucasus region which has seen violence for many years is dealing with acute poverty in the region . the last american combat forces have left iraq two weeks ahead of their planned withdrawal at the end of august but a fifty thousand strong u.s. military contingent will remain to support and train iraqi troops until the end of

one hundred eleven of those designated as non-combat they'll have the power to use weapons in self-defense or at the request of the iraqi government pentagon statistics show more than four thousand four hundred u.s. soldiers have died during the last seven years of combat antiwar activists mike ready thinks that the number of private tantrums in iraq means the country will still be under foreign occupation. for a century is happening is they're going to stay there for at least twenty years that's the length of time the all contracts have been signed the fifty thousand troops that are there is also a believe in number because it's actually about one hundred thousand private contractors there that number is likely to increase so i don't see any change really for the iraqi people between now and then life is just going to be one big struggle for the iraqi population and it's really sad five hundred thirty innocent civilians killed last month alone that's more than that in afghanistan and the moment all we're hearing about is afghanistan but look at the permanent military

bases there in iraq i mean they've spent so much money that it's really unlikely they're going to move this look at the american embassy the u.s. embassy in iraq in baghdad is now the size of the vatican city i mean that's a huge investment there's no way they're going to be leaving that what they're doing is they're rebranding the occupation and instead of calling it combat operations we're going to call it stability operations it's not it's not a mass exodus at all you just need to look at where the permanent military bases have been built and where the money's been spent you can actually do a dot to dot on the map and be there with the resulting line is exactly what the pipeline route is going to be. some of these iraqi troops some of these u.s. troops in iraq will probably be redeployed into yemen as well which is a another undeclared war that the u.s. is beginning between yemen. afghanistan and pakistan and iraq this is this is just permanent war this is what they've been talking about for the last ten years. russia's emergencies minister says the country's a fire protection measures need to

be rethought to prevent future disasters such as this summer's wildfires the cost of combating of the blazes was revealed at over four hundred million dollars however this figure does not reflect the overall damage which experts expect to be around fifteen billion dollars officials say fifty three people died and three and a half thousand were left homeless however rescuers managed to save for around four thousand towns and villages from burning more than one hundred thousand rescue workers and volunteers were involved in the operation the emergencies minister added that earlier warning of what was the developing would have helped to reduce the scale of the disaster the heat wave which triggered the wildfires has now come to an end but in most parts of central russia. now they say every dog has it's day and for two dogs in the soviet union their day saw them launched literally to international fame half a century ago. became the first creatures to orbit the earth and return to life

giving us our a lead in the space race their success turned them into world sub liberties and pave the way for the first manned mission eight months later. but it. 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 travellers were two months named bill curry 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 still get as they really were under different names. the dogs got named by our lab assistance on the girl's name these two dogs and they like the sound of those names but then our boss found out and he was not impressed he criticised us for giving these dogs foreign and politically incorrect names so we changed them and that's how they became famous. still his fame 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 him to be true 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 friendlies of the cold war dogs were also the guarantee scientists needed to safely send a man following. in their part 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. during stamps calendars became the subject of tales and news reports fifty years after their flight their trip thousand eight c.n.n. old alike and the museum where they are displayed is proud to tell their story again and again catherine as our of our r.t.e. . time now for a look at some other stories making headlines around the world the united nations

general assembly is holding a special emergency meeting to boost international aid to flood devastated pakistan officials say much of the aid sent is failing to reach more remote regions the world body says it needs more money for the disaster and while almost half a billion dollars have been raised the response has been slow at least fifteen hundred people have died and twenty million have been affected in the country's worst ever disaster. forty people have been injured and appearing in spain after a boat leaped over a fence on a packed stand at least five victims including a ten year old boy were taken to the hospital but others suffered minor injuries reports so it took fifteen minutes to bring the animal under control before it was killed officials say incidents of this type are extremely rare. south african police have used the bullets against protesters picketing the

entrance to a hospital in the country's capital johannesburg on day two of the nation wide strike the number of civil servants taking part rose to more than one million as teachers were joined by hospital workers strikers want higher pay and housing subsidies rejecting a government offer of a seven percent wage creates a walkout of medical personnel paralyzed hospitals and a newborn baby died after being rushed from a rural clinic which had shut to school. now it's time for the close up series where we take an in-depth look at russia's diverse regions including some of the more remote. areas. and today we visit the city of our school located in

northwest russia became the trees first seaport way back in the seventeenth century recognized as a regional capital it now has everything from ship building to diamonds we sent tess arcilla to explore. thanks to its waterways on hundreds 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 shops 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 in the 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 or whenever the suv it government radically cut the number of defense contracts and the plant's output so they had no choice but to diversify and went into diamond cutting. where you know a dime in cutting was one of the alternatives of the idea of cutting rough diamonds in the direct vicinity of the diamond field looked attractive but. that diamond field is the law manasseh of mine named after the local scientists and poets mihailo manasseh of 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 thousand nine hundred 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 a marshland amid rivers and spring. and you knew years had to build an eight kilometer long canal to divert the water flow. i don't know any other diamond

fields where the extraction conditions are so complicated. their work is like looking for a needle in a haystack and every truckload of rocks only two or three diamonds can be found but they're no ordinary diamonds. deposits produce transparent barely colored gemstones here we find 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 stone many women called their best friend. but before anyone can even see a single spark a long process has to be gone through. and

when you get. jewelers as well as women from all over the world coming. to us are still reporting there from the city of. now a soviet war veteran who fought in afghanistan in the eighty's says the u.s. is failing in its campaign because even after nine years it still doesn't understand the country or its people. of speaks to. just about.

but first mr kraft well thank you for joining us today sochi has hosted this summit the second of its kind after the july session last year and this is me russia is strengthening its position in the region where it's always been present and is opening up new opportunities for cooperation primarily with afghanistan and pakistan as you've said you're doing much better if you have three minutes of questioning to preview i think that russia is trying to strengthen its position russia is trying to reserve its position in the settlement process in afghanistan via this quartet to achieve this goal which is really important for both afghanistan and for the region as a whole as well as for russia these regular events take place pakistan has one view on the afghan crisis stan has another view russia may have yet another position but as for russia entergy christan it's obvious that they want to settle the situation

in the country as soon as possible they are concerned with terrorism and with drug production and trafficking that's where pakistan has been playing a double game over the past forty years virtually express the willingness to fight terrorism but in fact and everyone knows that everything that is now going on in afghanistan has pakistani origin pakistani influence and impact. that i've for you mentioned the drug trafficking issue the statistics say that about thirty thousand people in russia in nearly died because of drugs coming from afghanistan how can the american presence in afghanistan help resolve this problem and can russia solve it on its own. you have to refer to finish it on the shield the point is the status of the international forces the u.n. mandate stipulates their participation in anti-drug measures from time to time they take part in such operations but it sporadic and aimed at small producers and small smugglers when carrying out anti-terrorist operations they come across some drug

caravans just join them of course but nothing more but at a recent international conference in moscow nato refused to state that nato troops must fight narcotics they fear that it will only pose a greater threat to them and aggravate their position but. president obama plans to begin pulling out troops from afghanistan next summer how realistic is this. over the past nine months the position of the american authorities has changed considerably on the one hand american congress the house of representatives and most importantly the democratic party categorically insist on a considerable pullout of american troops from afghanistan starting july first two thousand and one on the other hand the u.s. military commander especially after the start of david petraeus his term as i say after commander has been looking for excuses to delay president obama's decision or to postpone it you must remember that the larger part of the u.s.

military serves interests of the republican party and so does the u.s. defense minister the longer the forces u.s. and nato forces stay in afghanistan the more they will destabilize the region it's evident that the presence of any foreign troops nato u.s. or soviet troops will only inspired terrorism in afghanistan you cannot depict the country as a den of terrorism or its people as terrorist by default this is not true there's 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 u.s. 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 you pulls them out it will be bad if he doesn't it will go from bad to worse the first couldn't they have been standing because happening in afghanistan or pakistan is affecting other countries including russia what could russia do to step wish to secure regina in this region. almost. no single stakeholder in the region will be able to do anything on their own the us tried to do so but failed they brought in the nato contingent and failed again i can say that countries in the region with their different stances and viewpoints will never come to consensus on the afghan crisis in order to find ways to settle the conflict from outside of the region we will certainly have to draw neighboring countries into the peace process iran pakistan. and definitely pakistan as well as russia and kazakhstan russia's afghanistan's historical partner and vice versa the u.s. and nato states have never been as.