around the clock around the world this is our t. here with you in moscow twenty four hours a day good to have you with us the u.s. says its combat mission in iraq will come to its official end within hours u.s. vice president joe biden is in baghdad overseeing it with all american combat troops having already left the country washington says this means the end of the seven year long war that killed over four thousand u.s. troops however about fifty thousand will remain in iraq to provide training and support for local security forces u.s. troops will no longer be allowed to go on combat missions unless requested and accompanied by iraqi forces but many analysts say baghdad doesn't control the country which remains split plagued by insurgent violence last week alone dozens of iraqi citizens died in the wave of terror attacks. well for more on this we can now across live to baghdad to talk to nir rosen now he's from new york university center on law and security and also author of the book aftermath following the bloodshed of america's wars in the muslim world a fourth coming publication thanks very much indeed for joining us now iraq's prime

minister has said the country is now independent now the fact that the combat u.s. troops have pulled out of iraq you spent several years in the country so how do the people there now see the end of this u.s. mission for iraqis on the street. outside the centers of power nothing has changed from one day to the next. remains very difficult. full of challenges just to survive just to get a few hours of electricity they didn't see american soldiers in the street in most places really for quite a long time so it's a sort of an artificial milestone that means a lot more to president obama does to the troops that remain in iraq or obviously the iraqi people whose lives are just as desperate and difficult as they were. yesterday or year ago well i think it's also it's also amusing that they called today that promise to maliki declare independence today because this is like the

fifth iraqi declaration of independence since two thousand and four in june of two thousand and four you may remember the americans officially handed over sovereignty to the iraqis and we had one handover of sovereignty after another if you still have fifty thousand troops remaining in the country obviously it's not fully sovereign and the americans are still very much involved in a political process advice in every ministry helping to create a new government cajoling. pushing forcing bing whatever it's going to take and of course they have advisors attached to various military units so nothing has really changed all that military campaign was called operation iraqi freedom is now drawing to a close and of course its main aim was to end the dictatorship of saddam hussein so some people will say this is actually despite the long and painful transition period does this not mean that washington has brought freedom adventure to iraq. i don't know about freedom yes they did get rid of saddam hussein at the cost of

hundreds of thousands of lives of iraqis millions of displaced tens of thousands iraqis who were languished in american prisons years of their lives were lost the rock is destroyed shattered dirty desperate people of very poor living amidst trash during hours of checkpoints and desperately trying to obtain electricity so yes there are some freedoms they have that exist now that didn't exist before but there's also the iraqis say a democracy of death and random bombings and the freedom to die in the street so there's no way to say whether it was worth it and if you happen to have profited from from this and perhaps but many say the mistake has been made you can't reverse that mistake looking at the situation now do you believe that those fifty thousand so-called support troops should actually go as well or do you think they are justified to stay that. well it's not an easy question to answer

i do believe the iraqi security forces can actually handle security in the country it's not going to be pretty they themselves are brutal and a bit corrupt very corrupt you could say but they for the last year we've had a test they have been able to maintain this level of security or insecurity or whatever you would call it now if we're going by the standard of two thousand and five it doesn't six the peak of the civil war then this is a huge improvement if we're going by any normal rational standard let alone the standard of. american invasion of iraq unless it's pretty terrible but the americans haven't proven that they're able to control the violence when they're here. looking at it purely from an iraqi military point of view they do need assistance in developing their air force developing their navy patrol in their borders. so the iraqi military certainly doesn't want an enduring american presence to help build up its forces cannot just but i don't think that they're necessary to maintain security in the country because they're not doing that iraqi police iraqi army are doing that or i could just ask you it's funny you were there in baghdad

and you've written a book about your experiences in occupied iraq and this obviously is a very tense time that can you just quickly give us an idea of what it's like to be there in baghdad and indeed iraq at the moment. it's not very much more tense than it's been for the last few years there's a bit more anxiety in the street because iraqis have been waiting for six months for the government to be formed since the march elections and there's uncertainty resulting from that but life remains very scary you have daily assassinations with silence pistols many magnetic bombs on cars. baghdad is a much of iraq a very heavily militarized every minute you are driving you have to go through a checkpoint you get searched guys with guns everywhere no other tricity for most people perhaps an hour a day and if they have money then they can get it they can pay for a generator water is very dirty you know sewage. life remains difficult and scary

there's always a specter of the militias returning that's not too distant obviously you still have many people displaced from their homes unable to go back afraid for their lives. and what strikes me every day that i'm here is not a family i meet that hasn't had their men murdered kidnapped beheaded their families displaced is not a family you meet that hasn't been touched by the occupation the violence that came with it so while the american administration is celebrating its victory i think we should never forget the high cost of iraqis paid for this american victory nero's and journalists and chronicler of the iraq war we appreciate your time that talking to us live in baghdad thanks very much for joining us here on thank you. well coming up later in the program for you here put it points. out why people in the u.s. state of louisiana are saying give us our guns back five years after they had them taken away. russia's high tech mall makers who are exchanging tweets in the workplace get a ticking off from the president. the first desperate times in

one indian village of printed residents to take desperate measures a severe two year drought has left three hundred families on the edge of starvation and threaten to commit mass suicide if there's no aid from the government government but despite the stark warning so far no help has arrived kern singh has the story. well here in the village of gerard you know remote part of eastern india so intricate mali spends time with his family including his little grandson this may look like one happy picture but the reality is quite the opposite with no food to eat so reined in over twenty other farmers in the small village of about three hundred families have threatened to commit mass suicide. into military we will have to die sometime so why suffer like this every day it's better to die now we're so hopeless that we've come to the conclusion that

committing suicide is the best option noone would like to do nearly without food to eat how many days can a person want to live. the region has had an acute drought for two years now this has driven villagers from gerard to write a letter to the president of india and the state governor asking for rations and in a geisha in facilities if help fails to work i have they say they'll commit suicide . he says because we requested immediate food aid from the governor and for the long term some development work that could provide us with employment such as digging a new well and improving the route to a village which is in a bad state the farmers are desperate as the entire state of charge could grapples with a forty two percent rainfall deficit this year julie shows me his field which should have been full of crops at this time of year but lies bad and instead. of used up all receipts but when the last two years there hasn't been enough water for crops

to grow seeing the desperate situation no homes were thinking what is the point of living. the suicide request has george at the local administration into action promises of food and development have been made but little has actually reached the village officials at the district headquarters didn't respond to our request for an interview meanwhile enjoy going to just wait for the promised. all the senior officials have visited us from the local administration along with our elected member of parliament they've given us assurances but i do know when to expect action it may take five days fifteen days or even a month. and clearly not so important to the government. this crisis has been in the making for two years now and this letter has just brought it out into the open with an entire village driven to despair the government will have to take urgent steps to prevent this from snowballing into a major crisis got in saying r.t.

from the village of. people in the us have just been marking five years since the deadly hurricane katrina in the wake of that storm many people in the state of louisiana had their guns confiscated in an attempt to stand looting and violence but is pretty straight a report some are still fighting for the right to defend themselves. it's a sunday afternoon in louisiana i just came out here to shoot practice. and guns are a blazing at this shooting range. so i'm forty percent i believe everybody should have the right to defend themselves at any cost in this part of the united states the right to bear arms is part of everyday life i believe part and have a right to sue for ask questions later. been robbed at gunpoint before and i know what it's like i believe that. living in america may say we should be able to

carry a handgun but that wasn't always the case so what do you know. so we've taken your weapons. richard stiring and his friend wayne shoom were on lake pontchartrain about a week after hurricane katrina made landfall and i head almost the same way from six inches to a foot of water in the house. but it was still there they went to styron's house to get his things we heard of the. stuff that was going on in the wall and all the shooting then the people that were getting heard some killed from what i've been told. while heading back across the lake the pair was stopped by law enforcement and asked to give up their weapons. from your order your private property. don't have any right taken here. as the hurricane took the city by storm residents felt their constitutional rights were being blown away the armed populace keeps

a government in check the government should not be in charge of the populace the populace should run the government at whatever the government has the guns and the populace doesn't have the guns the government does what it was in the aftermath of katrina new orleans was in complete chaos law enforcement couldn't handle all the problems and on streets like this one every single building with looted except for one occasion is pa as they are three smith and wesson club action shotgun twelve gauge semi automatic join guido's is the owner of cajun's pub she decided to take things into her own hands there was vans with. them and they were breaking into any businesses where there's no sign of anyone around and that they didn't mess with us here because i stood out front. with my shocked we don't protected her patrons when law enforcement was nowhere in sight after guarding her

pub for about a week we decided to evacuate u.s. marshals came across this in front saw me with my shotgun you know they pulled about a dozen m. sixteen sourness put her body against the wall. took all my weapons and then left she couldn't believe this was happening in the united states i was furious i had no way of protecting myself beyond the physical destruction. they saw their city and even their country transforming before their eyes look at the communist countries look at cuba look at nicaragua look at any country you want to take where the government has the guns and the populace is not are and look at how they live and how they're treated it's a story they want remembered so it never happens again preassure either r.t. new orleans louisiana american radio host alex jones says the actions of the government five years ago did breach people's right to defend themselves what's scary here is the first time the federal government was able to take control of

a u.s. city during an emergency they wouldn't bring food and water to the people of the superdome in fact they blockade in many cases their main mission was set the precedent to get the american people's guns five years later we still see the continued anti second amendment mission of the federal government we are now a total third world police state total terror in a setting in and the system doesn't know what to do because they haven't been able to get our guns yet and they tried to use katrina as a case point to set the precedent and to train police nationwide under federal and f.b.i. control to go into high and dry areas and take people's right to defend themselves and leave them by themselves to be right robbed and killed by the looters many of which were the government themselves. and that was american radio host alex jones sharing his thoughts from texas well by the way you can check out our website for more stories that's r.t. dot com online all the time here's some of what's there right know russian police

bust a gang of hackers who swindled trusting internet users of over thirty million dollars in just one month. in this black expanse of space has its own smell which your belief on what it is and altie dot com. the ban on gambling in russia has seen casinos forced to move to four designated regions so far though the remoteness of those places means that many casinos have struggled prompting investors in the country's south to spin the wheel again by considering switching locations and looks at what's at stake for the russian sin city. this is a gamblers paradise the oracle all kinds of games from the army of one armed bandits to poker and roulette. however most of the time the place is deserted. this is the only legal casino in russia a private company invested ten million dollars into its construction and even

though there are a few other swell willing to build gambling spots here in the area it still looks like most in the industry see it as making bats in a burning house last year russian lawmakers banned all casinos and gambling clubs across the country to be replaced by four specially designated and developed zones in siberia western russia the south and east the industry reacted immediately like you know shutting down the facilities moving them abroad or going on the ground even the most successful the southern gambling zone is mostly being ignored by the un to nurse. them most investors a passive many because as a city is far away from other major transportation hubs the local airports underdeveloped in the roads and not like good only that and the other factor is that the gambling ban in russia is really hard to enforce that in cities just a few hundred kilometers away from us all police discover illegal gambling down

every week. of course it's officially prohibited but in our neighborhood everyone knows where to find the underground gambling den you can have a good time there if you play your cards right in the regions authorities have come up with a new plan to make the rules work they want to relocate the whole seldom gambling zone closer to popular tourist destinations like the black sea coast resort the phenomena and inspired by les vegas they wanted to be about more than just gambling . so we said why can't we try and do something like that in russia ship without making the same mistakes we can use the best that las vegas has to offer us. fine by decades of experience essentially we've come up with a new concept and the resort for gambling will be just one of the highlights the idea will have to get support from the russians they do possibly together with other amendments to help reverse the odds of getting the new gambling rules to work so for now the future of russia's biggest still looks them leaving more questions

than answers for its supporters and skeptics why. our team crossing the region. to mania is sweeping russia's leading politicians so much so that some are even doing it right under the bosses nose one governor was called tweeting away in the middle of an important meeting in the kremlin by present medvedev himself and you get that you look at the year of age bellew posting something on his twitter page right now during district council session as if he has nothing else to do which. but tweeting didn't end with the president's remark because more than was of the counsel join the online exchange the russian leader is known to be a big fan of gadgets and has a twitter account himself his friends include barack obama and the head of apple steve jobs who presented the president with a new i phone four on a recent trip to silicon valley this works. well not to some other international news this. police in mexico over a list of the gang facing drug trafficking charges in the u.s. the group includes in the tourist alleged drug lord known as barbie we've been

blamed for a vicious shoot out some bodies being hung from bridges dirname is give all of these and he could be extradited to america where he has a two million dollars bounty on his head the arrest comes just hours after the government said about ten percent of the federal police have been sacked as part of a campaign to root out corruption. nato says a roadside bomb blasts kill for american troops in eastern afghanistan a fifth u.s. soldier died in an insurgent attack in the south it comes off the symbol of violence on monday which killed eight nato soldiers in the same area nineteen american troops have been killed in the country since saturday. engineers in chile have begun drilling to rescue thirty three miners trapped underground in the collapsed shaft operations at the mine could take up to four months rescue workers say they plan to send down food in the next few days and more birds here the miners had their first telephone contact with their relatives one of them even decided to marry his long term girlfriend. but in ten minutes from now we're in the pit lane with the stars of the future that's in our latest edition of technology update

first the business news with you. for the full story we've got. the biggest issues get voice face to face with the news maker. hello and a very warm welcome to the business program will solve the world's biggest allen we need to produce a has posted a profit of one point twenty seven billion dollars for the first half of twenty ten

off to making a loss in the same period last year and the results were considerable to better than full cost and the company's shares rather than hong kong where the company listed in january results says it expects a strong performance for the rest of the year as demand and prices continue to outstrip rising costs. i would say with the recovery with its results for the first second quarter i'd say would cost from the first quarter and also was also the first quarter even looking at us to meet what we had in the first what we think that was too that's why i was so happy that it would reach twenty five percent each of them high the projected in the first quarter jus to our control and the cost of it as a nominal fee go reach from one three billion. and rosol is also heavily involved in the shareholder dispute for control of russia's biggest mine minerals chemical but about porton isn't the set of to see the town and tour the plant he's

met with the two main shareholders in the company chief i dig deep i am pleased him at the time in the head over intervals to billionaires each own twenty five percent of minerals and want to buy the other out question has noted that the conflict is damaging the company and a solution is urgently needed it but the government insists it will not force the issue out slowness nor make of continues to operate successfully. the dispute appears to boil down to a difference of opinion about how moral cyclical should be run and who should benefit the company's chief executive david crystal cool describes the problem as he says it. is rigid conflict is due to a difference to me interests one side wants a gradual development of the company to improve environmental and social conditions while the other one wants to take everything there is an oil company and even more i'm against the money out this may benefit shareholders right now but in the next

years the company won't be able to develop. or sol is adamant it will not sell up instead elected basco says he will try to get minority shareholders to create a point independent professionals to the court but the chief executive of normally kill left little doubt as to what shareholder he was favoring as he referred to the twenty nine percent loss in rule such shipwrights since the beginning of the year the company led by did it. so your search you know since the beginning of the nickel has been the only company to increase the share price twenty three percent of us have a negative dynamic the leader among them is the person you just interviewed with a twenty nine percent of the person who tells us how to work how to control our company he's the leader among losers now whatever he says we listen to through the prism of a person who did not see in managing a company successfully by the way we have the world's highest dividends fifty

percent seventy eight percent is the world's average and everyone is happy here for some people fifty percent is not enough and in other news from the city of new rolls the prime minister says the government is considering a new flexible tax formula for nickel and exports he suggests the system could be similar to fatten post on oil what about put an irish the metal producers to take part in the development of a fair formula. there's an idea to develop a flexible formula similar to the one we created for the oil industry in a very with the increase or decrease in global prices but where is if it is not agreed soon we will come up with a solution of our own one of the norilsk nickel shareholders may not like. and the russian markets finished tuesday session in the red energy stocks make some gains to watch the close process telecom continued its twenty three from monday the only

blue chip came up with a three and a half percent. russia second largest oil producer has announced that income for the second quarter fell sixteen percent to two billion dollars that's despite a strong rise in revenues the company says it was hit by taxes sent to costs tros faster than the price of crude oil and separately the company says it doesn't intend to buy back the entire eleven point six percent of its shares from current owner conoco phillips and speaking exclusively to business r.t. vice president need good looks planes why. should. we think that the purchase of almost eight percent of shares is enough to reduce the tension in the market and to assure that our shares show enough value on their own the company is interested in increasing its free flow the more shares on the market the more stable they are we are also looking at listing on one of the asian markets in the future i think it's

enough to ensure future stable and reliable company before. that's all the business news for now but she can oversee find more news on our website to our two dot com slash business. coming into the future. from middlemarch the one car what makes a mechanical engineer and not a mode of pioneer open a book in recent polls most innovative students choose the checkered flag to be

update year on. the contrary. their conduce childhood was overshadowed by this tragedy. they still feel the fear they faced. and remember every second of this nightmare. it will remain in their memories and hearts forever. the town and using so. innocent victims. tom little angels when augustine.

this history still keeps the secrets of it's time to feel that the soviet silence me. like oxy.

coming from the russian capital twenty four hours a day this is good to have you with us top stories now that the u.s. is poised to officially hand iraq's security over to local forces as the last of america's combat troops have left the country but about fifty thousand will remain to train local security forces. a severe two year trances left three hundred families in a village in eastern india desperate for help. commit mass suicide was installed today if government aid doesn't arrive soon. and also russia limited gambling to four remote regions casinos that are a failed to attract business which prompted investors to stake the future of gambling on a popular tourist destination the black sea comes. back with more news for you in less than half an hour from a high tech show technology update which today looks at how bug.