people behind bars for doing drugs now he's been put there himself but the former army commander denies the charges he insists he never swayed from the white side of the law because. we saw a truck driving on the main road something made me suspicious and i checked out the cargo we found narcotics heroin in some drugs but what for him claims he didn't expect to find a driver who told authorities he was involved in drug smuggling. by himself is guarded by another policeman if. he's been taking drugs since he was twelve and went for treatment only recently after the prison warden found out he's in good company according to a recent u.s. congress report nearly half the afghan police are doing drugs well. when i graduated as a police man that i was doing i kept quiet about for about two years all the other policemen here knew about it quite a few police my drug addicts are not telling anyone they're just saying i'm smoking

something. polished afghanistan's biggest jail many of the five thousand prisoners here are doing time for drug smuggling and all drug use but the locks are not a sure safe way of keeping the drugs out. there. these are the different kinds of drugs we collected over the past years. this is a mix of all your contacts. but then all of this is opium. this is the kind of tricks drugs inside a calm family members coming to visit bring these with them we found drugs in shoes over the years prison guards have been charged with mending a hand. yes it's true when i joined a few years ago lots of guards were involved in smuggling drugs into the jail. they

are not very good that you don't have enough and there are a lot joining the produce truth out of the people joining the police to solve themselves but the ministry of cantona katic insists it's now got a hold on the problem before the police can become a police he detested he would have sort of tests before coming to before going through the exercise of our becoming a police sergeant. this is something that has been developed an army level but questions remain what if some of those fighting afghanistan's drug war are actually foot soldiers for the other side and with the many challenges the country faces doesn't really have the resources to tackle the corruption within its ranks inside these four walls is a snapshot of the problems facing afghan society tell of members drug traffickers

and petty criminals and the prisons over crowded forests here are teen preaching he was in kabul. for u.n. experts warn that higher opium prices could persuade afghan farmers to cultivate even more opium wheat the main alternative crop for farmers has fallen in price while poppy eradication is an all time low but zalmay afzali a spokesman for the counter narcotics ministry insists that growing drugs is against the afghan people's beliefs. but the news is positive poppy production has been slashed for forty eight percent as compared to the previous year but i don't agree with some of the. claim that it was a because of the bad weather that or so it could have been the case in some provinces to go it was very much successful to the public awareness campaign and we sent a positive message and the people of afghanistan know that the poppy cultivation is

bad figured on them and it's something that they are kind of confrontation about we afghans this is not our culture this is again this is against the basic principles of. our religion so something that is against religion something which is a dangerous and he will phenomenon something that is supporting terrorism and we get as an afghan affected by that we never support. and we made a pretty hard commitment on that to get rid of this problem. well nato mission in afghanistan is facing a new obstacle pakistan has closed a vital supply route for the u.s. led war across the border fuel tankers and trucks are being stopped from crossing the front it's believed to be in response to a nato helicopter raid in which three pakistani soldiers were killed and three others wounded the alliance denies its aircraft entered pakistani territory as the

reports of being investigated by the u.s. has been stepping up missile strikes against suspected militants hiding in pakistan and there have been several cross border helicopter raids this week pakistan condemned the strikes calling them a violation of international law pakistani political expert. told us here at odyssey that islam about its position on the afghan war has been completely ignored by washington and its allies for years. you need to expect that box and could go actually more further ahead and completely shut down needed supplies because there is a strong feeling it backs down that box down is getting though the bad side of the stick we didn't get what we really expected from this alliance with the united states with nato in afghanistan and of course fox money interests are not being looked after or respected by our friends in afghanistan and if this continues you might as well see a complete shutdown you have to understand something tribes of course are divided by this this manufactured border and and in order to completely stop the push to

ones from any of the tribes to really help each other during this war in afghanistan there's only one way to do that and that is to bring political reconciliation in afghanistan so basically what i'm saying is and what box any officials have been. telling american officials but not in a forceful way that you need to resolve the problem of isolating the push to get them out of power in kabul they are of course angry about this and what you see the resistance that you see the afghan taliban whatever they're doing in afghanistan part of that is an expression of pushed. excluding them from power in kabul so unless you bring them into the power circle the push tools will keep fighting and it is unfair in this situation to expect pakistan to completely clamp down on the push to tribesmen whether they are or whether they are pakistani pushing throughout the past eight years of course box one has been coming up with suggestions in order to defuse tensions inside have done is done box down the ideas box any suggestions

box on the input were completely ignored and in eight years of course we've seen the situation go from bad to worse in afghanistan i don't think it is possible that you could do and you could achieve that kind of an end in afghanistan without having a strong pakistani involvement. and that was pakistani political expert. well still to come for you here on our c a meeting with no one and speakers without a voice we'll tell you why over one hundred nations were shunned by the media and other delicate so the u.n. general assembly that's coming up in just a few minutes plus. feels very very strange the soil is very cold and also doing all right at the moment but i think it's going to get more scary find out why people are asking to be buried alive to see how it feels and what they get out of it. all right now let's get to some other stories making headlines around the world this hour two policemen have been killed and three civilians wounded in back down

after an armed gang tried to rob a bank the attackers used the bombs to storm the building before being filed by officers in a gunfight two suspected robbers were captured the neighborhood has been sealed off as police search for other attackers officials say it's unclear whether the gang has links to any insurgent groups. well there's controversy in india over a court decision to split control over a holy site in the northern city. the main disputed section where a mosque was torn down in one thousand nine hundred two has been allocated to hindus muslims will be in charge of other parts security is being tightened across the region as authorities fear unrest in a town that seen two thousand killed in clashes over the last two decades the muslim community already says it will appeal the verdict. north korea has published

a photo thought to be of the country's apparent for the first time it's the only picture released of kim jong il which is up to date he was appointed to keep party positions earlier this week and it's being viewed as a gradual transfer of power due to the ailing health the. father kim jong il. many e.u. countries are trying to get back to normal after protests in general strikes affected dozens of major cities tens of thousands took to the streets demonstrating against budget cuts in spain traffic was blocked and a many passengers were left stranded in madrid with two thirds of all flights grounded. high level united nations panel will hear directly from victims of sexual violence in the democratic republic of the congo it comes after the release of a preliminary un report into the rape of hundreds of civilians in the north east two months ago survivors will have a chance to share their experiences as part of efforts to improve treatment and

support. american actor and hollywood legend tony curtis has died at the age of eighty five he passed away at his home in nevada after a cardiac arrest curtis was best known for his roles in movies such as spartacus and alongside marilyn monroe and some like it hot he starred in more than one hundred and twenty films during a career that spanned six decades. while the world's media has been accused of overlooking smaller nations at this year's u.n. general assembly in new york while certain leader's speech has grabbed the media's attention most fail to make the headlines. reports on why so many delegates were left talking to an empty room. an international circus of political power. a public stress for new yorkers. reporters secret

service and barricades the signs of world leaders are crammed inside one building for the annual united nations general assembly debate. this diplomatic gathering provides more than one hundred ninety countries an opportunity to promote their foreign policy agenda but generally it's always the same voices now is the time to build the trust is dominating the states in identifying those responsible in the september eleventh attacks journalists flew in from all over the world to cover this seven day event with people who have endured too much war but once the richest and strongest finished pledging their promises. press prematurely concluded their coverage people don't hear. them so i think you know what you see what. you know you see that. mainstream media pull the plug on this international story friday evening with more than one hundred and twenty nations yet to speak

abandoned by live trucks and most police presence nations like congo in mongolia were left addressing half empty our touring it was a monday when cuba spoke of suffering under us and forgoes camera outside the u.n. but warmed to a tourist between two thousand and twenty five hundred journalists were accredited at the un for the general assembly debate and when u.s. president barack obama was here the room i'm standing in was packed and when he laughed he took all the media attention with him now only a handful of journalists are left to report about all the other countries that are addressing the international body the poorest leaders took to the podium campaigning for climate change and the scene inside the un media center spoke volumes less than ten reporters and go. but you can school overflowing with recycled rubbish. today also reflects that the un suddenly doesn't draw as much

attention. global governance seems to have so many challenges to address. to some extent a lot of difficulties addressed in those challenges first maybe garnering respect from its host country nearly seventy percent of americans think the un does a lousy job in solving global problems maybe they should move it somewhere else maybe governors island where nobody would be affected by it you know. convenient for everyone however most of the world criticizes americans for neglecting to understand problems we only know what we need here we don't know exactly what's going. on and that's good or bad i mean. we should know we should we should be you know the same for everyone if not the united nations may remain a place where everyone continues to talk and neglects to listen up or not yeah party new york. the summer months prove to froth and fatal time for russia this

year hit by a record breaking heat wave raging wildfires and choking smaug the country's emergencies minister has been speaking to us here at r.t. and says a number of lessons have to be a lot. of course we analyze all our work we exchange experience and advice with our western colleagues i would like everyone to realize that such disasters are not nation specific catastrophes know no borders customs nationalities or religion this is perhaps the most important lesson we should learn from the situation we should learn to consolidate our efforts to join forces to give a helping hand to each other and to do our job efficiently and that's a very nice. and you can watch our full interview with russia's emergencies minister next hour right here on r.t. . well people are always searching for new ways to relieve the strains and stresses

of everyday life in russia after a group of therapists has come up with an extreme method to overcome your problems by burying people alive they claim that twenty minutes of it can change your outlook on life despite grave doubts artie's either bennett went to give it a try. above ground there are a few signs of life below the surface a man trapped with his greatest fear is pavel has just been buried alive for twenty minutes not torture but it stream therapy. is no good the first thing you experience is panic once your face is covered with dirt you start tasting us and thinking what the hell am i doing down here or you want to come down to simply no more than a place like this these are the grave digging therapists modeling the burials on an ancient form of self in light and meant practice by shamans they wanted to make the rites more accessible believing everyone can benefit. the most effective and

powerful method overcome an internal problems person can neither see nor hear anything nor even move underground they have no other option but to delve deep inside their minds. a burial costs around one hundred sixty dollars attracting both men and women from students to fifty something professionals all aiming to suffocate their worries the maximum burial is forty minutes beyond that the mind struggles to cope with the lack of physical function that they're thirty centimeters any deeper and the pressure would be too great to stand once under that volunteers breathe through this chewed the organizers a ten year veteran of living burials and says this shouldn't be tried at home. but are we have to be able to get the personal very first of all to contact them earth for us to be distributed in a certain way across the body so that the key joints or pressurized you can't practice burials without knowing about these things. until now i didn't think i

suffered from any cost a phobia and that could soon change because i'm going to try this for myself now me given this debris through which i'm told that we monitoring at all times so when i stop and all i have to do is make a noise so here we go. well they started to fill in my grave as they were here this feels very very strange the soil is very cold and also heavy i'm doing all right at the moment but i think it's going to get a lot more scary and i was right five minutes after being buried alive i was very ready to see the light of day again. thank. one of the weirdest experiences of my life i felt completely trapped and i'm definitely never doing that again are the bennett r.t. moscow. now don't forget we are also online with plenty more stories for you to

explore and here are some of what you'll find right now artsy dog amazing footage here come some petersburg could esther in narrow. getting crushed. thanks to quick thinking and even quick feet. and find out why moscow's a gay community has been allowed to hold protests on the city's streets for the first time in its history. plus if you feel like exploring the russian countryside check out the eco friendly hotels set up by a french ex-pat. many other things as well. now it's time for stephanie to take the floor she'll be here in just

a minute with the latest business report. this is mara region is economically and socially one of russia's better developed provinces the region has a significant scientific and industrial capacity that will realize its full potential after the construction of the. park can tell you he has completed the id parco has r. and d. projects in the spheres of automotive construction aerospace and oil chemistry high tech data center for bridge with cutting edge servers and communication equipment will be constructed at the core of the park the project has been personally approved by prime minister vladimir putin the federal government is planning to allocate sizable funding for the parks construction investors will be given benefits such as property tax exemption low land rental prices and other preferences this him our region government is open to mutually beneficial cooperation we invite investors to participate in existing projects and we are

ready to give a hand of fulfilling your projects and growing your business in this small region. hello and welcome to the business bulletin investors are once again focusing on the poor state of european banks the government of ireland has announced it will be taking a majority stake in the country's second largest bank as part of a fresh bailout it's also revealed the price tag for bailing out all of its banks will be more than fifty billion dollars this will raise its deficit to thirty two percent of g.d.p. in two thousand and ten meanwhile moody's investor services has lowered spain's top credit rating by one knot this puts additional pressure on the country's government is supposed to pass the most stay a budget in three decades it comes as the belt tightening measures imposed by the european governments provoked massive protests across europe. and earlier i spoke

to karen ward senior global economist at h.s.b.c. bank in london about the debt situation in europe i started by asking her if the fears about public finances since seen before the summer. yes unfortunately they are it was a bit old that they went away actually given that the crisis is really about the fiscal measures that we need to see in europe which are very large. governments would be able to implement these so the little we had over the summer actually was what surprised us rather than the fact that it is. a bit as you say is i mean has returned in the last few weeks and will be austerity measures that are being announced in europe do you think would be enough to restore confidence. but i think i'd actually turn that question on its head and say if it's if they aren't then we'll see further was there as he measures certainly what has been announced

already is quite serious belt tightening i think. financial markets see those plans being implemented see the fiscal tightening on the way then you'll start to see some of that confidence return for the moment of course this is all on paper rather than really being implemented so is there any time will tell but if it's not enough then i'm sure we'll see governments committing to the plans in order to tensions. turn now to emerging markets they're being hailed as the next growth story but are they actually strong enough to grow even if europe and the u.s. start going into reverse again. but i think the emerging markets certainly aren't completely immune to what's going on in the developed world of course they exported a lot of the goods to the developed world and the financial system of of course very global exports and the financial channel are the ones in which emerging markets will be affected if we step back from the very near. volatility that

will see we completely agree that emerging markets all of the growth story that we should be focused on we have many economies where income per capita is still very low. to the western world and now we're seeing the infrastructure and the global capital flows into these economies that will allow them to develop to the income levels that we see in the western world so we think certainly on a medium term basis we're absolutely right to believe that we're going to see those economies growing up much stronger rates than we'll see in the worst. talks on russia's session to the world trade organization are expected to be completed in the next few weeks that's according to top officials in moscow but promised putin has acknowledged that membership may still be some way off he warns that in the meantime russia is not prepared to accept further economic restrictions.

that required can only be applied after our extension to the organization not a single restriction related to the exception process must be applied before the exception is complete because this process may last for ever and we will be accepting restrictions without getting the benefits of full membership. now let's take a quick look at how the equity markets are performing european shares have switched to positive territory in the last hour that follows a round of u.s. economic data including better than expected weekly job claims but u.s. economic growth slowed to an annual one point seven percent in the second quarter from three point seven percent the previous quarter. and the russian markets are gaining in late afternoon trade here in moscow with the my six up one percent energy wages are making games they're loved by ross next up one and three quarters percent this hour but ross telecom is still on the slide it down more than one point two percent. fitch ratings agency has placed the bank of moscow russia's

fifth largest bank on negative watch it follows this week's dismissal of moscow's mare yury luzhkov by president medvedev the agency says the appointment of a new met could cause a deterioration in the relationship between the bank and the city of moscow how to close ties to the outgoing administration. i'm not sure update for now but of course you can always find more stories on our website that's r t dot com slash business.

for the full. face to face with. today. these are the images. from the streets of canada.

here in the russian capital you headline. but. says the decline in supply is due to a disease affecting the country's. blocks nato. supply routes. in response to the killing of its soldiers. to talk to empty seats. raising questions over its ability to

global issues the us has been criticized for being. considered to be the most important. while in recent number of global natural disasters has increased dramatically. tries to find out what challenges the rescuers face every day.