under denies the charges he insists he never swayed on 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 policeman i was doing i kept quiet about for about two years all the other policemen here knew about it quite a few police who were drug addicts they're not telling anyone they're just saying i'm smoking something. pullet afghanistan's biggest jail many of the five thousand

prisoners here are doing time for drug smuggling and drug use but the locks are not a sure safe way of keeping the drugs out. these are the different kinds of drugs we collected over the past years. this is a mix of all your contacts. but 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 lending a hand. up 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 educated and they don't have enough and there are a lot. joining the produce truth out of the people who join the producers through

two of them south but the ministry of canton a cottage insists it's now got a hold on the problem but questions remain what if some of those finds enough gunnies times 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 full wards is a snapshot of the problems facing afghan society telep members drug traffickers and petty criminals and the prisons over crowded forests here are teen preaching keep person karpal. u.n. experts warn a higher opium prices could persuade afghan farmers to grow even more especially as we eat the main alternative crop for farmers has fallen in price but zalmai of zali a spokesman for counter-narcotics ministry insists that growing drugs is against 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 it could have been the case in some provinces goldman 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. we afghans this is not a culture this is against 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. nato as war effort in afghanistan is facing another obstacle pakistan has closed an important supply route for the coalition one hundred fuel tankers and trucks haven't been allowed into afghanistan it's seen as a retaliation to a nato helicopter raid into the territory of pakistan in which three local soldiers were killed and three more wounded the alliance says the incident is now being investigated and promised to pakistan and promised pakistan sovereignty would be respected recently the number of missile strikes and helicopter raids against suspected militants hiding in pakistan's tribal zone has been on the rise pakistani officials say the attacks are violating international law and should be stopped pakistani political expert ahmed karate tells r t that the u.s. led coalition has failed to persuade pashtun tribes living on either side of the border to join in the peace efforts. 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 that box done is getting to the bad side of the stick we don't get what we really expected from this alliance with the united states with nato in afghanistan and of course pakistani interests are not being looked after or respected by our friends and of guns done and if this continues you might as well see a complete you have to understand something tribes of course i divided by 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. anger add to 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 of god or whether they are pakistani throughout the past eight years of course boxen has been coming up with suggestions in order to defuse tensions inside of gun is done box down the ideas box and suggestions pakistani 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 alice is from pakistani political expert correct . still to come here on our speakers at the u.n. general assembly for themselves. and why the media walked away and left hundreds of nations airing of empty seats coming your way in a few minutes plus. this feels very very strange. and

also doing all right at the moment but i think it's going to get scary. therapy one of the put under we explore how being buried alive feels and what sentence for those involved. turning first to some other stories making headlines this hour hundreds of soldiers and police in ecuador have seized the capital's main airport and protesting cuts to their benefits the agri demonstrators have also taken over other parts of the city using tear gas and burning tires the country's president is trying to resolve the situation and is negotiating with protesters. two policemen have been killed and three civilians wounded in baghdad after an armed gang tried to rob a bank attackers huge bombs to storm the building before being poisoned by officers in a gunfight two suspected robbers were captured in the neighborhood has been sealed off as police search for other attackers officials say it's unclear whether the

gang has links to insurgent groups. there's controversy in india over a court decision to split control over a holy site in the northern ancient talent of the. main disputed section where a mosque was torn down in one thousand nine hundred two has been allocated to hindus while muslims will be in charge of other parts security is being tightened across the region as authorities fear on the rest 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. in north korea has published a photo thought to be of the country's heir apparent for the first time it's the only picture released of kim jong un which is considered up to date he was appointed to to tea party positions earlier this week it's being viewed as a gradual transfer of power due to the elling health of his father kim jong il. the high level united nations panel has started hearings on sexual violence cases in

the democratic republic of the tongo victims began sharing their experiences as part of efforts to improve treatment and support this comes after the release of a preliminary un report into the rape of hundreds of civilians including children in one province two months ago the panel will visit troubled regions throughout the country to conduct more than one hundred hearings over the next ten days. many e.u. countries are trying to get back to normal after protests and general strikes affected dozens of major cities tens of thousands took to the streets demonstrating against budget cuts in spain traffic was blocked and many passengers were left stranded in madrid with two thirds of flights grounded. american actor and hollywood legend tony curtis has died at the age of eighty five he passed away at his home in nevada after cardiac arrest curtis was best known for roles in movies such as particles and alongside marilyn monroe when some like it hot he starred in more than one hundred twenty films during

a career spanning six decades. two explosive devices the equivalent to at least ninety kilos of t.n.t. have been diffused in russia staffer polar region to nearby buildings in a school were evacuated for safety reasons the first bomb in a car was supposed to have been set off by the vehicles alarm system the second was nearby and is believed to have been targeted at police officers who would respond to the first explosion authorities also discovered the body of a man in the car has been identified as a local cab driver and the prosecutor's office says he was shot dead but was not linked to the attempted attack. global media outlets covering this year's un assembly in new york have been criticized for disregarding smaller nations most of the press left after the main speeches ended leaving the views of more than one hundred nations unheard artie's marina porton i reports on why so many delegates speeches fell on deaf ears. an international circus of

political power. 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. to press prematurely concluded their coverage people don't care so it's kind of sad to hear what you say what you write. you know the.

mainstream media pulled 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 and mongolia were left a dressing half empty are torrijos by monday when cuba spoke of suffering under us and forgoes camera outside the un along to a tourist between two thousand and twenty five hundred journalists were accredited at the un for the general assembly debates and when u.s. president barack obama was here the room i'm standing in was asked 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. which can school overflowing with recycled

rubbish. today also reflects that. much attention. global governance seems to have so many challenges to address. to some extent this is a lot of difficult to say addressing those challenges the first may be 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 going as ireland where nobody would be affected by it you know. inconvenient for everyone however most of the world criticizes americans for neglecting to understand local problems we only know what we hear we don't know exactly what's going on. i know that's good or bad i mean. we should know we should or should be the same for everyone if not the united nations may remain a place where everyone continues to talk and neglects to listen up or niam party in

new york. the summer months proved a fraud and fatal time for russia this year hit by a record breaking heat wave raging wildfires and choking smog the country's emergencies minister has been speaking with r.t. and says a number of lessons have to be learnt. 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 this 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 you can catch the full interview with russia's emergencies minister coming your way in less than a quarter hour here on r.t. . people are always searching for new ways to relieve their stress and strain of

everyday life in russia maverick 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 i never bet it want 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 there's just been buried alive for twenty minutes not torture but it stream therapy. the first thing you experience is panic once your face is covered with it you start tasting it and thinking what the hell am i doing down here or you want to come down to simply normal the place like these are the grave digging therapists modeling the burials on an ancient form of self in lightened practice by shamans they wanted to make the rights more accessible believing everyone can benefit. is 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 the volunteers breathe through this chewed the organizers a ten year veteran of living burials and says this shouldn't be tried at home. that are we have to be able to get the personal very fast and also 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 things things that 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 well 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 fell completely trapped and i'm definitely never doing that again either bennett r.t. . and comes to therapy i'll think i'll stick with jogging well don't forget you can

find plenty more stories on our website our team dot com here's a quick look at what's online right now. mazing footage captures the st petersburg pedestrian narrowly avoiding getting crushed to death thanks to quick thinking and even quicker feet. find out why moscow's 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 hotel farms set up by a ex-pat all this and more. stephanie money's up next with your business update stay with us here on r.t. .

hello and welcome to the business bulletin investors are once again focusing on the poor state of european banks the government of violent 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 has no it's spain's top credit rating up by one notch this puts additional pressure on the country's government as it prepares to pass the most austere budget in three decades it comes as the belt tightening measures imposed by the european governments provoked a massive protests across europe. concerns over public financing also feeding into the currency markets this week the brazilian finance minister said there was a covert currency war taking place as countries sought to devalue their way out of

debt earlier i spoke to chris we first chief strategist at oral saib who explained what the governments might be trying to achieve to deliberate action by governments to weaken their currencies in order to increase to compare of their own industry in direct sports in order to try and boost the revival of their economies some governments are doing down to it we saw for example the japanese government taking action to weaken the yen because they feared words hurt competitiveness and the chinese government of course is resolutely refusing to appreciate the one so effectively keeping at a low level in order to sustain growth in their economy and in other countries particularly of course the focus on the u.s. were u.s. dollars being quite we can do the acquisition is that it's been done very deliberately in order to help boost the economic recovery in the us at the expense of other countries such as brazil and perhaps such as europe so do you think governments will actually find a solution that. you know. is this going to escalate i think it's inevitably going

to escalate we may actually see some of that as the next g. twenty summit which is to take place in korea in november i think currency and currency wars if you like to use the brazilian term i think certainly will be on the agenda i think that governments really don't have any other option and they don't have any other strategies that they are increasingly resorting to try and use their currency to get out of this problem so we're going to hear more about currency battles in two thousand and eleven now if we turn to the rebuttal it's down against the euro it's down against the dollar it's not performing very well why is that well investors are effectively sidelined russia since the mid summer i think since the drought the smog and the concerns to that's raised about rising inflation and we've already had a number of growth forecasts reductions from government so investors really don't see russia as having a strong domestic story right now they're much prefer to focus on parts of the economy merging market world that do have strong domestic stories such as brazil

india china and turkey in particular and in eastern europe russia has been ignored you can see it in the equity market it's no starting to weigh on the downside from the global emerging markets of the same of the currency markets so i believe it's a temporary move. now is is very cheap even relative to the weak fundamentals we have. so i think once we get turned a corner a big upside we probably need to see more confidence in global markets before we see that upside and i believe it will come strong before the. russian equity markets finished higher on thursday poit by gains in global markets later in the session at the my six high of the tb finished more than three percent in the black well put on two and a half percent energy majors also outperformed. finish one and a half percent. talks on russia's session to the world trade organization are expected to be. in the next few weeks that's according to top officials in moscow

but prime minister 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. in the required can only be applied after our accession to the organization not a single restriction related to the accession 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. 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 mac could cause a deterioration in the relationship between the bank and the city of moscow had close ties to the outgoing administration. and that's all the business news for now

but of course you can always find more stories if you log on to our website that's r.t. dot com slash business. today

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eight thirty pm in the russian capital good to have you with us here on our t.v. these are your headlines afghanistan's opium harvest falls by about half the value soars with drugs ending up in the hands of prisoners and even police officers a u.n. report says the decline in supplies due to a disease affecting the country's poppy fields. pakistan hits back at nato and shuts down a major supply route and what's being seen as retaliation for the killing of its soldiers by u.s. helicopters on cross border raids the alliance denies the claims and has begun an investigation. and lots of talk but no one's listening smaller nations are addressing the close of the un general assembly in new york met by media

indifference and an empty auditorium the u.s. has been criticized for being a bad host as the majority of its journalists left along with those considered along with those considered the most important speakers. for many russians the summer of two thousand and ten will be remembered for the scorching heat massive wildfires and suffocating smog coming up next r.t. interviews the country's emergencies minister. on the lessons learned. but thing is the rest of his question i wish hello minister shagger was saying to you for your time this summer russia faced great forest fires and some are still raging why do you think it all happened on such a scale.