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you. has begun kurdistan's historic parliamentary elections with security forces and to ensure peaceful holding up to political turbulence and sniff violence this year. all candidates are now in the running because. most good amongst the names that were you surprised. one on top are now is that claiming that president saakashvili his regime is to give up the business its.

international news life this is all see with me. thanks for joining us polling stations across care just on have opened for voting in the elections which was stumbling fast parliamentary democracy security is being stepped up across the country which has sinned bloody ethnic clashes and political turmoil this year but as. reports fears a vine is still remain. this is truly a crucial vote because it's meant to end instability and political chaos in the country for the past half a year or so kyrgyzstan has been plagued by violence and the seldom parts of the country where we are now are among the most affected areas and there are fears that this violence could flare up once again during the election the former soviet republic has been struggling to achieve normality since former president. was overthrown from power in deadly street protests across the entire country

especially in the capital bishkek violent riots left dozens of people dead and put the entire country in a state of chaos people were protesting by policies which led to many people living in poverty and fields to increase the quality of life in kyrgyzstan for years the interim government held referendum which voted to build a parliamentary republic which is a milestone not only for kyrgyzstan but for the entire central asian region since this election will be held successfully it will change the way. it's planned that the president's powers will be curbed well the prime minister will have more power than the formal head of state this is significant for central asia since traditionally countries in the region are ruled by authoritarian leaders and this way. from such a political model for the first time in central asia twenty nine political parties are taking part in this election which is an all time record for kyrgyzstan however

there are genders are relatively similar to one another there is skepticism on the ordinary people here in kyrgyzstan who say that this election won't improve their lives because simply not ready for such a transition and the new parliament won't be as effective apart from political unrest or just on there's also been suffering from ethnic violence in june. there were deadly ethnic clashes here in the city of osh where we are now which is populated both by and was back in nationals as a result hundreds of people were killed thousands were injured and thousands more had to flee their homes and at the moment peace is we fragile here in the south of the currency and in fact at the moment many people fear even going to the polling stations on sunday there have already been reports of threats sent out to the local population of mess for many people at the moment the main priority is to rebuild

their homes and businesses after doing this while it's rather then to vote for any politician but despite this the authorities are still calling for the people to go to the polling stations to take in this election promising that it will provide the long awaited stability of saudis are on high alert across the entire country both police and volunteers are monitoring the streets of the city's international observers have already arrived at the region and authorities say that everything is ready for the vote on sunday the selection of moscow's next man has entered its final stages thinking that russia party has given its short list of contenders to president dmitri medvedev who now has ten days to decide who's to take charge at city hall in the russian capital covering the story for us. the short list. for names that have been submitted by the united russia party to the president. on that list includes the deputy prime minister. now he's considered a strong from and

a full of the position by many commentators so no surprise that he's being included in the list he's also considered a very close ally of prime minister putin having worked with him extensively during his presidency and now in his will as prime minister so he's certainly a very strong hand but also on the list we have russia's transport and communications minister igor levitin and the governor. of valery have now he actually spent ten hours the former mellish deputy up until two thousand and five and a ninety ninety six when i was running for that position and. was running for the position of vice was we did an assassination attempt against him after an explosion near his home which he survived the suddenly interesting bit of background will not come to the only female of the group with mila. and now she is the current at the

moment and her poll actually includes a lot of the social issues such as unemployment and health care and she is considered one of the most experienced candidate having worked in the government since ninety ninety four and also in her position at the moment perhaps one of the best place to deal with some of the issues that the president with faith has already highlighted as will be some of the main challenges facing whoever will become the new math. i think all four candidates are perfectly capable of becoming mayor of moscow the city's leader who would be responsible for quality of life. issues carrying on the policies in effect and dealing with future challenges the capital demands a series of new solutions which we will discuss with the new mayor. one of the main challenged. is it going to be these social reforms now muscovites going to be taping at the some of the social programs initiated to this call will be made

things such as free travel of the most pension benefit to teachers but there are certainly many issues that they need that will still be attempting to solve issues such as pollution and of course the colds and headache muscovites which is the traffic problems that's an ongoing that will be some of the issues. another major key role. will be to gain the public's trust the specially ahead of the parliamentary elections that will be happening at the end of two thousand and eleven knows the lack of trust of the cited as one of the main reasons that the pull the dismissal. will not have around a good to make an impact on that must have by all the controversy surrounding this because he was always very good at bringing out united russia votes from the muscovite party going to be hoping that he whether through elected will have to

sway with the public ahead of the elections next year. this is come on the program the race for the arctic is heating up russian scientists say they have evidence to support the country's territorial claims in the resource rich region. of the future of the u.s. dollar as emerging world economies seek to separate from the greenback some seem to be heading for an all out. moving towards a european style democracy is the stated aim for the georgian president has proposed a new constitution is supposed to serve the country on the schools however many of . his version of people's rule is it holds with their experience to his fellow. prisoners who claim cope corruption and kickbacks are the real forces in the country. the so-called patchwork beth's and central police sea is the perfect place to relax and have your photo taken on the way out the historical building is now

owned by a private company but a few years ago it was taken from its previous owner by the government to gold has any really still fears for his life he says in two thousand and seven he was approached by government agents who claimed he used illegal schemes to purchase the baths allegedly through the use of threats the officials forced the man to give up his business going to court says get a goal was not an option. they said that they know where my son's school a is and they could say tomorrow and bust him for drug possession he said that they will make me sells everything and still it won't be enough to pay the market you're going to be begging for mercy i couldn't have done anything underneath my business to this day. immediately after seizing the property of the government solved it off since then great goal has been trying hard to get his business back. and i wrote

six complaints asking them why they made me give up my business but the authorities are silent so you may have not received a single response you get wiser twenty five ship that's going. to sell you a human rights activist says this case is not unique according to the salient have been numerous cases recently where the georgian government has illegally seized buildings wound and other property from private individuals large and small companies. when neil thirty openly use police and the prosecutor's office to take away people's property there's no other way to cool it but tara it's a kind of official racketeering aggressive illegal and purely criminal in its nature we can say directly to make our second species team is responsible for terrorizing the business sector. some georgian entrepreneur explain the greed and political ambitions of the country's leaders these businessmen say that in order to

work safely and believe see you have to make generous donations to the ruling party or large cheering the two pounds will chip in as in georgia make voluntary donations by paying off the government during the election all of them they know listen fifty five thousand u.s. dollars these are official some so we can only guess how much they have to pay on the fish are still pursue matsumoto well google feels betrayed by the government he's still hoping to find justice for this man and many others who have seen for themselves so often president saakashvili his words differ from his deeds change can't come soon enough well georgian officials claim that they have created the corruption free in the me to do also lost their businesses due to pressure from the state it's nothing but spin and even though only a few want to speak out it looks like the movement against such rigid tearing into police e is getting stronger does. the head of the international monetary

fund is edging nations not to use that paris as economic weapons of self defense dominique strauss kahn says they global financial crisis is not over with the likes of the us struggling to avoid a double dip recession and a lot of this to reports some countries are writing and writing their way of the dollar's downfall. financial leaders are getting together from all over the world this week to figure out how to boost the global economy at the annual i.m.f. and world bank meetings but many are talking about a break up the world is. the united states as the consumer of last resort in the financial world that's not called divorce but decoupling and everyone from a flurry of wall street analysts to nobel prize winning economist joseph stiglitz are using the word now to describe this shift in power the baton is passed from countries like the united states on to countries like china brazil russia. india.

and beyond and you know growth in the global call be much more dependent upon those countries than on the developed economies explains how while the u.s. economy continues to look more bleak with analysts such as goldman sachs forecasting fairly to very bad scenarios of meager one to two percent growth or an all out double dip recession i would almost consider a double dip a base of the so-called bric countries are still on the ascent brazil's economy is estimated to grow seven point five percent this year with optimism to spare this may from the may be. will be more than seven point five percent. and rounding out the r i c in that acronym russia india and china are estimated to post four point two five nine point seven and ten point five percent gains respectively china's growth as an economic power it's on r.g.p. even children is to be made in china isn't lost on american politicians looking for

someone to blame calls for help foreign companies group chinese jobs making with males would skyrocketing unemployment nor is it lost on the obama administration we believe it's very important to see more progress by the major emerging economies to more flexible. market oriented exchange rate systems geitner has increased complaints about china under valuing its currency ahead of the i.m.f. meeting you have the reason why things are going. because of you so it has to be because of charges of. bubble politicians try to hold things together citizens are decoupling from the us economy to people who once left their countries to come to the us for opportunities are heading back home the opportunities are going to be much better than what they are here they're setting up shop in countries poised to grow even as the u.s.

teeters on the edge of decline while nothing appears different from the outside of the annual world bank and i.m.f. meeting here in washington nothing sounds different about the u.s. pressing for its agenda of more fiscal stimulus and currency regulation inside changes afoot as these global governing institutions figure out how to incorporate the power of the new emerging economies showing that their economies grow far from us soil so too does their role behind these doors or lester r. t. washington d.c. . the snow check some of the new stories in brief the nature of colon time has been evacuated due to the threat of a second of toxic sludge it's feared the weakened wall of a nearly idea by reservoir may collapse and agree declared a state of emergency after thousands of tons of ways to flood the several villages this week killing seven however despite the sludge reaching the river danube officials say there is little sign it has been significantly polluted. especially

three chilean miners trapped underground for over two months have been breached by a trio digging a rescue tunnel chilean government engineers crosstown society the shaft has to be lined with two to avoid the risk of collapse before the operation to bring the men up one by one commences the country's mining minister says the rescue purses likely to to bring. begin by wednesday they have been sold to the men might not be reached until christmas. north korean t.v. how shown live a live broadcast of the country's leader kim jong il with his son. in a massive military pulling from a break in the sixty fifth anniversary of the country's ruling faulty it's widely speculated that the western educated recently appointed general in his twenty's will succeed his father as had all the reclusive communist nation their periods following and televised event together is being viewed as a further sign of official confirmation of the succession. russia norway

denmark the u.s. and canada the five powers in a race to creating be ice caps vast on top of resources russian scientists are literally growing to the end of the lives on a mission to support their nation's claims aussies you can see in the graph join them on their icy. there is a perception that it's hard to find a living soul in the arctic but not today this is how members of russia's north pole expedition with their colleagues on board the academics break up the fur drip is the flagship of the northern fleet if their chill floating lab or a tree around a hundred scientists have spanned seventy days and beyond gathering evidence to support the claim that the model simply is part of russia's continental shelf the head of the expedition looks more than pleased with the results for lister but. today we are fully confirm the geological outline or a leaf at the bottom of the bridge we have recovered quality material that

corresponds to international standards so you miss a lot of. russia's biggest evidence gathering weapon is a multi billion eco sound known as quantock speck it's hard to see and impossible to touch but it's talking to scientists from the bottom of the coldest ocean in the world. they can go as deep as twelve kilometers so it practically covers the whole spectrum of the ocean's depth there are no depths that you cannot measure. and your principal competitors are using the similar equipment the american icebreaker halley for example works with the same sound it is convenient to analyze and compare collected by the same standards. russia is in a hurry to collect evidence for its implication to the un sheffield for twenty eight thirteen the same year another applicant canada comes up with the clays the

russian president in war to both poles says he's people are ready to work around the clock to fulfill the mission. for you the peace some say the russians do in antarctica on apollo night we're not going to ask anybody water when we should do the arctic belongs to russia i'm going to be the one. in accordance with international treaties and we will work day and night if necessary. another deepwater equal sound will do each part of the job within the north pole. it will be on a movie i spy and guess information on the breach nonstop for the next year the arctic may be of ostend embassy in popular image a nation but it is that stimulated that it contains a quarter of the world's on top for so fuels flotsam gold diamonds and other precious metals iran sixty percent of total shock to gas lies in the russian exclusive economic zone so even without the models of reach being divided it seems

that russia has already won becoming grace it's in the art from the island of in the arctic the modernized digital so you spacecraft carrying a new russian american crew has successfully docks with the international space station nasa astronaut scott kelly and cosmonauts alexander kaleri and the legs crew which will spend the next six months as members of expedition twenty five on board the station the new comers have joined another three space men who are presently manning the station so as arriving injury they will remain together until late november there is to be a remarkable reunion to four in february scott kelly will be joined at this space station by his identical twin brother mark and not an astronaut or. a brother. and i will back with the headlines in ten minutes more than a third of exported are going to drugs now the equivalent of five billion here in

doses and it's up in russia every year that's according to the head of russia's anti now portugues agency victory over north and he spoke to our say about the war on drugs and why under current circumstances it can be one that's coming up in just a moment. today we're talking to the head of russia's drug control service and mr pena thank

you very much for joining us today first off let's talk about afghanistan afghanistan is the number one producer all opiates in the world when we talk about the transfer of the drugs to russia what kind of amounts of drugs are we talking about. afghanistan produced about seven thousand tons of opium last year which is equivalent to seven hundred tons of heroin we believe that about thirty six of these tons end up in russia that's a lot about five billion doses and it's about thirty five percent of all drugs exported from afghanistan because in fact afghanistan exports less than half of the drugs it produces as drug addicts throughout the world are unable to consume everything that comes out of afghanistan so afghanistan stores a huge amount of drugs russia and other countries estimate it's about thirteen to fifteen thousand tons of opium so even if drug production stops in afghanistan the country will still be able to supply the international market with heroin for another twenty or even thirty years. what about the main mode of transportation of

the drugs could you talk about the roads or the countries through which the drug trade flows into russia. out of i.c.u. there is the northern route which is sometimes called the northern silk route after the seventeenth century trade route the reason the silk route is popular is because after the collapse of the soviet union new nations are merged and while their borders exist on paper in reality they're not even properly guarded so essentially there are no effective borders between afghanistan and russia with such poor as a borders it's very easy for traffickers to transport drugs the biggest part of drugs flows through chad you can stand and kazakstan and onward to russia another part goes through iran across the caspian sea and the caucasus ridge and ends. in the north caucasus or deeper in russia's territory by the way this provides a source of financing for terrorists and extremists in russia's caucasus because the. americans that have got us down say that they cannot eradicate most of the

puppy fields because a lot of again is depend on their livelihood on these fields by producing the opiates what can be done about this is their solution to the problem. when the u.s. says you cannot deprive farmers of their livelihood it actually sends a message to the afghan leadership as well saying they shouldn't do it because first this will destroy people's livelihood and second you push farmers into the hands of the taliban i think this is merely an excuse furthermore since u.s. special representative for central asia richard holbrooke first suggested this idea that instead of eradicating drug crops the u.s. should target drug labs and traffickers which was almost a year ago the number of labs producing drugs for russia has tripled a year ago we knew about one hundred seventy labs in afghanistan today we know of more than four hundred laps of producing drugs for russia but this is not seem to be a paradox that when afghanistan was under the control of the taliban the production

was significantly lower than it is now and it has risen dramatically after the u.s. invasion nine years ago what what is the problem how is this fitting into the picture and the statements that nato is trying to fight the drug trade in afghanistan in your opinion. you're right i had a meeting with my pakistani colleagues here in islamabad and they too were amazed at this phenomenon there's only one way to explain it when the taliban sought official recognition for its kabul regime and they took on president of measures to eradicate oppin poppy crops they consistently took serious steps in one nine hundred ninety eight nine hundred ninety nine and two thousand when they introduced capital punishment for. cultivation as a result they succeeded in a radical drought crop on ninety percent of afghanistan's territory all the provinces they controlled the only place they couldn't do it was

a northern afghanistan which was controlled by the so-called northern alliance but then operation enduring freedom began and the situation changed drastically only a competent government that has the support of the people can really control the country and take serious steps to destroy drug production how can we talk about the military solution to the problem when most of the poppy fields in afghanistan are located in areas of the most intense fighting or where foreign military personnel are stationed where where is this listen to that. the nine years of the military operation in afghanistan have demonstrated that the more fighting there is in the country the small of the chances are of destroying drug production they're growing alternative crops is a risky proposition the risks are immense you can lose your crop at any stage opium on the other hand does not require any effort poppy grows all by itself and buyers come straight to the field and purchase the crop so it's obvious that you can destroy drug production this way the russian federation has developed

a plan which is called rainbow two because it consists of seven points we presented this plan to the european commission the european parliament nato our partners in the us in afghanistan and here in pakistan the plan calls for a comprehensive approach first of all this huge problem should be officially recognised as a threat to international peace and security in other words this is a separate problem that kills more than one hundred thousand people each year hundreds of millions of people suffer from this problem which everyone has been talking about for almost a decade second as i just said we need to eradicate opium poppy and the international security assistance force which is in afghanistan today under the u.n. mandate and therefore has assumed responsibility for the future of afghanistan should play very active role in our medicaid in the crocker then of course afghanistan needs economic aid we need to rebuild its infrastructure by the way.