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france's paralyzed by further problem protests against cutbacks and pension reform is now turning towards the run and to making the country's dire situation worse. allegations of child abuse sit in one of russia's oldest convent as teenagers accused of beating them. and millions of americans are very frightened of the state of the u.s. economy more and more u.s. citizens are trying to escape into the world of fantasy. galaxy recession and meet the people choosing something by a slump plus. the russian government revealed the details of its part of the station program the state will sell stakes in around nine hundred companies by two thousand and fifteen join us in our business program at twenty past the hour.

i know you're watching r t world news around the clock welcome france's heading into another day of unrest with reports suggesting that protesters are blocking must say airport they're angry at government plans to raise the retirement age from sixty to sixty two which would still be one of the lowest in europe but not everyone wants to protest t. his customers are of a reports of those who say the country needs to get back to reality and back to work. young smart and ambitious lucy is slipping her time between a master's degree and working for a large international company for her the recent protests in paris are first and foremost a personal distraction i'm not driving because in paris you don't really need your car so i'm using the. headquarter of my company yeah it's it's longer i need like one i am not

a moral according to trade union officials in france over three million people took to the streets across the country but people like you see no the numbers don't always reflect reality t.j. sion in france there is a committee is just to avoid school it's like six years ago i made the same when i was in high school. i went to this race because i can avoid. the reality really give us a vibe singing dancing and shouting but while they're spending day after day protesting a reform that is aimed to aid their country they're very actions are doing serious damage it's basically this is one of the reform to. restore the. system remove disincentive for working out older ages as well give a signal of the commitment of the government to. take structural reforms that will

raise the potential of the economy as well. as. the numbers really speak for themselves france has a huge foreign debt the fourth largest in the world and unlike in the united states there is no board advertising the numbers also unlike the united states where there is no annual paid leave the french enjoy the longest paid holidays thirty days a year their retirement age. which is what the people are protesting about this time is one of the lowest in the world countries also affected by the global financial crisis like italy and spain have already increased there but with less widespread opposition from the people so are these protests a true sign of a democracy or simply a force of habit by the french people used to pouring out in the streets to get their way or is this is a sign that government needs to negotiate with trade unions more we have to say to

the french people that it's they who choose the deputies and members of the senate . are not made in the streets. by revolutionaries fortunately we live in a democratic state and people who. decides it's necessary to respect and in the year to. be made a mistake and change our leaders these are the people who run the country the my way or the highway philosophy certainly attention grabbing but who will back down first is still anyone's guess on the one hand it is a constitutional right of the people to project something they don't believe in and don't agree on the other hand as with anything if you do it too much it becomes a farce and democracy becomes a blackmailed institution in the hands of the people. who does our art harris. political science professor told me that the demonstrators are being unreasonable considering they would still get to

a time when most other europeans. the problem with the retirement age has been raised actually a number of years ago because of the observed democrat demographic trends and so there have been actually several attempts before to streamline the system to. increase the number of years that people have to pay in which is still in france lower than the average in other countries as well but all of these measures have been insufficient and so it's come to this measure of raising the retirement age which is only a raise of two years and it's a still it would still be one of the younger stages to retire in europe so it's true that the public ought to be aware of. the issue but it's true that also that they have been used to generous benefit regime and it's very difficult for them to we're actually except to let go of it. moneywise things aren't shaping up any

better across the english channel britain has announced it's not just cuts in public spending since the second world war u.k. wants to slash one hundred twenty billion dollars from its budget over the next four years plans to raise the retirement age to sixty six are being brought forward and welfare benefits sols among the hardest hit it was enough to turn thousands of protesters on to london streets cuts will come down to me as a moment but some economists believe that government should have gone even further . i think actually george osborne should have gone further with the let's put it into perspective by two thousand and fourteen fifteen overall government spending will only have fallen by about three percent so this is actually a very tiny cut so i think you should have gone further he's relying on economic growth and rising tax revenues to make up the deficit reduction and he actually this is a big gamble because we can't rely on economic growth because for the next year i'm really always going to be problems to face

a very severe curse but it is definitely patrick and let's not. but as well that every pound the government is taking from the private sector in either taxation or borrowing so you're not actually taking money out of the economy i mean we've seen huge number of job losses in the private sector during the recession and at the same time the public sector of expanding in pensions when welfare benefits went up so you need to really restore the balance in the economy and we've had a huge transfer from the productive private sector to the non productive public sector and this is very unhealthy for long term economic prosperity. the economy may be depressed but that doesn't mean you have to be as we learn later when we meet. you know their problems to escape the reality of recession. and the huge price one industrial russian town paid countries in time it has become one of the most places in the world. prosecutors are to look into claims of

child abuse at a convent in central russia teenagers there say teachers beat them with belts as well as depriving them of food and sleep allegations the convent denies there were similar accusations a year ago but no evidence of abuse was found marty's only going to reports from that he may reach him. what we know is that we have three teenagers two girls and a boy who escaped from the convents boarding school and went straight to one of russia's major newspapers it's easiest to talk about the flights that they went through according to them nuns at the convent beat them regularly they have a newspaper demonstrated bruises and marks from beatings on their arms and in the hands and knees everywhere sensually and this is a common that surprised behind me right now apparently at that convent nuns are punished pupils for misbehaving by making that a law making them stand on their knees cutting down the hours of sleep leaving them without food for days and forcing them to work in the fields one of the girls as

a matter of fact says that her spine has been damaged as a result because one of the nuns thought that she wasn't working briskly enough in the fields and now we're talking about kids they were early ages from ten to sixteen and they were made to work in the fields from dusk till dawn the forest the convent denies everything saying that all of these allegations are lies and this situation has got again the attention of the most good teacher keep all of the child abuse dampens men as well as the russian state prosecutor's office because of course if these allegations do prove to be true then this is going this is bound to be one of the loudest scandals to hit russian orthodox church in recent years almost exactly a year ago a girl as sixteen year old has escaped from the convent she has written a letter to the russian president and to the russian a.t.r. talking about the abuses that went on in this convent but at that point investigators were not allowed into the convent premises they were not allowed to

enter the boarding school to see for themselves what was going on and they were forced to rely on the testimonials of the pupils and their parents and at that point ironically one of the girls who is now accusing the convent of mistreatment one of the girls actually spoke in favor of the convent and said that nothing of the store. what was going on of course now she said this is says that she is regretting the fact that she essentially lied last year that in fact these abuses are taking place her mother also spoke to the newspaper to use vista and she said that she's also very regretful of the fact that she did not tell the truth during the investigations last year because she says that afterwards she was not allowed to see her daughter for days and when she did see her her daughter seemed to be lacking in sleep in it and obviously on heartbeat and mother has also reported hearing crying coming out from the boarding school the rules. of the fact that children were regularly mistreated and beaten and otherwise be miserable there so of course investigations will be carried out again we don't not know how they will

be going on since probably the investigators will not be let into the school premises yet again. forget there's much more for you on our website that's r.t. dot com let's take a look at what might catch your eye there including a disco for the deaf contribution to play in time a couple of people including the d.j. who are hearing impaired find out about the moscow nightclub that's breaking the mold. and russia's foreign minister has in both a classic so very detailed attempt to get the latest budget to prove. to discover what drove the fictional but you're going to play the part and people who takes. different people are coping with the current economic downturn in the u.s.

in different ways results he's an associate check in the farms out so willing to go a bit further than most to escape reality. for two years now the world economy in the u.s. has turned into an ocean of horror from many how do you skate your fears by saying employed what if you get fired what are you going to do i'm screwed while some have been choosing humor to fight off the frightening reality or you're afraid of a double dip recession. others ways a little less legal are you afraid of the economy. what do you do to escape reality . i sit in my room and i smoke a lot of weed but many are choosing something completely different as millions of americans are very frightened of the state of the u.s. economy more and more u.s. citizens are trying to escape into the world of fantasy welcome to comic con the world's biggest gathering of comic book fans and site file overs do you feel like

this costume protects you from the woods of the u.s. economy. pockets to keep my money inside somebody's culture r t tried on the gear to test its superpowers yeah i definitely do feel very protected from everything can't really see much but it would save several thousand people gathered on a weekday most people having to close the unemployment office with computer games some dancing. and imaginary battles it's easier to forget that an economic crisis is spread across the country where all of these people doing here i mean last i checked today is a work day. it's like. two pm i don't say how are we turning into a superhero for a day what is your main. weapon than i am carol i've got big hands. and enjoying feeling like a child i'd be everyone had a great b.

and so i am kind of crazy with the possibility of a double dip recession just around the corner it could seem trickier. to lure comic book shoppers it. but the world of fantasy is far from scared of losing its customers what are the most expensive and cheapest comic books you're selling today well i have some three dollars detective number thirty seven is. the last batman before robin came along at sixty eight hundred dollars but it could take spider-man and superman with some more help from his girl to pull the u.s. economy out of its recession so that affording something like that would not just seem like magic to most americans and party new york. but now some news in brief making international headlines iraq says it sees the state stocks of the rich to radiate by about one fifth officials admit they now have thirty three kilos of nuclear fuel in which to twenty percent which is enough

for research reactor that falls well short of being able to build to make bombs but continuing to enrich uranium is defined insentient constant i just checked says this is from many western countries remain convinced her iran's goal is to create weapons grade fuel. single engine planes crashed in northeast columbia killing all five on board he went down shortly after taking off from the town of mcgee and officials say there were no problems reported by the pilots before the crash rescue workers have recovered for the five point five. emergency workers are scrambling to get aid to flood victims in central vietnam raging currents of killed at least forty people and some two hundred thousand homes have been swamped police say a boat swept away two days ago by having water has been found in a river that divers have not yet been able to determine the fate of the sea twenty

passengers. between a rock and a hard place the town of karabakh show once a center of economic act. well russia has for years had to choose between poverty and pollution but the town's industrial heart is now tempted to change all that following decades of industrial activity be considered environmentally friendly but toxic towns smelters are trying to clean up their act so first reports. it's a bleak sight that greets you when you arrive in the small russian town of care about a legacy of environmental destruction once earned the title of one of the most polluted towns in the world it's a large copper and a century of toxic fumes and chemical waste left the landscape devastated but it's the residents who really suffer from the. cardiovascular diseases respiratory

diseases or just of system diseases are common in the world for oncological diseases here is rather high. under new ownership since two thousand and three the plant has begun cleaning up its act to progress slowly. we immediately began renovation but you can see for yourself the problems that a company of an inherited were doing a lot to preserve and develop but of course lots more still remains to be done. the snails was found it takes the region's rich copper deposits and has contributed to the economic progress in russia if the last twenty years the price of pay for the economic boom has been enormous with the social and environmental scars. tall hills of black industrial waste surround the residence a caravan when you're in the town the air quality is extremely poor. today the wind is blowing in a different way usually you can't see your own outstretched arm because of gas

concentration and people are being literally poisoned but the plant is the town's life when it was closed in one thousand nine hundred seven after being branded an environmental disaster in the town fell into poverty so it was a relief to the people here when it reopened even though residents near the more the same pollution an unhealthy working conditions they were at least able to provide for their families. if this industry is really dangerous it's a rude everything the units often feel and all impurities come to tyrone on the other hand things did used to be much worse so there have been some improvements despite millions in investment to modernize the plant when we visited the working conditions still seemed way fully inadequate at times we found it really hard to brave many of the staff appeared to be working with neighboring equipment whatsoever but there have been some successes here the waste used to be dumped into

the water has stopped and the company say that they're winning the battle to cut emissions and with further investment plans can care about now hope for a clean a future where we aren't done with the plant yet we're going to turn the plant into a modern european type factory so everything you see around the plant will soon become history. for the residents of care that the mistakes of the past the time being remain ever present. karabakh. but kareena joins us next with business news. it's twenty past ten am here in moscow welcome to business can the russian government has revealed some of the details of its privatization program the state will sell stakes in around nine hundred companies by two thousand and fifteen for

the route fifty eight billion dollars out of program covers the whole spectrum of the government's involvement in business among the most notable offerings of the sale of shares in bt bank to below controlling if serious investors show interest the government's stake in spare bank will be reduced to controlling as withholding international airline air flight it could also sell up to fifteen percent of all company rostam by two thousand and fifteen deputy prime minister said the program was intended to help russia a lot of eyes its economy. but the main goal of the answer would be to change the investment. to drink private investors and that if you change the structure of leadership of the companies to make the media transparent stable and reliable. let's look at how the markets are doing and the stock markets are lower this hour with japan's nikkei trading around point one percent japan's benchmark index rose zero point two percent in the morning session after the dollar

jumped against the gaddafi comments by u.s. treasury secretary gates he said that the world needs to agree on the guidelines for change policy. here in russia the r.t.s. and started thursday spreading session in the black the us markets finished wednesday session mixed with the august down point eight percent energy majors were the main losers would look at oil and gas probably down more than half a percent banking stocks. were up those burbank was more than one percent. russia's fourth largest steelmaker m.k. has launched a new metal processing plant in a joint venture with turkish company at a cost is worth two hundred fifty million dollars our correspondent martin the coach and i was in the south of turkey for the grand opening. rass not the dynamic a current interest that am expanding abroad especially into the market so maybe the least this want to get and this stuff and part of it is just another example of i'm

facing time to increase our force as well as all of us is well this is the first joint venture between russia and the model companies and the total cost of this was if not to make it to be over one point seven billion dollars if this month will be the only company cheat by this year will the find this two production platforms what is the standard home in the south and part of. the step and want the area of istanbul to supply the whole facility with the law materials companies and busted and so building a seed for the rod and me of the production side and as we were told this before it is the biggest and capable to time at one moment at forging c i'm pacing chairman off the board because. the board ship is enables the company to

consider supply to european utilities markets were at the moment of the priority is to establish mastic markets son m m k has the controlling stake in the project however is still the target the mouse that is consumed as model consumption in the country is growing fifteen percent on the lead and turkey doesn't pop and not the steel model and that's why it influenced up quite a lot as we were told today of the majority tell production from this facility will go primarily to the following its dynamic growth. speaking exclusively to our t.v. one of the company's board has revealed some of the case plans regarding its overseas assets to russia makeup has said m m k is not plotting to sow its stake in the australian mining company for to skew at least for the time being. we do if you can

i mean we own around five percent an australian company there was a time when five percent cost one and a half million in the price drop during the crisis now adays the state cost one billion so we'll keep the stake for now later we'll see depending on our strategy he said you might sell it but when the state costs more like us it's also hard to increase our ownership now because the price is too high it is nice that we do and that's your optic so that's our most stories on our website. us.

stronger.

just. every month we give you the future you understand. and want to bring the best in science and technology from across russia and around the world. knology update on r g. like millions of americans i've lost thousands of dollars in retirement funds and i haven't had as bad as many it's not just about the fat it's about me to. the man brad.

needed. now. i get the last word this financial crisis will not be. swayed. from funds. from stunts on t.v. . it's the secret incursion into the country. the invasion by means of.