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france is paralyzed by further violent protests against cutbacks and pension reform anger is now turning towards the rioters for making the country's dire situation worse. allegations of child abuse in one of russia's all this convent teenagers accused of beating them. bus kazakhstan kicks back at bharat the comedy of its own to show what life is really like in the central asian country. of the us government revealed the details of a privatization program that will sell stakes around nine hundred companies by two thousand that and more in our best program at twenty past the hour. well news and much more this is r t welcome to the program front says heading into

another day of unrest with protesters now reportedly blocking marsay airport they're angry the government wants to raise the retirement age from sixty to sixty two which would still be one of the lowest in europe where senators are voting on that with today but not everyone wants to protest what is cut to a server reports on those who say the country needs to get back to reality and back to work. the 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 and not 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 in france there is a committee it's 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 rowdy crowd certainly give off a celebratory vibe singing dancing and shouting but while they're spending day after day protesting a reform that is aimed to aid their country their very actions are doing serious damage it's basically this is one of the reforms that. restore the. system remove disincentive for working gets older ages as well give a signal of the commitment of the government to. structural reforms that will

raise the potential of the economy as well. top of the coins 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 sign that government needs to negotiate with trade unions more so we have to say to the french people that is they who chose the deputies and members of the senate who make the laws laws are not made in the streets laws are

drafted and approved not by revolutionaries fortunately we live in a democratic state and people who we select to be in power adopt laws besides it's necessary to respect the laws and in a year and a half we'll have the opportunity to say that we made a mistake and change our leaders but until then 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 protestant something they don't believe in and don't agree but on the other hand there's where they think if you do it too much it becomes a farce and democracy becomes a blackmailed institution in the hands of the people catchers are the art harris. political science professor told demonstrators are being unreasonable considering they would still get to retire and 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 work 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 to years and it's still it would still be one of the younger stages to retire in europe so it's true that the public got 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 along the way in a few minutes the seal of approval at city hall. in new here

is the us it is moscow you know make his vote on the new mayor joining me alistair but just a few moments from. filmmakers in kazakhstan on their response to the comedy borat which lampooned their country bandar why they're nothing now. 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 deprive them of food and sleep and occasions the convent denies there were similar accusations a year ago but no evidence of abuse was found nazis only go to school reports from the region. 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 and sees misty had to talk about the flights that they

went through according to them nuns at the convent beat them regularly they didn't even use paper demonstrated bruises and marks from beatings on their arms and in the hands and knees everywhere her sensually and this is a common that's right 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 law is almost exactly a year ago a girl a sixteen year old has escaped from the convent she has written

a letter to the russian president and to the russian. talking about the abuses that went on in this convent but at that point investigators were not allowed into the convent premises 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 sort was going on of course now she said this is says that she is regretting the fact that she essentially lied last year or so of course investigations will be carried out from russia's prosecutor's office as well as it by the most because patriarchy. i don't forget there's much more for you at our website r.t. dot com here's a look at what might catch your eye including a disco for the deaf what kind of music do you play for an entire couple of people including the d.j. who are hearing impaired find out about the moscow nightclub that's a breaking the mold. and the russia's prime minister has invoked a classic fairy tale to get the latest budget approved party dot com to discover

what role the fictional but you guys play in modern parliamentary politics. voting to approve the appointment of a new man that's set to be surrogates to be on and who was chosen by president get it from a shortlist proposed by the ruling united russia party the controversial previous man. was sacked citing a lack of trust for more we're joined by this to. tell us more about sabean and water is credentials for what really is one of russia's top political jobs. were the words that we're now hearing time and time again in association with the case

to be on it is that he's going to experience an effective manager and one crucially that is not to take to by any major corruption that he was a lawyer before turning to politics early in life in two thousand and one he became governor of the siberian oil rich region of two men there he was why i believe. thanks first to sing out the winter snow removal on the road system they're both big problems it was a terrific the russian capital here two thousand and five you became chief of the presidential administration and says so you earlier last week on friday president medvedev picked his name out of a sure list of pool candidates put forward by the really united russia party and nominated him to as his chosen candidate to be the next mayor of moscow on friday the two in the same that's two through some of the major issues that he'll have to tackle if you just become the mayor saying clues the corruption that infiltrates this to see the truck the jams as seem to paralyze this if you don't times of days

to cool the social security status of muscovites not the end of that museum president it better to tweet that he believed the yarn and did possesse to the poor as he's required all of the next mayor of moscow. must go nor make his house now just sat down to begin this one of the hall flowers session which does he respond to be on the have a q. and a session. and at the end they will vote whether or not to make a bet the next mayor of moscow. i gather we might get to see some live pictures of moscow lawmakers as they're about to vote to approve that appointment. is actually facing questions from legislators and he sees giving a speech there he was a full regional governor in siberia and has recently been part of prime minister putin's administration. to huge task ahead of him if he were. to

face growing criticism before last month's sacking a lot of pictures there this back to you i mean as we mentioned. he was a colorful controversial character know what kind of legacy has he left for his successor. well it's it's a mixed legacy that getting a lift call for these behind he was of course very publicly sacked by the president last month having in recent statements lost the confidence of the president he was a flamboyant charismatic figure hugely popular during the beginning of his career why do you criticize hugely in big mustang during the early ninety's you say leaves behind this even economically rate but state this house a budget of some fool to believe that dollars pay a year but he also leaves behind a huge problem is doing well it's a policy of his career allegations of corruption dogged him at every which turn and they also said to include his property developer wife according to forbes the

female billionaire here in russia he's also accused to ruin the architectural landscape of the city do nothing see maintain its cultural heritage he's also accused of not doing enough to tackle that huge problem with traffic jams that really does affect the everyday lives of muscovites here in the city so a flamboyant charismatic figure. held the pope's for some a c. is big she's young and he's elected to kill and as i said a complex confused legacy has been left behind. ok alice do you keep us updated on that alice had but there thank you. well for more on the story we're joined by dimitri put it can offer deputy head of the central executive committee of the united russia party thank you indeed for joining us here in the studio were you parties responsible for creating the short list of candidates made sabean in

suitable for the city's top job do you think well i think that there was a number of criteria first of all he is closely linked with the party he's a member of our high council within the party but also he's a very good professional he's a manager who has experience in various roles he was a mayor or small town he was a governor of one of the richest and most effective regions in the russian federation he also passed the steps in be the head of the presidential administration then the head of the. stuff in the garment so he knows well the economic situation you know as well how to manage the process here how politics works so this makes him an ideal candidate you mention a similar kind of role we had in siberia how will that translate to his new role what kind of experience can he bring i think here as well as for us and demands called us to initiate a number of administrative reforms to reduce the number of fish oils and bureaucrats working in the in the region has managed to build up

a good system of indicators and of actually assessment of their efficiency and also he was i think quite a bit in building a healthy system of social security i think many of these things he would bring also to moscow. for were somewhat controversial figure do you think. what will be the main things i should say that will have to tackle as a result of that well i think that he will have to find a fine balance between the need for social security so that most of the social payments and benefits that people get in law school they will continue to get and this same time he will have to give a new impetus to the economic development of this seat this is why probably he has major protests will be overstate the traffic problem because we're all suffering from heavy traffic in moscow. he will have to ensure that most go.

through the most going to financial center will come true and also. he will fight against corruption to. raise the efficiency of the power up there in the in the city or leave it there from there what he should probably call it i thank you for those insights here live in the arctic thank you. and i look now at some news in brief making international headlines this hour. iran says it's increased its stocks of enriched uranium by about one fifth officials admit they now have thirty three kilos of nuclear fuel in which to twenty percent which is enough research reactor befalls well short of being able to build atomic bombs are continuing to enrich uranium iran has defined iran sanctions present i'm advantage as regime rejects as necessary any western country the main instrument is going to create great feel. a single engine plane has crashed in

northeast colombia killing all five on board he went down shortly after taking off from the town of many in say there were no problems reported by the pilots before the crash rescue workers have recovered four of the five bodies from. around one hundred thirty four tons of marijuana have been torched by the authorities. mexico the large scale burning took place just days after police. made its biggest bust in recent years. had an estimated street value of four hundred thirty three million dollars police didn't say whether it had come from mexico that had been ported. now a battle playing out on the big screen that's turning out to be well bit of a joke a filmmaker from kazakhstan is hitting back at a comedy movie borat which portrayed the central asian republic and its people as backward nazis takes

a story. this is oh my god they haven't had. this right down of. this town or at best. not be. hiding behind their freedom of speech and democracy westerners insult our nation demeter seem backward it's all lives now was shaking back for years after the top grossing years film about the hapless cats like t.v. reporter because it sounds premier comedy director has come up with their past the new film centers on an american keen to discover the real kazakhstan after seeing the original movie. we have such cars and such technologies here in astronomy nothing like the american film there he meets brother only briefly mentioned in such a baron cohen's film my brother in law have a very

a family. together there to engage in various high jinks. in our film below gets married to a donkey. the payoff is that borat and below are not kazakhs but actually jews from romania. demeter's of the movie me. the whole world laugh at us we will make the whole world for down. he's. never been several previous responses to bore out not least this video by rap collected or threatened to make him eat lead this time the producers are hoping for an international release no no and after marrying a donkey rilla becomes pregnant with this child. eager unnerve. coming in with their shocking with a business in the statements. hungry for the feast we've got

it's. the biggest dishes get voice face to face with the news makers. how welcome to our business program good to have you with us this hour 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 worth around fifty eight billion dollars now the program covers the whole spectrum of the

government's involvement in business among the most notable offerings out the sale of shares and bt back to below controlling at sirius best to show interest the government's stake in the bareback will be reduced to controlling as all of its holding in national airline it could also sell up to fifteen percent of all company ross by two thousand and fifteen deputy prime minister of olives said the program was intended to help us on modernize executed me. globally but as the main goal of the sort of would be to change the investment of these are set to address private investors and then if you change the structure of ownership of the companies to make them more transparent to stable and reliable. and joining me now to discuss the pros ation program as i do want to commute a chief economist at bank a creature like him i thank you for coming to the program so if this privatization program would just talk about takes place. is it going to radically change the

financial landscape of russia in general well if it takes place in full yes of course work because we're talking about a significant number of companies both in numbers and both in their importance to the economy although one thing that perhaps news mentioning here is that the government is not planning to sell off its stakes in major companies it's going to reduce stakes in perhaps in certain areas this take could be reduced below the controlling stake but nevertheless the government will still possess quite significant share of this company but nevertheless it is it is i think the largest growth position program in russia since the early ninety's now the fine is mother says he expects demand to outstrip supply who will i mean do you think there will be strong demand for the show as well for some shares yes there are some very well known names to be named yesterday by sharon all of including ross there's tariff

law to be t.b.s. burbank. companies that are already traded and of course some investors could could perhaps some long term investors could show quite a bit of interest in acquiring a part or full all of the of the stakes to be sold however there are a number of companies that might get far less. interest from investors because we're talking about one hundred companies in the name of named yesterday were the biggest names but there could be some smaller names that perhaps would not raise as much of money or as much of interest in part of investors you know if you look at me to be friends several months ago there were the government said they're planning to sell ten percent of the stocks but we don't see any buyers coming forward for that do you think that could be problems in finding clients for the stocks and well there is one from the mental problem which is what would be the perception of investors. russian economy and that is largely to the perception of

investors how the global economy is going if we're going to see more stable and perhaps a bit faster recovery in global economy and in russian economy i think the interest will be there if we're going to see sort of luke warm development the way we see it now both in global economy and in russia meaning that you know certain sectors you see some progress in certain sectors you don't and you are not have a lot of conviction where russian the global economy would go let's say in six months time interest could be could be lower so that's the reason in my view why the government has had to have put a long time frame for birds ization we're talking about five years it's not that every year they're going to sell stakes but perhaps they're giving themselves some time to breathe in case things turn out to be worse than they expected because my impression is that the government at this stage. has the main objective of getting

a good price for the for the for the s's they're going to offer rather than making a political move and selling their assets at any price does the same goes for ross left i mean what's left is a state company and it's it's a strategic area why is the government planning to sell part of the stakes to a private well penny or private owner well the way i see it actually there is there is no major. move in that because what the government is planning at least formal at this stage is reducing its stake to the little limits on the we should take qualified as a control stick so the government is not releasing its control over our staff did mention that if perhaps the station is much better the government might think of reducing its stake both in the us they have to be below the control state but i think it it might be his own idea at this stage it's not

a government policy so. the government feels. very much indeed within the framework for strategic and control the strategic areas of the government has old once you few if you few years ago which is basically the joyousness would still remain in the government property perhaps it would be fifty percent plus one share but none of those are still with them thank you very much thank you very much i think we're running out of time here but they were coming to the program very much . and let's look at the markets now asian stock markets are mixed this hour japan's benchmark index rose zero point two percent in morning session after the dollar jumped against these yen on comments by u.s. treasury secretary he said that he would meet the world would need to agree on guidelines for constant change policy now in europe stocks turned positive on thursday after britain's finance minister said the central bank was free to use monetary policy to support the economy leading the gainers other foreign beverages sector on a positive trading update from protect here in russia the markets are trading

higher in the morning session following yesterday's gains on wall street the obvious point a point less than a quarter of a percent and nearly all the blue chips and gaining were. up half a percent on the r.t.s. bucking the trend though is gas pump and we'll call that trading in the read. more stories on our web site artie dot com. you're.