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i know a great backlash against rodgers in france as the country is grouped by protests and violence over pension reform critics say that only making the situation worse. you know changes to maybe just open sometimes three times a day for delicious it's time. to run one of russia's all this conference tonight allegations of child cruelty prosecutors here accusations of severe physical abuse from teenage boys. and leaving them dry for almost a billion pounds an extra contributions from the u.k. have been met with outrage as the country grapples with its knowledge of public spending cuts since the second world.

around the clock around the world this is r.t. here in moscow tear gas and water cannons have been used against rampaging protesters in france french authorities have resorted to extreme measures to battle violence by students and trade unions while the senate debates a controversial pension reform bill. is in paris for us. yanga loud and proud to try and speak for their own country these people might look like they're attending a student party as they're all students this definitely feels like a party but in fact it's anything but it's yet another day of protests in the heart of the french capital paris these people are nowhere near retirement age yet this is exactly what they're protesting the proposed pension reform that nicolas sarkozy the french president is attempting to push forward in order to try and help the french economy get off its knees these people do not want and added two years to their service and they are prepared to take to the streets and disrupt the life of

the country for as long as it's necessary in order to get the job done we're going to try and get over to the french senate where hearings about the pension reform are taking place and see what the people there have to say about the whole thing. only the heavy police presence outside the french senate rebinds passers by the protests that are group playing the country took place here just a few days ago the police of course are standing guard over what is happening in the senate when the real work on the pension reform is currently under place the decision could come as early as today and as late as sunday but the government has already said that they will not back down to public pressure the government and the french president sarkozy is saying that is not likely how the economy will recover from the current protests however is yet another question economists have not yet had a chance to count what damage has been done by the strikes and protests that have grappled the country for days but just to compare in two thousand and seven

a nine day transport strike cost the country four hundred million euros and that is of course a huge amount of money and it is possible that the current strikes may end up costing the country the same amount or even more something that in the current financial climate it definitely cannot afford but there are a surprising number of people who actually say that what they're my. tired of is the protest according to popular opinion polls nearly forty percent of the country's people say that they're really tired of people protesting of all the violence and chaos that is governing their french cities and specifically in paris young and old people alike are saying that this is really disruptive to their of regular day to day lives. 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 protest 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 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 and in france there is also like a committee is just to avoid school 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 aim to aid their country their very actions are doing serious damage it's basically this is one of the reform to. restore.

system remove disincentive for working out the order ages. of the commitment of the government to. structural reforms that will raise the potential of the economy as well. 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 so are these protests a true sign of a democracy or simply a force of habit 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 and in a year and a half will 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. the russian convent is under investigation of the claims of child abuse within its walls teenagers say that was severely beaten deprived of food and sleep for the slightest fuld the convent in the region is one of the oldest institutions of its kind in the country back to the twelfth century it already faced abuse allegations a year ago but no evidence was found to prove the claims back then. got some firsthand accounts of the case. the walls of this convent are supposed to provide

sanctuary to teenagers inside his personal place to turn him into a model citizen but signed on people at the boarding school say it has turned into more the prison for them in experience it will take the months to recover from three teenagers went public with their allegations of horrific mistreatment at the convent boarding school you just may beat us often sometimes three times a day forty lashes each time once it was around one hundred and three lashes for one girl who cried every day our eyes were never dry and i was puffy we would always have headaches from crying so much and we had no one to complain to. father vitale is the head of another christian boarding school he was the one the teenagers turned to immediately after running away confiding in him their experiences. one girl was had with a garden tool and now has a spinal injury which she will have to live with for the rest of her life they would make kids eat a cup of salt will stand on

a stool all night reading psalms and they're not allowed to sleep or kneel down on a tray with nails one girl was forced to put her hand in a hot oven. but some believe a traditionally harsh bringing has been customary in russia and the line between abuse and parenting or instructing is hard to distinguish between what is the real life in the convent is in fact a very tough religious ability and sometimes demands physical attacks in actions that can easily be confused with abuse but that doesn't mean that the abuse is really there because a person only accept such a life full internally and in case of a child with a parent's approval. but not all parents whose children are the same at the convent boarding school are ready to cope with the reality of their children choosing god over family if you really are. in february were. having our daughter back home from the convent we were pulled over by the traffic police who said we had abducted our

own daughter we took her back to the monastery but. her parents wanted her to get treatment for a serious medical condition but if she was twenty one they were legally any will to take her with them this is not the first time a set of a convent has found itself in the midst of a controversy last year a teenage girl ran away from the boarding school going public with very similar claims ironically one of the teenagers who escaped this year testified in the school's favor back then. and list a geisha did not confirm that ms goal of chain co were being confined by police and thus we have decided not to open a criminal case due to the absence of criminal act. but now some of those who defended the convent and its rules a year ago say they regret not telling the truth back then even goes carty central

russia. more stories coming your way this hour here on r.t.e. including. there's a down at the top is must make kids see it then you may have to get the bionic join me alice live in just a few moments from. the first the pentagon has announced a sixty billion dollars almost deal with saudi arabia if it goes ahead will be one of the largest arms sales in u.s. history it's yet to be cleared by the senate and congress has a month to raise any objections the saudis want new f. fifteen fighter planes nearly two hundred apache blackhawk helicopters as well as upgrades for existing aircraft the sale would also include a satellite guided smart bomb system and defense missiles or to me here more on the implications of the possible deal i'm not joined by stephen's you he's a professor of politics and international studies at the san francisco thanks very much indeed for joining us professor. this really is a potentially big deal isn't it so why do the saudis need all these arms they

don't i mean this is incredible access but they have a lot of oil money and there are a lot of political number of political influence defense contractors the united states that would like that money it's really hard to. for strategic reasons to imagine why they would need that much of that kind of quick moment not to mention the fact that the middle east seems to have far too many arms already we should be talking about arms control not us going the arms race still for you talk about strategic reasons isn't there perhaps a message for iran here that in fact this is putting pressure on iran. that is actually on the list of the line that you hear but we haven't even bothered talking to the reigning ins about having some kind of conventional arms control. the united states or we cause of the sanctions and not having diplomatic relations

since one thousand nine hundred ninety nine is pretty much cut off all communications and it would seem but when you don't have the diplomatic channels to discuss arms control. you there's not much means of really addressing whatever concerns that they they might have what sort of impact with this deal they would have all israel. they're being pretty careful to make sure they have certain safeguards that are not be used against israel but in any case you know for every. new jet fighter or whatever you provide the saudis you know the israelis are getting at least as much only this time courtesy of the american taxpayer into iraq of the spring going on for many many years that benefits the military establishments of both israel and and whatever arab countries in questions about but you know lockheed martin or mcdonnell douglas you know the planes helicopters come off the assembly line alternating their dashboards.

instructions in hebrew and arabic now that this talk about the u.s. where they actually have any criticize the intended sales of the russian s. three hundred missile defense system to iran oversee that sale didn't actually go ahead eventually but i mean there is a double standard here is a no. well there are much doubt if anything having a defense a defense of missile would seem much more justifiable than providing often sort of weapons especially to to israel which has a history of invading and occupying and attacking neighboring countries the basically this is not about defense this is about pax america and but the real losers are not just going to be those who these weapons may be used against which in the middle east and to be civilians a lot more than military but for every dollar the saudis have to spend on these kind of weapons they have less money to provide food aid and other assistance to poor arab countries like egypt morocco is finally getting not exactly over

enthusiastic about this potential deal congress has thirty days to raise objections do you think there will be any objections. it requires a two thirds majority of both houses of congress to block. and in the more than forty years of this larger than in the fact in the hundreds of arms sales not once ever in history as congress works in arms and i see no indication that it's going to happen this time stephen zunes professor of politics and international studies at the university of san francisco we appreciate your time here on r.t. thank you for joining us. well in the face of wide ranging public sector spending cuts across the continent the european union has voted to increase its spending the move will cost the u.k. alone an additional nine hundred million pounds additional burden comes as the country the announce its largest public spending cuts since the second world war thousands of protesters took to the streets of london saying it will condemn the

u.k. to years of brutal unemployment problem also the director of think tank the british group says the e.u. system is too corrupt to give them money. but the timing is astounding really when you know as as we are making these cuts in britain to pay off the enormous debt that we've been left. to keep more money through the u.s. is money that the british taxpayer the british government cannot afford to give it shouldn't be giving this money to the european union contributions are set to advise the e.u. accounts haven't been signed off in over fifteen years or so much for waste and mismanagement within the european union we just shouldn't be giving this money at all while the european union has gone too far european union laws take supremacies over british law over the laws of every member state within the european union and we've worked out that it causes a lot of damage economically we overburden with regulation as well as handing too much money to brussels really british law in britain should be solved in our own

laws our own politicians at westminster should have precedence over those in brussels that's what we want to see we want to see a europe of nation states that can work and cooperate together but not be governed by the institutions of the european union based in brussels which no one has ever elected force legislation on the citizens of the e.u. . that was robert all the director of think tank the bridge group talking to be a little earlier from london. moscow's new mayor is being sworn in with an inauguration ceremony of the city's lawmakers voted to approve the appointment of surrogates to be on in a candidate chosen by president the capital's new man in charge has been described as a skillful manager who can tackle the tough issues moscow faces. moscow does now have its new mayor tearing out inauguration ceremony earlier today attended by president made that it sort of gave john it was sworn in as the new mosque a city mayor there earlier in the day we did have the opportunity to hear the

million and lay out his objectives for his a term in office during the q. and a session with nor make his which resulted in him being voted he laid out his road back he says he wants to establish a fund to schools how the city's roads and traffic were used he wants to tackle corruption head all particularly in the housing sector found say he walks to preserve the city's cultural and historical architecture but these are all just words of this bill which is here in the city to remain skeptical so they gave john it is a relative all know to the process through which he went through from selection nomination to election day it has been very speedy we know that he's widely regarded as an effective and competent about the job he's a trained lawyer and he was by all accounts for example governor of the siberian two men reach one and two big things are on the agenda very short of a fastball he's got to tackle the twenty eleven secedes budgets second leave what's widely predicted to be one of the coldest winters on record is just around the

corner as yuri luzhkov to move moscow some say like a personal fiefdom some eighteen years was hugely popular at the beginning of his term he was widely credited with that really improving the life of muscovites a look at the city drastically cheering the early ninety's bonds during the lock to stages all of his terms allegations of corruption that don't seem at every which turn the flamboyant complicated to character publicly such polite president medvedev last month when he was told that he no longer up with confidence both the president very harsh condemnation that baseball and good english called to notice a ten today's inauguration ceremony but he did tell his supporters not to take to the streets all created is not a disruption and he also received an official statement saying that he wished the new man the very best of luck for the remainder of his time. reporting from moscow. fashion week sees the invading of the most stylish trends for the twenty

eleven spring summer season and the collection by more than fifty russian design is the glitzy festival could become a real holmes race for up and coming designers multis to so silly of presents the new project showcased on this use trendy event. now we're here in the russian fashion week held in moscow it is the last day of the twenty first season and each time this event is held it does put the russian capital in the international fashion spotlight and of course behind the glitz and glamour it's all about hard work so we went backstage and we checked all the models getting ready before every show there just scrambling at the last minute to get everything together to make sure that the show is as good as it looks for the audience so behind it in front of be a camera a be a stage we are seeing a lot of action and we can see backed up more and more people are trickling in and it's going to be a big party tonight now of course in fashion they're always a season ahead so just as we're preparing to get our coats out for the worse of

winter they're showcasing the spring summer two thousand and eleven collection and just by watching you would wish that you could shop a season ahead as well now over the past few days they've had more than fifty designers showcasing their work coming from russia the neighboring countries france italy malaysia peru and many more now another feature of this fashion week is that they're celebrating the hero of france in russia so there have been a lot of collaboration between the french russians and everyone who is here and another interesting feature is that this season the launch of the russian a fashion museum so it is a piece for the arts and for the fashion savvy this is the place to be but of course that's not all there is to win just as everyone else is busy in between shows and models are getting ready designers are getting ready people like me can enjoy booths like these where i can just sit down relax and enjoy some pampering so i'm going to have a make over that's exactly what i'm going to do right now. well it seems to us. there reporting there from central moscow. it's just a matter of weeks now since police in ecuador protested against summary cuts

sparking what some called a coup attempt the country's president was said to have been trapped in a hospital for twelve hours before being freed thanks to a military operation the fall and drama left five people dead though the details are still unclear what. speaks to present himself that interview is coming up in just a moment. thank

you for receiving us here. this time in your home. as you know there are different theories of what happened on september the thirtieth most on the national and international level what are you must do use when saying that it was an attempt for could attack. there's no doubt it was an attempted coup i was support my position with arguments a bit later in our country the opposition can say whatever they like it's believed here that being in opposition means denying obvious things they're even ready to argue that a circle has right angles and if i had died that day they would have said that i committed suicide anyway day by day we get more and more evidence that this was an attempt to destabilize the situation the thing is that classic coup de tat as at least in latin america with troops overturn of a president and appointment of a new military dictators president are impossible the twenty first century there are new ways to destruct the work of a government presumably a certain part of society in this case armed people national police expressed their

discontent with the new law they haven't even read to the end the law is a good one all this has happened because of misleading information this discontent serves as a basis for intrusion of political groups of corrupted groups from the police itself of people violating human rights and resorting to torture thus these groups are taking advantage of a general discontent not to have their salaries raised but to insult the president to hold him hostage to threaten him and to finally make an assassination attempt that's clear from video recordings that they were not acting on their own their actions were coordinated by political groups that's where i'd like to stress those groups stayed in the shadow waiting for the outcome of this attempted coup d'etat but the intent failed there were a number of coordinated operations and the evidence shows that these actions have been prepared over three weeks in order to create turmoil which was supposed to last no more than one two or three days it was joined by the armed forces looting broke out as well as skirmishes and bloodshed as a result the government would simply have to stand down but they could not foresee

that i would get back to quito headquarters and when they do. treat me in such an insulting manner when they keep me hostage all this unites the country and the police itself to see that what's going on is far from demands to raise salaries that's when the coup d'etat fail safe and you are done to address that morning you challenge those who want to kill the president asking if they have brain enough to do so what are the threats like it's a moment i asked a question to the police the president is sticking his neck out what are they talking about according to the current theory it was discontent express due to misunderstanding of a good new law concerning the military and the police i was going to explain the essence of law my way but once we arrived we were met with tear gas and with slogans get out proven israeli communists they blocked the presidential building and pin the tires therefore it was evident from the very beginning that it was a political trap and there was no wish to carry out a dialogue with her no demands to raise salaries it was a political scenario long lives. this is the country's former president who is

behind all this that's why i opened the window and tried to explain the situation where they continued interrupting and insulting me as we knew about the looting and we realized it was a political trap i said if you want to kill me which kill me but don't destroy our homeland they didn't have the guts to do so later on when the coup failed they did try to kill the president which can be seen from the recordings and was confirmed by numerous pieces of evidence the room i stayed in was attacked by gunfire as well as the presidential car anyone can take a look at those shots there was an order to kill the president but at that moment it was cowards do not have the guts to kill me. i want to make some doctors in the hospital where you were treated contradict the information about who had been kidnapped can you comment on that please. you can hear any kind of nonsense in a democratic society but lately it was proved that the doctors claiming that we were not even in the hospital at the time he said that due to a number of weird canes that and says there is an investigation of the opposition

members actions before the thirtieth of september what kinds that insisted him in and what are the preliminary results. for example in the morning of the twenty third of september the recordings proving it fidel rayo a deputy of lucy who tears who's behind all this was not alone the main initiator is the social democratic party its members are detained for the time of the investigation was manuka strike in quito also a few days before the clashes on the thirtieth of september seven opposition members of the national assembly made a trip to the united states where in washington they met with the ultra right who as we know financed the opposition groups activity we do not have proof that they financed the events of september thirtieth but we can prove that they financed the opposition's activity what problems and internal weaknesses in your opinion have been shown since the events we're talking about. it's absolutely clear that even before these events there were mistakes of the

intelligence agency and the government and it's understandable because when we came into government our intelligence as well as police in the military were financed by the u.s. embassy since the first of march of two thousand and eight when colombia started bombing ecuador all those disadvantages of the intelligence service were revealed and many intelligence departments knew that and they were in contact with the colombian groups but instead of reporting to the government they acknowledged the u.s. embassy so we were to disarm those groups and start controlling the intelligence agency who were to finance it appoint the heads of departments and work out a new law on the state intelligence service but it was adopted only in two thousand and nine that that's why from two thousand and nine we have been reforming the intelligence service system but all those structures have been decaying and still there are people who managed to get in there but it's very difficult to reform the system of intelligence so we're still working on it it's clear how those problems appeared but it's a big problem and we have to pay a lot of attention to that point.