anger grows across britain and france as the public rejected pain for a savage budget cuts all business leaders accuse people of not pulling their weight in time when the recession. the oil smugglers fuel in trouble in northern iraq as innocent lives are put at risk as pollution hits the local rivers . and drugs officials from russia tried to work with the u.s. to wipe out afghan here with the dogs but says america's so new focus on taliban poppy fields is not enough. and the russian ruble has falling to its lowest level this year against the euro dollar currency basket what is business are to report the central bank is not too concerned about the weakness as it focuses attention on the troubling inflation.

you're watching r t coming to you live from the russian capital welcome to the program and now to work top story the people of france and britain are now acutely aware of the price to be paid to rescue their economies and they're making their anger felt french protests turned violent with police using tear gas to disperse demonstrators were angry that they're likely to be asked to work for an extra two years while in the u.k. the country's poorest will bear the brunt of what are the deepest spending cuts since the one nine hundred twenty s. and i'll forward by by he's got to be to us off from paris hi there cuts or you know now there are more strikes all the way where you are and it seems like the french people are not ready to throw when the towel on pension reform even though it's on the verge of being passed. it is indeed test of the senate is working all pretty much all day every day figuring out the final details fine tuning the

proposed up pension reform that will see the retirement age rise from the age of sixty to the age of sixty two and the french are definitely not happy about it they've been taking to the streets of the country not just the capital paris making sure that their anger is heard with some protests turning violent and police forces . being forced to use tear gas to disperse angry crowds and of course those protests are ongoing in paris there are dozens of them daily from the students to the pensioners everybody young and old taking to the streets making sure we're attempting to make sure that their voices are heard and that the government pays attention to their demands but it seems that this is probably the first time in a very long time where the government is not prepared to back down is not prepared to renegotiate with trade unions and is simply staying very firm on its position saying that this pension reform is what is necessary to make sure that the french

economy actually gets over the effects in the aftermath of the global financial crisis with the economy of course being strongly hit by it and the the government proposed pension reform is exactly what is necessary to push the economy forward and to aid the country out of the financial slump that it's currently in so this could well be perhaps the first time in a very long time where the french people and their protests are being ignored with many already saying of course that the people who are protesting basically have gotten a used to nearly blackmailing the government institution in france in order to get their way and this perhaps could be the first time in a long time where the government is not prepared to do that and of course many people in paris according to. opinion polls people in paris and in france as a whole over forty percent of the people say that what they are most tired of is

the protests and the disruption that they cause their country and of course the costs of these problems protests are also to be taken into account in these current strikes economists have not yet had a chance to count exactly how they will affect the current economy but of course just to compare in two thousand and seven and ninety eight transport strike cost the country four hundred million euros and those are figures that france cannot afford to be paying right now so the government does seem to be very intent on pushing this pension reform forward but of course it is. many many people's belief that the people who will be paying for this pension reform and paying for the french economy i'm not those who caused the collapse in the first place. but bankers are making tens of billions of dollars every year in bonuses but they tell their workers you can't afford we can't afford to have you have decent pensions you have to you have to tighten your belt meanwhile the bankers on tightening their

belts so that contradiction is going to lead to class polarization and mass protests not only in europe but i believe in the united states. well more muted across the channel but british frustration is no less keenly felt now what's being said over there. well britain is facing a very complicated situation as well it will cut half a million jobs slash the welfare state and also raise the retirement age and in attempt to get over the labor force the. debt that the country has racked up during its labor government years and of course the. highly respected institute for fiscal studies is already said that these plans to wipe out the huge deficit that was indeed racked up by the labor party during its time in power will hit the poorest in society hardest so it's a very difficult change for the british to accept as well and something that

they've had no hand in. instigating and basically have been already affected quite severely by this attempts to somehow minimize the debt of the country and the deficit budget deficit will also hit the poorest in british society the hardest so protests on the other side of the channel as well not of course as severe and as widespread as the ones we're seeing in france but many are already saying that they could well be matched for intensity if this proposed budget deficit goes forward all right thank you very much for the third was cut to do you know in paris for r.t. and now more reaction from britain as emma boo from the taxpayers alliance joins us live from london hello there emma boon now the question i have for you is the influential institute for fiscal studies says that the cuts will hit the poorest the most now in what way exactly are they going to suffer. i think that the i.f.'s

reaction to this which has been picked up quite widely by the media is slightly misleading the chancellor said when he stood up and made his speech the other day that those with the broadest shoulders will bear the largest burden now the way the i.f.'s is interpreted this they own their interpretation their purely looking at the fortunes of the poorest are based on how much money you're spending on them now that might seem to be intuitively true what we've saying said for a long time is that it's not necessarily how much money you're spending but how are you spending that money is it being wasted is it being spent effectively and i think that we've got to look across welfare across public services to try to identify where taxpayers' money is being wasted and to ensure that we can try and keep frontline services that people really care about and that people really need by eliminating that waste and saving money in those areas and saving money from inefficient spending. france their people are protesting against what they see as

an unfair burden on them that could that be reflected in britain as impact of the carts sink in. i think we did have a few small protests around westminster here the other day mostly led by the unions over here who have fears about how this will impact on public services and job losses but i think the important things to stress is that mostly speaking people in britain are giving their support to these cops the most recent polling said people are on board people understand that the u.k. has been spending more money than me we've been running a deficit and every year that we do that our national debt gets bigger and bigger and people understand that there now is a need to cut spending because if we don't do it soon then we're going to be paying more a lot of debt interest and will simply have more pain later. horrible if you know that the french continue their stoppages it'll eventually eat into what's left of

its fragile economy now putting that in the perspective of britain how productive are protests when the government's essentially hamstrung in raising emergency cash i think that we've seen we simply aren't going to see the large scale protests that seeing in france i don't think it's going to happen like that in britain you know we've got a very different political climate as i say the public broadly giving their support to this but also you've got to remember that a lot of this in france is led by you know resentment about raising the retirement age and i think that people can take to the streets in huge numbers against them and it is just not really the same is not really similar driving force behind that in the. all right thank you very much for your comments and insight that was ever good from the taxpayers' alliance in london. here with r.t. and coming your way in a few minutes counting people to counter problems. russian

we look at russia as the biggest q. and a session in over five years and follows census takers us far as the international space station. well they say that oil and water don't mix but in northern iraq the greed of gangs of smugglers is bringing the two together with painful results for local people sebastian mayor reports their health and livelihoods are under threat. one hundred miles northeast of baghdad a special iraqi police unit makes its way to the iranian border they're hunting a new breed of smuggler who trade not in guns but in gasoline this cache of complicated jerry cans contains thousands of gallons of gasoline that was illegally trafficked from iran a few days ago smugglers floated these cans down the sewer one river where they were intercepted by the iraqi police but many of the jerrycans didn't make the journey intact punctured by rocks or shot at by the iranian police tens of

thousands leak their contents into the syria one river poisoning the water supply used by the thirty five thousand residents of the city of. saudi or these are the cans do it all it's over use you kill people through their brains you could use this water with now because of the color is to do it see people counts use it and. put the money is too tempting for the local smugglers who can run ten thousand jerry cans on an average night for a few hours of work they can make up to six thousand dollars what the smugglers line their pockets downstream fishermen like keeper human mahmoud are watching their livelihood disappear two years ago we could catch a lot more fish. than what your kids twenty kilos a day now it's only five you know market. in the city families unable to afford their own well have to drink the fell smelling water delivered to them by municipal trucks on the outskirts of town he was forced to feed his family this water those

who are true is not safe to drink but because we can't afford clean water we have no choice but one of my children get sick listen i was going in so i had to take her to hospital when we dream to nurture and we get sick according to the recommendations of the american environmental protection agency pollution levels in the water supply are over fifteen times higher than the safe amount. in never any one hospital no means daughter is suffering from diarrhea which a contract did after having a bath in the city's. water. i haven't been hospitalized myself but because of my challenge i come home i have two of the children and they suffer from diarrhea and vomiting as well and it's always comes back. to we back here again. and with the same regularity is no means visits to the hospital the smugglers continue to spill gasoline into debt then becomes a water system in this remote and peaceful part of iraq they do in some greed or is dangerous as in the rest of the country the best in my northern iraq fourteen.

america plans the sell some sixty billion dollars worth of weapons to saudi arabia in what's seen as one of the largest arms deals in u.s. history now congress is yet to approve the deal put forward by the obama administration the saudis want new fighter jets attack helicopters as well as upgrades for its existing aircraft the sell sale would also include a wide range of bombs and missiles saudi arabia is one of the united states biggest oil suppliers and washington hopes the deal will improve the defenses of the gulf states but the liberty campaigner david keys says saudi arabia is an unlikely partner for a country that claims to defend human rights. and a classic dictatorial fashion the saudi regime does not rely on the consent of its people to be governed and therefore needed all the arms that it can acquire simply to maintain its presence in the region there has been unfortunately a lack of concern for human rights in saudi arabia there are elements within the

u.s. government that believe that the leadership is moderate and therefore it is an ally of the united states i believe that the saudi regime is in fact quite extremist in its beliefs and its policy is saudi arabia is a country which. prevents women from leaving the their home country without being accompanied by a male. or guardian it is a country which bans the walking of pet cats and dogs in public there's gender apartheid it bans women from driving and i think a lot more can be done to increase american concern and pressure for improvements in saudi human rights. and american support for the saudi regime is a flashpoint in the latest edition of artie's cross-talk later peter lavelle's guests grapple with that and whether iran's soft power is driving its influence in the region. so accept reality in that in iran you have elections mr

ahmadinejad for various reasons is because very popular just a couple of days ago when he went to this city is still there and you know he stole the election that's why there were. areas where you would say. you know if you want to dream. girl running from the go right ahead. ok you let the tide wash over for a second look each true that most of the arab world is. saudi arabia jordan egypt because we the west support them we want them to be totalitarian we want them to conclude their quote unquote their own people to be on our side. and that's why we hope i was enraged and i'm just going to be interviewed by me if i know you're continuing my mates if i'm major contributor. gentlemen when robert your very moment.

russia and the us totally agree that the afghan heroin industry needs to be wiped out but what they can't see eye to eye on is how to do it now afghanistan is by far the world's biggest opium producer but america only wants to focus on a taliban control poppy fields artie's going education explains why russia says that's not enough. there is definitely an understanding that drug trafficking from of ghana's then is a common enemy russian the us seem to be more than eager to join forces to fight it and they are doing so brought control chiefs of both countries said russia and the u.s. now share a lot of sensitive information in order to crack down on drug trafficking networks in afghanistan and also track down their assets let's not forget the drug business in afghanistan is worth around seventy billion dollars a year if that money goes somewhere some of it sponsors terrorist experts say it's . the head of forces drug control service was also talking about this well known connection between herring and terror now the u.s.

and russia perfectly realize the problem but they differ on the solution russia suggests eradicating all poppy fields and labs where heroin is could be used the u.s. says it's up to the afghan government to make that decision just argument is the afghan government can stand up against a multi billionaire drug monster stronger nations have to put an end to it and russia made that point many times to nato which it actually cooperate with on drug trafficking but to no avail. do you want congress evaluates the taliban's drug production to be worth one hundred fifty million dollars however it's not the whole of the afghan drug production says to me that sixty five billion dollars to concede that the taliban sectors only zero point two percent obviously it's not demeaning producer to our international forces so you could be ruler women need only do drugs production related to the taliban in other words all one hundred fifty thousand

person now will be directed to eliminating just zero point two percent of drug production so the remaining ninety nine point eight percent live to be destroyed but they are going to forces. the official argument of nato and one of its key members the united states for not eradicating the poppy fields is that they don't want to destroy the only source of income for local populations russia says that. argument doesn't work and his victory the only ones who benefit from it are the landlords or the drug lords and definitely not afghan peasants and afghan pasand household makes seventy dollars a year for growing poppies and this mystery of an offset international forces should be after the landlords in afghanistan because they leave patterns with no choice but growing poppies and in the last nine years of war in afghanistan that policy brought nothing but death afghan drugs killed more than a million people worldwide watch the full interview with drugs victoria even off on

our website r t dot com and now to some other news in brief for you a suspected cholera outbreak in rural haiti has killed at least one hundred thirty five people while hundreds more are seriously ill a stream of those needing treatment is overwhelming hospital staff and facilities doctors are now waiting for test results to confirm the cause of the infections many people still live in unsanitary conditions after january's a massive earthquake which killed some of the three hundred thousand people. typhoon and meggie has reached land in taiwan it cos in widespread destruction heavy rains and flooding left many people stuck on the roadside in their vehicles a search is underway for nineteen chinese tourists whose boss was struck by a massive rock slide on a coastal highway earlier this week meggie battered the philippines killing more than twenty people and is expected to hit china this weekend. and now

everyone cals in russia this week with a nationwide sense is now underway it's an effort to better understand today's population for current living standards to improving its future and as artie's stacey begins found out census takers are reaching out in all directions. the ability to defy gravity is not an excuse to deny earthly responsibilities even in space cosmin arthur answering questions for russia's twenty ten senses your nationality russian elinor's of our sky air has the job of reaching out to orbit in via the ultimate and long distance phone calls. when it was my first time i felt more anxious and now maybe because i already know what it's like i'm a little bit less anxious but still i am. this out of this world q. and a is meant to inspire russians a matter how busy or how far away they are to take a moment and fill out the census that's because it's believed that the questions

that are right here could lead to some answers that could solve some of the nation's biggest problems the questionnaire attempts to probe is use such as why russia's birth rate is so low and its death rate so high a comparison to european countries data collected is meant to show who makes up question households learn what their resources are and identify how government can improve their quality of life and with the slogan everyone matters to russia everyone from those serving their country to those serving time are being counted. how else would we know what kind of financial situation rushes in what our social situation is how will we know how many people live in russia they're doing it for us i think it's a necessity and that was why i went to take part in it. and less captivated surroundings people like these young men and women are hoping not to be turned away before the questionnaire is complete. this family of three is doing well but mom

and dad are filling out the forms as a form of security. now i feel. the need to help but maybe in future. if i don't have. the government or government will have this information about me but for now it's the government that's counting on the population says he didn't r.t. . and it's time now for all the latest business news with yulia. that's right time to have a look at what's happening in the world of business the ruble is trading near its lowest level this year against the euro dollar currency basket but as the general reports the central bank's not too concerned about the weakness as it focuses attention on controlled inflation. the government is increasingly perswaded that the rouble can't take care of itself it's inflation it needs to worry about the

central bank has widened the exchange corridor as a cautious tapped was the free float of the currency when this happens it will allow the central bank to focus on setting policy to control prices this has the ultimate aim of making russia more in line with the developed economies which offer a stable monetary environment. if we want an investment to go to meet inflation should be around five percent any measure that leads to decreasing inflation is a priority there is no sense of the panic about the current valuation of the ruble unlike in two thousand and eight when the government burned through a sizable chunk of its reserves to prop it up russia's central bank says the current fundamentals of the russian economy do not support a one way trend indeed officials believe there are a number of factors which will lift the value of the currency in the medium term.

the measures that can prop up the nation or currency are the transfer of some export oil contracts to the ruble and increasing the volume of frugal deals between the c.i.s. countries russia has just announced a large scale privatization inflow of capital prompted by these deals will also have a positive impact on the ruble status on the world market paradoxically the current weakness of the russian ruble contrast with the problems faced by many of the contras struggling to restrain their currency at the moment that perhaps explains why the russian government isn't know how to alter its course dramatically that's what it called of business our team. so the liver is for the south stream pipeline at stake as russia's president richard vedder fizzes turkmenistan leaders of both countries are to discuss the proposed pipeline that will connect caspian gas to europe much of the planning and financing for south three most complete construction is due to start in twenty thirteen with consumers starting to receive

gas by the end of twenty fifteen. a look at how the markets are very very solid here in russia the r.t.s. in the minds of so down most of the blue chips in the broad bucking the trend is was high profile one point seven percent the company's shares are up after the news it will sell five year old worth around six hundred million dollars. and european stocks have started the day with mild losses slowed by banks mining and oil sectors as the company's reported results. clinical shareholders have voted against changing the board of directors at an extraordinary general meeting and more scope the vote for schools to end debate a battle between its two main stockholders interests and who saw want control of the russian mining giant with each owning twenty five percent or correspondent daniel bushell asked strategy director if the dispute could damage the company. any

dispute is affecting the company but the question is whether the dispute leads to any positive trends opposed to changes and we believe that the. whole idea which we are promoting when we were calling for the c.g.m. is to actually be billons the board in a manner where they'll be known i'm told in shareholder who will still try to take this conflict for the for example to the court it's not to fight isn't the wall it goes it's a different story it's about being a shareholder in the us trying to change the situation and so that every single instance valiant has been planned is implemented results are in line with international competitors what's wrong with the running of the company it's really really the best month but it has no strategy and it has cash on the bells so either management should come to the board is a proper strategy which would include the gunney growth projects and we'll explain that's where this money is have to be spent and their spending would create

additional value to all shareholders if that's what's happening then it should be paid out as if you believe no nickel mines to shareholders actually support resells bid absolute majority of independent shareholders have supported the idea for you which neither of the big shareholders have ever actually had a dialogue with is why not if the shareholders such a big supporter of mine know the shareholders is actually a big victory does russo want to braze north because dividends so it can pay off for self that we are not looking for the rules to pay greater dividends but we are just saying that the company should either spend money in for a running growth projects or the dividends should be paid out to the shareholders for shareholders effectively to decide what to do this new business funds we are reaping out there way ahead of schedule we do not believe there is dividends doesn't interest also suppose.