and.

on. more news today violence is once again flared up the film these are the images the world is seeing from the streets of canada from china corporations are on the day.

protests in europe workers say they do not want to be paying for the mistakes or the fact cats well the businesses say it's time to get off the streets and get back to work. also on our t.v. oil smugglers fueling trouble in northern iraq innocent lives are put at risk as pollution hits local rivers. and empty drums officials from russia are trying to work with the u.s. to wipe out afghan heroin production says america so focus on taliban poppy fields is not not. comparable hosts are pulling troops slows level this year against the euro dollar carlos a basket bought as business start to report the central bank not too concerned but we can focus his attention on.

a warm welcome to you this is our team coming to you live from moscow on the new sonar way and we begin in france where there is more protests spain had a striker's commit to yet more stoppages to vent their anger over plans to make them work longer tear gas and water cannon have been used against demonstrators while president sarkozy tries to hurry the senate vote on raising the retirement age to sixty two covering those are what is in paris. the senate is working all pretty much all day every day figuring out the final details fine tuning the proposed pension reform that will see their 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 today and trainers 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 of the aftermath of the global financial crisis with the economy of course being strongly hit by it and that 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 it's

vitally necessary if they don't do with the entire system is going to go bankrupt you cannot spend money you don't have if the system is not reformed people just aren't going to get pensions 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 used to nearly blackmailing the guy. and. 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 voice the costs of these problems protests are also to be taking into account 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 ninety transport strike across the country four hundred million euros and those are figures that france cannot afford to be paying right now. as are reporting there from paris well activists fear that slashing the public sector will spark more trouble ahead brian becker from the answer coalition told r.t. that workers won't rest well they say fails finance or break. the bankers are making tens of billions of dollars a year in bonuses but they tell the 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 are 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 repression leads to a greater radicalization which becomes broader social movements start small

minority movements become massive movements and then later we look back at them in history and say oh that was inevitable that that movement would come but before hand we hardly see it and i think that's what we're seeing in the united states or what we saw in france a few months ago the harbinger smallest things subterranean changes and finally an eruption of a mass movement. now the u.k. government has also brought in austerity measures an attempt to cut the national deficit which is spiraled out of control so far the british have been a lot more restraint in their response than the french to see if this is likely to continue we're now into our lives by sam bowman head of research at the adam smith institution in london thanks for being with us mr bowman now it's influential institute for fiscal studies says that the cops will hit the poor the most why should the poor bear this burden when large corporations are able to make mistakes constantly and get banged out by the government well i think we have to look at the way these cuts are going to people and the people who are going to be here are

people on benefits so and the real aim of these cuts is to get people to job and to work but of course we have to look at the actual amount that the cuts are going to be hitting people by on the surface to the studies looking at no point six percent for the poorest and ignore point two percent hit for the richest and even though that is quite a discrepancy it's not very much in the grand scheme of things i think really these cuts are only the beginning. and so far we haven't seen large scale protests start though they were promised we haven't seen any violence in the u.k. like we've seen in france do you anticipate there will be an ops while in anger at the proposed cuts. i don't think there will be i mean it's not really in the british national character to protest we haven't really seen protests any of these cuts in the last year or so and in fact the two biggest protests happened over the last ten years were against fox hunting and the iraq war neither of which had any real effect the british government doesn't really listen to protesters and i don't expect that there will be any protests that we'll see in the next few weeks there was a protest the other day. by the unions against these cuts and it had about five hundred

people which compared to the protests in france is huge so i really don't think we should be seeing anything more do you think that has anything to do with the fact that brits are probably watching what's happening in france and it doesn't look like the protests are really working could that have something to do with it i think it does absolutely i mean the british government has a long history of ignoring protesters and british people really are kind of people who want to get on with it and get back to work business as usual you might say and really the protests are quite a tradition of france whenever there's a government cut of some kind it doesn't happen in the u.k. and people really here are interested in getting on with their lives and getting back to work and hopefully that's what these cultural people to do now on the same day the british government made these two scots i should say they asked the u.k. to contribute another nine hundred million pounds to its budget how is this going to affect britain and other member states were going to have to pay similar amounts to be part of the club. i think it's going to separate quite badly the cuts were

eighty one billion this is an increase of of one billion so this is over one percent of the whole cuts that were made and i think that the british government really needs to take a hard look at itself in the way it deals with the european union and think about whether it should be making these increases to be european union's budget at a time like this i would say probably not i think it's time for the british government to renegotiate the money accused of european union and to really think about the relationship that has because this kind of thing can't go on when we're making these cutbacks here we can't be spending more money on the european union all right sam bowman head of research at the adam smith institute thank you very much thank you very much thank you. you're with our team live from moscow coming your way in just a few minutes counting people to counter problems. are nationality russian we'll look at russia's biggest q. and a session over five years and follow census takers as far as the international space station. but first 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 and sebastian meier 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 compass get in jerrycans 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 leaked their contents into the sea or one river poisoning the water supply used by the thirty five thousand residents of the city of. saudi or these are the cans do you know if over the years he killed people who. could use these

who are true it now because of the color is to do it see people can't use it. but 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 mikey bring him in my head i watch you know why but disappear two years ago we could catch a lot more fish. kids twenty kilos a day now it's only five hundred a second in the city families unable to afford their own well have to drink the 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 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 they 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. you know of any kind hospital no means daughter is suffering from diarrhea which she contracted after having a bath in the cities. tap water in case i haven't been hospitalized myself but because of my child i come also and i have two other children and they suffering from diarrhea and vomiting as well i'm told has come to bend and they will go home but in a we go to bed here again a lot and with the same regularity has no means visits to the hospital the smugglers continue to spill gasoline into dock then because water system in this remote and peaceful part of iraq ignorance and greed are as dangerous as in the rest of the country sebastian where northern iraq forty. america plans to 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 congress has yet to approve the deal put forward by the obama administration while the saudis want new fighter jets attack helicopters as well as

upgrades for its existing aircraft because that would also include a wide range of bombs and missiles saudi arabia is one of the united states biggest oil suppliers in washington hopes the deal will improve the defenses of the gulf state but liberty campaigner david kay says saudi arabia is an unlikely partner for a country that claims to defend your rights. in the classic dictatorial fashion the saudi regime does not rely on the consent of its people to be governed and therefore needs 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 policies 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 course talk later peter lavelle's gas grapple with that and whether iran soft power is driving its influence in the region. reality in any raw you have elections mr ahmadinejad for various reasons is because . very popular just a couple of days ago when he went to this city store and you know he stole the election that's why they were audible i realize and understand why you would say that. if you are in the political robert robert go right

ahead i'm from the wrong go right ahead yeah. ok you let the tides wash over for a second look each truth that most of the arab world is totalitarian 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 their side. and that's why we hope i was in racing to be astonished to find me continuing my maze if i made your continual bit. gentlemen let robert just a moment. russia and the us totally agree that the afghan her win industry needs to be wiped out but what i can't see eye to eye on is how to do it again austin is by far the world's biggest opium producer but america only wants to focus on taliban control poppy

fields aren't going to chicken explains why russia says that's not enough. there is definitely an understanding that drug trafficking from of ghana's than is a common enemy russia in the us seem to be more than eager to join forces to fight it and they are doing so drug control chiefs of both countries said russian the us 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 terrorists experts say victor evolved they had a force as drug control service was also talking about this well known connection between herring and terror now the u.s. and russia perfectly realized the problem but they for on the solution russia suggest eradicating all poppy fields and labs where heroin is produced the u.s. says it's up to the afghan government to make that decision russia's argument is the afghan government can stand up against multi multi billionaire drug monster

stronger nations have to put an end to it and russia made that point many times to medo which it actually cooperate with on drug trafficking but but to no avail. do you want congress evaluated the taliban's drug production to be worth one hundred fifty million dollars however it's not the whole of that began drug production facilities to meet it sixty five billion dollars so you can see that the taliban sectors only zero point two percent obviously it's not the main producer however international forces say that they will eliminate only do drug production related to the taliban in other words all one hundred fifty thousand personnel will be directed to eliminating just zero point two percent of drug production seems the remaining ninety nine point eight percent believed to be destroyed but they are going to force us to get loose yesterday by 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 of almost said 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 deaths afghan drugs killed more than a million people worldwide. great chicago reporting there from washington and just to let you know you can watch a full interview with russia's drugs chief victor evolve or a website r t v dot com. let's take a look now at some other world news for you in brief this hour of suspected color out of the room it's killed at least a hundred and thirty five people all hundreds more are seriously ill the stream of

those needing treatment is overwhelming hospital staff and just all of the doctors are now waiting for test results to confirm the cause of the infections many people still live in on some of terri conditions after january's massive earthquake which killed some three hundred thousand people. tried to make me has reached land in taiwan causing widespread destruction heavy rains and flooding left many people stuck on the roadside in their vehicles search is under way from one thousand chinese tourists whose boss was trapped by a massive rock slide on a coastal highway earlier this week making batter the philippines killing more than twenty people and is expected to hit china this weekend. one hundred forty million and counting russia's nationwide census is underway it's an effort to better understand today's population from current living standards to improving its future and as they say begins found out such as takers are reaching out in all directions. the ability to defy gravity is not an excuse to deny your

earthly responsibilities even in space cause minotaur answering questions from russia's twenty ten census bureau nationality russian owner of the bar skya has the job of reaching out to orbit it 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 apply here could lead to some answers that could solve some of the nation's biggest problems the questionnaire attempts to probe issues 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 for us in 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 russia's and 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. that many of the needs help but maybe in future. if i don't have. the government or will have this information about me but for now it's the

government that's counting on the population says even r t. we are up to date from the news desk here at our tape business is next with your dad. that's right time to have a look at what's happening in the world of business the of us trading near its lowest level this year against the euro dollar currency basket bought as to china but of course reports the central bank is not too concerned about the weakness as it focuses attention on controlling 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 economy 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 burn through a sizable chunk of its reserves to prop it up russia central bank says the current fundamentals of the russian economy do not support one way try and 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 but your own political of business are tame. all the central asian gas deliveries for the small stream pipeline are at stake because russia's president richard vedder of business tremendous john leaders of both countries are discussing the proposed pipeline that will connect caspian goes to europe much of the planning and financing for the stream is complete construction is due to start it we're going to do with consumers starting to receive gas by the end of twenty fifteen. and russia will produce around five hundred million tons of oil in twenty one percent on the previous year production rose at roughly the same speed it is a did during two thousand and nine which saw russia out before saudi arabia as the

world's oil exporter but russia is close to its peak and production is expected to decline twenty two percent in ten years time now the country has the world's seventh largest oil reserves. quick look at the markets now and here in russia the r.t.s. and my supply down the solemn words to the blue chips are in the red bucking the trend is bruce hydro up one point nine percent. and european stocks are suffering losses on friday after the previous sessions gains led by banks mining and oil sectors as morkie companies reported results as a volvo are down two point three percent from quarter sales fell short of expectations though almost one train that profit from a loss last year. they're all cyclical shareholders have voted against changing the board of directors at an extraordinary general meeting in moscow the vote was called to end debate a battle between its two main shareholders into also andrew sol they want to control to gain control of the russian mining giant with each owning twenty five

cent all correspondent daniel bushell asked who saw a 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 trend supposed 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 rebalance the board in a manner where they'll be known come told and shareholder who will sell try to take this conflict further 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 this situation and so that every single intense intense one plan is implemented the results are in line with international competitors what's wrong with the running of the company it's a really really the best mind 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 organic 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 happening then it should be paid out as if you believe nickel miners to shareholders actually support yourselves period 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 of such a big supporter of minority shareholders is actually a big victory does rousselle 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 gun in 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

really putting out there way ahead of schedule we do not believe there is dividends . that's the latest from the business team join me next hour for more business news and get more store a small web site r.t. dot com slash business.