all. in the czech republic he's available in a hotel and central hotel prima vera. most of the stuff i used to which i am a taste in bosnia and herzegovina available in. the children of each college. but you know what you know. to make hotel killdeer a boutique hotel toast. in serbia is available in one hundred regency.

died the french senate said to vote on increasing the retirement date for the countries with brackets but raging protests. workers say they do not want to be paying for the mistakes or the fact cats while the business is say it's time to get off the streets and get back to work. also to come up common goal but no common vision while recognizing afghanistan as the world's greatest drugs threat russia and the u.s. can't agree on how to deal with. traffickers interact with company were held as the fuel very small spills into rivers poisoning the populations water supply. this is r.t. live from moscow it's a friday evening here now you're most welcome home kevin owen with

a top story and french police have broken the blockade of a refinery crucial for the capital's fuel supplies a worker. captured the hearts of at least three people were injured in the clashes a special operation end of the blockade that would last and for more than a week causing significant fuel shortages about twenty percent of fueling stations remain empty across the country with no end in sight to the education meanwhile the sun it's expected to approve president nicolas sarkozy's proposal to raise the retirement age to sixty two the reason behind the protests his country is over is following events for us in the french capital tonight. the senate is working on pretty much all day every day figuring out of the final details fine tuning the proposed our 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 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 now 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 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 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 of course the costs

of these problems are protests are also to be taken into account in these current strikes icon amidst 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 across the country hundred million euros those are of figures that france cannot afford to be paying right now. this person story further now we're joined live by frederick william engdahl american writer journalist based in germany thanks being on the line with you must also mention it's the also you are of gods of money wall street and the birth of the american century now the french law allows the senate doesn't need to vote for any proposal even if not all amendments are considered it is widely thought that this new legislation will eventually go through but what i really wanted to ask you tonight what's your take on why it's taking so long is it purely down to public opinion causing more debate the most anticipated by president sarkozy do you think. well definitely that but the the popular anger actually

across all of the european countries right now but especially in france where there's an activist. the tradition among. trade unions and other groups is that the government is bailing out the banks and the financial system at the cost of taxpayers and then turns around and say this we need pension reforms to get the budget in order and the pension reforms essentially break social contract. with the workers that agreed to work so many years for pension and retirement and quite a lot of employment a lot of people around the world looking on at france would say that french workers have quite easy time of it they're amongst one of the youngest retirement ages in britain i mean in europe in britain in fact because people facing working until sixty five that could raise shortly to sixty six in a few years time with plans go through do you think in france for just as a kind of exaggerating the pain they're going to face i don't think that's the issue i think the issues is one of principle and. the point is who's going to pay

are you are you going to cut the budget by let's take an example cutting the defense spending for the troops in afghanistan that are guarding the opium supply routes to western europe for nato or you're going to cut the pensions that's that's it really boils down to that you take care of the social contract with the population or do you take care of a tiny financially was government largess. your people are evil and social crisis president sarkozy obviously is going down that track of trying to raise the money by making people work longer and of course he could decide the next president mitterrand the need for lowering the time and age of france is paying the price for that to this day refers back to what i mentioned just now the french probably surely can hardly be surprised about these reforms though commit. it's not a surprise but it's come down to the down to the point of decision and that's that's what's activating this i think what's interesting is you have students in

the. given nazia level the high school levels across france also joining the strikes and that shows that the students recognise if older workers are staying in their jobs several years longer that means so many working places perhaps several million are kept occupied and young workers cannot come into those workplaces until later so they they see that it works on both sides of the age spectrum the demographic curve and i think the whole point is not so much the pension issue or whether the french worker has a cushy compared with british or american or german workers i think the real point is. who is going to benefit from from state policy is it going to be a tiny elite of financial interests and interests or large defense industry interests who back sarkozy's campaign sarkozy by the way is fighting for his political life and he has staked himself but he will run this thing through on

baffin the paris banking and financial sector and stake his presidency on it so he has no choice with the scandals swarming around his presidency right now on his popularity an all time low to stake everything on getting this pension reform which i think will pass ok if it will mend merican right and jenny thank you for being with us in announcing tonight's point you well the united kingdom is also cut its public sector budget to reduce the national deficit spot in a control so far the response in the u.k. there's been much more restrained than in france and assam bowman head of a london based economic think tank told us the british won't copy the french. 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 that 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. held by the unions against these cuts and it had about five hundred people which compared to the closest in france is nine years so i really don't think we're going to be seeing anything more the british government has a long history of ignoring protestors 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 their protests are quite a tradition in france whenever there is a government car some kind it doesn't happen in the u.k. and people really here are just in getting out of their lives and getting back to work and hopefully that's what these cuts well people to do and head tonight at r.t. in just a few minutes the militants of turn to mine into a route for pursuit the special forces operation in the russian caucuses targeting militants in a one hundred kilometer long abandoned mine that coming up in just a few minutes. first russian prosecutors have demanded fourteen year sentences for the jailed all maggot mikhail khodorkovsky and his business partner on trial for the second time it's the latest twist in the so-called you cost the third parties.

prosecutors in the case of formal all magnets in you call c.e.o. holder hosty and his business partner never there not today almost to drop the charges of theft in relation to thomas nafi in case she says formally uphold all the you call school company and they've also roles for a sentence of some of food t.v. he is against the two men this would then mean if it's up held that they would only be released in the twenty seven teen who is acting in the defense of a little husky and that never if you continue to protest their innocence or little charges say that they will contest this in poor next wednesday on october the twenty seventh this is this good time that both men haven't stood at trial this time they're charged with money laundering and theft and embezzlement that's just some three hundred and fifty million tons of oil from the nine hundred ninety six two thousand and three numbers are going to laundering of some twenty three billion

u.s. dollars may come for the whole city was of course once upon a time the richest man in russia that all changed but i'll tell you but she found this incident three when he was arrested in may thirty first two thousand and five thirty three and got to live it every sentence probably of most cases and who to nine years imprisonment in a siberian jail all those charges of fraud and tax evasion that's a sentence was then reduced to eight years and the later bite got more serious to see cool both men can see the two protests there were distance and say there were charges brought against them on the city motivates to use correspondent alex had put in peaceful northern iraq it's not guns or war right now that are putting people's lives at risk the main source of water in the region is being polluted by gangs of petroleum smugglers looking to make a quick buck and to sebastian my reports for see the health and livelihoods of the local people and i want to throw. 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 confiscated 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 sea of one river poisoning the water supply used by the thirty five thousand residents of the city of. saudi or these are the cans did all lived over years ago people. could use this water with now because of the color is to do people count to use it. again 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 like keeper human mahmoud are watching their livelihood disappear two years ago we catch a lot more fish. kids twenty kilos a day and now it's only five hundred a second in the city families unable to afford their own well have to drink to felpham and 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 through the orchard 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. you know of any one hospital now means daughter is suffering from diarrhea which she contracted after having a bath in the cities. i have water in them i haven't been hospitalized myself but

because of my child i come home and i have two of the children in this suffering from diarrhea and vomiting as well i told his comes benigno go home but in a week will be back here again a lot and with the same regularity is no means visits to the hospital the smugglers continue to spill gasoline into debt then the khans water system in this remote and peaceful part of iraq ignorance and greed are as dangerous as in the rest of the country sebastian meyer northern iraq fourteen. the bomber administration wants to sell sixty billion dollars worth of weapons to saudi arabia congress is yet to approve what would be one of the largest arms dealer deals in u.s. history it said to include new fighter jets attack helicopters as well as upgrades for its existing aircraft the saudis also want to wide range of bombs and missiles washington hopes the deal would improve the defenses of saudi arabia which is one of the u.s. is biggest all supplies but nobody campaigned a david kay spoke to see says it's not likely partnership because of the gulf

states patchy human rights record. 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 and there has been unfortunately a lack of concern for human rights in saudi arabia there are elements within the us government that believe that the leadership is moderate and therefore it is an ally of the united states i believe that the saudi regime to. 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 is 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 of others inside those big neutralizing a special operation of the russian republic of couple of. policemen to found a truck with explosives never mind where the government to trap examine the could shove it in the region for us. at least ten militants assume in the abandoned mine uncovered in iraq are the counterterrorist operation which started on wednesday is underway through militants have been killed one police officer died in the crossfire the federal forces have started the assault on the mine after the militants ignored all demands to surrender and opened fire right now they are blocked inside the industrial mine which is approximately one hundred kilometers long these gunmen are involved in the terror attacks and the system nation of police officers in car but is in a bokhara when we do know is that a car has been found by the mine this car was filled with explosives and it was it in mind also several locals collecting scrap metal have been evacuated from the

scene so the counterterrorist operation is still going on a criminal case has been launched and police has already found inside the mind these militants blogged in their mind i had to be identified and. russia the us both agree that afghan harry would be to be wiped out but the conscious on how to go about that afghanistan is by far the world's biggest opium producer but washington really wants to focus on targeting taliban control poppy fields and he's got if you can explain why russia insists 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 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 tracking down their assets victor evolve the head of russia's drug control service was also talking about this well known connection between harry and terror now the u.s.

and russia perfectly realize the problem but they are on the solution russia suggests 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 bush's argument is the afghan government can stand up against a multi dealing drugs monster and do u.s. congress of alleyways the taliban's drug production to be worth one hundred fifty million dollars however it's not the whole of their program drug production is just to me the sixty five billion dollars to concede that the taliban sectors only zero point two percent obviously it's not the main producer who our international forces say that they will or women need only to drug production related to the taliban 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 on love said the only ones who benefit from it are the landlords or the drug lords and definitely not afghan peasants 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 says washington correspondent dan if you can then if you'd like to see the full interview with the head of russia's federal drug control service related news you can always see the web site of course are talking of which online tonight if you don't come up with the ten. star world favors of course from both the sporting achievements and good looks is getting married aged at last but on for a look at the man of her choice. fresh water they say is said to become the oil of the new world as reserves run out russia now is looking to adapt to exporting the new both a valuable resource get the backstory to them our home page tonight r.t. dot com.

if. you're watching r.t. russia is counting everyone this week with a nationwide census today mr take a snapshot so the most populous and biggest country in the world census takers are reaching out in all directions as well to get information to improve living standards. the ability to defy gravity is not an excuse to deny your earthly responsibilities even in space cause menards are answering questions from russia's twenty ten senses your nationality russian elinor's of our sky or had 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 are right here can 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 washing households learn what their resources are and identify how government can improve the quality of life and with the slogan everyone matters to russia everyone from those serving their country to those serving time are being counted. on this how else would we know what kind of financial situation rushes 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 good maybe i do need 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 so you see that and are. coming to a twenty three moscow time good are you with us tonight are we cannot seem to time and show moscow in a few minutes not before the latest business news that's next. welcome to business this week the government gave details of its five year privatization program it will be the second law of publicly on russian companies since the end of

the soviet union reports. the biggest privatization program since the one nine hundred ninety s. it covers the whole range of the state's involvement in business the government plans to put stakes in nine hundred state firms up for sale globally but the main goal of the sell off will be to change the investment appeal of these assets to attract private investors in their field change the structure of ownership of the companies to make them more transparently stable and reliable. the government also hopes to patch the hole in the budget with the sixty billion dollars it expects to raise among the most notable offerings is the sale of shares in v.t. bank to blow controlling the state will reduce its stake to controlling the country's biggest lenders burbank and in the national airline and afloat the finance minister believes investor demand will exceed supply but analysts are more cautious the demand could outstrip supply you are talking about larger companies the companies

that are well known perhaps already being traded on the market such as bank ross now after a fall to a few others. concerning other companies i'm not sure because it would very much depend on their to give investors which in turn would depend on the way the russian and global economies are proceeding rusher is not the first country to undertake widespread privatization indeed it's a common factor among nearly all developed economies since at one time or another they all had extensively publicly owned companies in countries such as the u.k. the process helped turn large numbers of the population into shareholders however analysts. skeptical this will happen in russia my personal take is it most likely as a government might so some company as it can be also. be a no or there are well known names like oil companies to offer these shares to the

retail investors was a scene that was in the six to brown boss prove it is a sure bet that i'm not sure that the largest part of this placement torelli target as a route to investors if pushed through successfully the program will alter the financial landscape in russia although which will continue to be a major player in business the government will have less direct involvement it's hope this will usher in an era of greater transparency as companies become more accountable to their new owners the belly how clever business r.t. . was the stock markets ended the week mix of the choppy day mind of michel was the biggest blue chip loser shedding four percent of my six games approval to begin to lety involved area. stocks have also been affected by news of the privatisation programme of corporate data supporting the russian markets troika dialog vice president of explains the main trends. the markets were

very volatile very volatile and the general trend globally is that the markets expecting the release of information on new what if using it from the states then. we saw very good results on the corporate. third quarter results from the united states most companies about eighty five percent reported two very good results well above expectations and probably the third factor which is very important for russia is that the announcement of new approaches asian program. russia's and monopoly service is to find the country's big three mobile providers for setting prices too high the watchdog says n.t.s.b. line and megaphone which have eighty five percent of the mobile services market have broken competition law the final total is one percent from their annual turnover that's around three million dollars per company they've already agreed to

cut terrorists for regional and international roaming. one of russia's top precious metals producers holly metal has posted a fifty five percent boost in gold production for the first nine months of twenty ten year on here silver production during the same period grew only five percent the company also raise revenue to six hundred fifty five million dollars that's up eighty seven percent. russia will produce around five hundred million tons of oil in twenty ten one percent on the previous year production rose at roughly the same speed as in two thousand and nine which russia saw overtake saudi arabia as the world's top oil exporter but russia is close to its peak and production is expected to decline twenty two percent within a decade. that's the latest you can find more stories on our website r.t. dot com slash business.