thank you. good. news.

we cure leaks deals another basset blow to america's foreign wars this side of the whistleblower exposes scores of iraq documents detailing torture and hundreds of civilian deaths. french senators pass the pension bill but the people's revolt rumbles long while neighboring britain verges on a boiling point as the government slashes jobs and social benefits. russian archaeologists get gold as olympic construction workers stumble upon an ancient temple and the host city of saatchi. you're watching r t coming to you live from the russian capital welcome to the program and now to our top story u.s. commanders in iraq ignored evidence of torture and often failed to investigate the

killing of civilians now these are the major findings from the leak of four hundred thousand secret american military files from the whistle blowing web site wiki leaks the data describes widespread and brutal torture of detainees by iraqi troops with some documents showing american authorities often turned a blind eye the pentagon's condemned what is the largest ever leak of classified documents saying it will only serve to help america's enemies the fall it's also revealed that sixty six thousand civilians were killed in iraq since the u.s. invaded even though washington had denied it kept any such record the figure doesn't include scores of deaths during the u.s. two major offensives on the city of fallujah in two thousand and four its residents are still fighting the severest consequences of those attacks now you may find some of the pictures in paula's leaders report upsetting. his. burns are outside

fighting for the ball on a football pitch he's here in the family tent fighting a cancer that's eating away at his head and stomach. i collect the splinters of the rocket after exploded whoever i showed them to said they were american and contaminated poisoned. after the shrapnel struck sixteen year old medics had a tumor appeared while his father lost a leg in the attack and also the family source of income as a taxi driver. i wonder if there are any weapons they didn't use against us we all can terminated sometimes i can hardly breathe. iraq is littered with buildings like this that just to be the headquarters of saddam's secret police in two thousand and three several jodan rockets hit the full effect of those weapons is still being felt today. u.s. marines first bombarded flew just six years ago it came after four employees of the american security company blackwater were killed and the bodies burned the report

showed that after the eight month standoff higher rates of cancer leukemia and infant mortality were found here than in hiroshima and nagasaki after the atom bomb drop in world war two we found that the infant mortality rates compared with egypt . jordan about four five times. and about ten times the country who. in the last few years hundreds of deformed babies have been born into looters general hospital doctors dubbed them the white phosphorous children. between the late ninety's and two thousand and three we had patients with nervous system malfunctions roughly three times a year at the moment we gave them three such patients a week. this child was born with one eye and with not a single day going past without a new case being registered more and more doctors here are pointing

a finger at the united states. american combat operations caused environmental pollution both the us and british sides admitted that they employed banned weapons . dr abdul al floozy is also a father or at least he was until a year ago when his twelve year old son died of cancer most parents leave their babies in the hospital they're scared by the way they look these babies are doomed to die and die they do far from the eyes of the world because while flu just streets might today be quiet the city remains cut off from the rest of the country doctors here say they're under pressure to keep quiet. r.t. iraq r.t. contributor wayne madsen says the wiki leaks revelations show that the us knew exactly what was going on in iraq. nothing was done without the approval of of the united states command in iraq so yes i think we're saying the us basically

responsible for the same kinds of crimes that we. allowed iraq to execute saddam hussein and other members of his government for doing and i think it calls into question the whole idea of why we invaded iraq in the first place because the original reason was changed to well he was a bloodthirsty dictator from the fact that he had weapons of mass destruction which he did not have so we replace one brutal regime with a u.s. backed brutal regime i think if this was a fair system of international justice we would see indictments of misters bush and cheney and tony blair and some of the u.s. military commanders in iraq. the british and french have a tough years ahead and their anger is growing massive protests are on the way in the u.k. against the deepest cuts since the one nine hundred twenty s.

and the axing of half a million jobs while across the channel the french fight against pension reform rages on even though the retirement age rise was approved late on friday but that in a lot of our reports from paris. as the saying goes two things in life are certain death and taxes some french people however would like to add another certainty to that their belief that they can force their government to reconsider its radical pension changes that's despite the fact the plans to increase their time age from sixty to sixty two have already been approved by the senate. we're out here showing our dissatisfaction i know because i personally am here demonstration shoulder to shoulder with people who are younger than twenty five or twenty six years old but still have the same attitude to the problem that we will be one of these people fight against what they believe to be a great injustice of their very struggle has brought one of europe's most famous

cities at times to a standstill a beautiful apartment in the heart of paris is anyone's dream but what is getting that dream became impossible through no fault of your own what if getting your apartment done on time depended not on you not on your workers not on your construction or anybody involved but on people standing outside in the streets. victor has his own successful construction business he prides himself on his fast skilled work but recently his projects have fallen behind schedule through no fault of his own. the book i'm sick and tired of all these strikes and protests with the people who really want to work they just work like protesters who are interested only in demonstrations i'm personally not interested in victor isn't the only person feeling this way we cause them to stop the strike today because it's too

disturbing for people going to work to the public transport in the universities there are people preventing students to go to the. course so we ask everybody to just to just protestant as true to their worlds but just prevent other people to do their work and just trying to to. a country to block the economy it's. a strange situation in france we don't want them to block our country in one thousand nine hundred five the french people managed to derail through protest the previous attempt to change the country's pension system however it appears they've not got a choice. critics of the unions who led the charge against sarkozy's pension plans states now time to step back and could sit at the ongoing protests hurt small and medium businesses the engine of the country's economy while those who are in charge

in business and politics in the run up to the financial crisis that brought about the pension reform continuing to thrive i guess readers are pairs. well so five the jobs and welfare cuts others escape into another world as we report later meet the fam to see using their super powers to rise above recession. and in the winter olympic city of sochi ain't. russian history is revealed by construction workers. afghan heroin production is something both russia and the u.s. agree needs to be stamped out but what they can't get together on is exactly how to do it afghanistan is the world's biggest opium producer and russia suffers more than most artie's military contributors says moscow needs to pressurize the us to make a deal with the problem apart from the old excuses offered by richard holbrooke

that you can't touch the poor are ever going to farmers will shoot because they would join to tell about the jewel karalee cough offered his new excuse that is it is up to the afghan government to make a decision let me remind that this excuse would make sense only and when that nation real regain the total solvent for the time being that ever going to government is neither willing or able to authorize whole or exit cute for the aerial eradication because it was due to the us occupation that corruption and drug proliferation have skyrocketed obviously neither today not tomorrow the united states is not going to deal effectively with the opium eradication until the russian federation we'll offer a powerful stimulus for the united states to reckon suter its drug promotion policy

in afghanistan the only way russia's going to influence u.s. policy regarding that ever going to drugs is to draw a lesson from the pakistan that is to condition the northern supply route from russia to afghanistan for the us and i said forces to make it conditional on their review of the you as drug promotion policy in afghanistan. our military contributors blogs are online for you to watch at r.t. dot com along with more of today's news and analysis and here's some of what's being lined up for you right now the americans who say they've had enough of police brutality which should be blame is reaching epidemic proportions and barging protests. in and out for those with too much cash to splash and take a look at moscow's millionaire fair which has everything for the wealthy wallet from bling filled sports cars to a diamond encrusted saucepan. now leaders of the world's

twenty richest economies are in south korea working on the next chapter of dealing with the global financial crisis on the g. twenty table is the u.s. treasury secretary's plan to restrict how much countries should be allowed to borrow or export but investment strategist peter schiff told r.t. that america created the imbalance in the first place. policies that we're pursuing here in america are exacerbating the very imbalance that treasury secretary claims he wants to rein in you know the biggest offender is the united states because we're the ones that are spending so much we're borrowing a tremendous amount of money we're importing all these products around the world running these horrific trade deficits in turn account deficits and what are we doing with our economic stimulus the stimulus is designed to get americans to spend even more money to drive these global imbalances to an even wider level we do need

to reduce these global imbalances but to do that america needs to save more american needs to produce more i and we're not going to do that with the current policies in place we need it totally reverse course we need to shrink the size of our government we need higher interest rates in america not low interest rates we need to encourage people to save their money not go deeper into debt and so we can address the imbalances but to continue these failed policies and try to blame the rest of the world for what is inherently an american problem makes no sense oh are all learning to cope with a recession or a cutbacks in different ways but not everyone is prepared to stare them in the face artie's an associate sure can have found a some people who prefer to dress up the problem. for two years now the world economy in the u.s. has turned into an ocean of horror from many how do you skate your fears by saying employed what if you get fired what are you going to do i'm screwed while some have been choosing humor to fight off the frightening reality are you afraid of

a double dip recession. others weighs a little less legal are you afraid of the economy. what do you do to escape reality . i sit in my room and i smoke a lot of weed but many are choosing something completely different because millions of americans are very frightened of the state of the u.s. economy more and more u.s. citizens are trying to escape into the world of fantasy welcome to comic con the world's biggest gathering of comic book fans and side file lovers do you feel like this costume protects you from the woods of the u.s. economy. pockets keep my money inside somebody's pocket r t tried on the gear to test its superpowers yeah i definitely do feel very protected from everything can't really see much but it would save several thousand people gathered on a weekday most these people i think if it was the unemployment office with computer games some dancing. and imaginary battles it's easier to forget that an economic

crisis is spread across the country where all of these people doing here i mean last i checked today is a work day. it's like. two pm and say how are we turning into a superhero for a day what is your main. weapon. i'm carol i've got a big can. and enjoying feeling like a child i'd be everyone has a great b. and they're kind of crazy with the possibility of a double dip recession just around the corner it could seem trickier. to lure comic book shoppers in. but the world of fantasy is far from scared of losing its customer what are the most expensive of the cheapest comic books you're selling today well i have some three dollars dollars detective number thirty seven is. the

last batman before robin came along you'd sixty eight hundred dollars but it could take both spider-man and superman with some more help from his girl to p.v. us economy out of its recession so that affording something like that would not just seem like magic to most americans and party new york. well let's look at some of the world's other main news this hour haiti's cholera outbreak now claimed more than one hundred ninety lives the infection rate is rising too with over two thousand others now diagnosed medicine is being urgently distributed and doctors warned that conditions are ripe for the disease to strike in areas with a limited access to clean water part of that is down to the ongoing effects of january's massive earthquake which killed some three hundred thousand people. powerful typhoon meggie has now left eleven dead and twenty three others missing as it rips through taiwan hundreds of rescue workers are searching for survivors and

providing food to those trapped in the mountains the storms the stored houses and uprooted trees while landslides have blocked several roads maggie has now reached china's southeast coast and emergency measures are being put in place. in india hundreds of protesters have gathered to demand an inquiry into the hosting of the commonwealth games police had to use water cannon to prevent the marching towards the parliament protesters say that millions of dollars were siphoned by companies run by the relatives of state officials. as powers ford to get its twenty fourteen olympics on track the massive cars. struction work is also revealing the russian city's ancient past as artie's denise explains right now it's archaeologists not athletes who are racing ahead. it could be a scene from an indiana jones movie archaeologists try just sold the secrets left

behind by architects of an eight century temple these ruins in the. caucasus are considered among the most prized discoveries in the area. and you can just take a look at how good these pipes are they almost didn't break when they fell down it appears that they were embedded in the wall so that the fireplace could be spread around so now we'll be able to put the pieces back together and see how this heating system worked. until last year the old ruins were covered of rubbish. they were first discovered by soviet archaeologists in the nine hundred fifty s. and later lost again for more than happy century when lehman old was picked as a construction site for future olympic venues for the sochi winter games in two thousand and fourteen almost every corner was carefully surveyed and that's when this part of history was discovered this script could have been brought by

a treasure hunter is a long time ago and actually over the years part of the temple was destroyed by locals as they use the ancient systems to decorate their homes nell displaces under protection. or a month says it wasn't a problem to convince construction companies to save the unique site almost instantly an agreement was reached to move the engineering facilities that were supposed to be built here the funding for the preservation project is provided for you by a limp story the state corporation in charge of olympic construction number. we'd like to do in this side into an open and museum to make it accessible for cultural tourism moral way it's important there will be inside berlin big dog which is one of the russians white all territories and it will be visited by people from all over the world on smaller findings from the olympic park like these bronze age artifacts from now on bill be on display in sochi is historical museum its

personnel preparing for the most significant arrival of new items and decades what that clean washed badness to search is the first archaeological project of such a scale in sochi and is the olympic preparations that made this survey possible undoubtedly without archaeologists and sites we could have lost these money wins forever and i can't alphen happens elsewhere. with a little bit construction paul steam ahead the organizers say they're doing their best to save the region's reach historical heritage. so in two. which will be celebrated in sochi as the museum's seating may see not only big stadiums on ice rinks but also newly discovered landmarks like the sanctuary in the great you all want. sochi. well up next the latest business news with charlotte and that's after a short break. for the feel we've got.

the biggest issues get voice face to face with the news makers. hello and welcome to the business program here on r.t. with me charlayne was folly now in the last few minutes top finance and and officials from the world's major economies that agreed to hold back from driving down their cars they secure themselves a competitive global edge the g twenty finance ministers and central bank governors

have said they will move towards more market time in exchange rate systems and give developing nations more say at the i.m.f. the statement comes at the end of talks of the group of twenty in south korea where one of the main story because this has been avoiding international currency tensions. the serious investors everywhere have been buying physical gold since the start of the financial crisis as a hedge against uncertainty russians however bible and more as an elegant present rather than a clever investment such an employer covert finds out why. gold futures gold exchange traded funds gold mining shares there are plenty of ways to play gold box none of them offers the same sheer reassurance that the yellow metal itself we of course. stock analysts we tend to focus a lot more on the companies that produce the gold for our.

retail investor when it comes to the shares there are a lot more factors to keep in mind when investing you can talk only about the goal clearly you think only about the gold price in times of financial uncertainty investors look for somewhere safe something tangible physical gold gold and have it seems a perfect place to park your cash box not in russia eight infrasound bates he makes this bar cost war that it would elsewhere in the world so these are not in demand with russian investors and mostly bought by jewelry makers for the most of us the russians mostly by these gold coins as presents truly because they look nice however some of them i know vestment coins and then not liable to be investment coins are the matter once polished versions are better as souvenirs the bank will not buy them back to you they are scratched and the other option is to buy the

physical mantle and leave it in the bank this avoids v.h.d. financial advisers catering for the very rich command their clients to hold up to ten percent of their assets in precious metals like gold and this continues to be the case despite the recent sell off on the gold market we do think that probably will see higher prices of gold in the coming months mostly because there is too uncertainty with the global economy and people and investors look for a sale. heaven there i'm it's the patients about higher inflation in the major currency the dollar which is the other big liquid asset that people. have is in central banks and investors look to us is interesting. to bring it to the lower levels which would be positive for a commodity prices in general and. particularly long term gold bull george soros

who recently described the precious metal as the ultimate bubble since the metal is not very useful in the real world applications it has a place in jewelry and fun gilding things but mostly it's value is in fact that it's valuable and that is a perception that's good always change that's an umbilical that business are taking . now this way the government gave details of its five year privatization program will be the second largest selloff of public and russian companies since the end of a savior and 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 one thousand nine hundred state firms up for sale globally but the main goal of the would be to change the investment appeal of these assets to attract private investors and therefore 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 on. supply you are talking about larger companies the companies perhaps already being traded on the market such as bank crossed after a forty. concerning other companies i'm not sure because it would very much depend on to give investors which in turn would depend on the way the russian and global economies are proceeding pressure 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 are skeptical this will happen in russia my personal take is it most likely as a goal of mine so. some company as it can be also has a very long view to be very well known names like oil companies to offer these shares to the retail investors was a scene that was in the sixty's brown boss privatization better i'm not sure that the largest part of this placement or really target as a route to investors if pushed through successfully the program will alter the financial landscape in russia although it will continue to be a major player in business the government will have less direct involvement it's oh goodness.