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torture and civilian deaths in iraq new revelations rock washington as wiki leaks revealed its biggest leak ever i've been noting the details here in long to join me in just a moment. in other news tensions flare in europe as france was hit with rallies after right raising its retirement age and unions plan massive protests across the u.k. in response to government cuts. plus an unexpected find in russia's resort city of sochi as archaeologist on the cover an ancient temple during construction for the twenty fourteen winter olympics. it's five pm in moscow and this is archie coming to you live first up this hour

online whistleblower wiki leaks has struck washington another massive blow the websites let loose several hundred thousand secret u.s. military documents the largest leak ever for more we're joined from by our chief laura hi there laura so both sides of sheer size what's special about this latest wiki leaks. well i mean there are many things that is special about it but what's so striking is the figure as you mentioned that it was this being the biggest leak ever nearly full hundred thousand separate documents in this leak that have been released to the largest ever and they add fifteen thousand civilian deaths to what we thought was the very unclear civilian death toll that we had initially the files contain evidence of nearly one hundred ten thousand. violent deaths that took place in iraq in the years between two thousand and four and two thousand and nine two thirds of them it seems from these files that's around sixty six thousand deaths

were the deaths of civilians during this combat hoffa's those were killed by the iraqi insurgency and hoff it seems from the documents were killed by troops in military action these are a range of different violent death assassinations checkpoint shootings executions and of course the either accidental or deliberate results of torture. the u.s. always said today the week which is what's interesting about this that it wasn't keeping a record of civilian deaths but in fact it turns out from these files that the u.s. military was keeping a very detailed record of what was going on in some of these files contain the names of those civilian people who have died at the locations the exact timings of the deaths and of course they haven't been released into the public domain before but now there's been a press conference here in london this morning releasing these details and at that press conference with wiki leaks founder julian our soldiers and he talked about that famous quotation that truth is the first casualty of war that's what he had to

say. on the truth by war begins long before war starts and you continue. a war games in the power of these four hundred thousand documents about. the iraq war and the huge movie title of the war from the u.s. perspective. we hope to correct. some of that attack on the truth. now a lot of this large number of files once about big incidents in which hundreds of people were killed there about what's astonishing self is cool before the every day schooler of war they did stints in which one maybe two people are killed two civilians are killed and in fact one of course there are far too many to go into any detail about what they were but one incident details or an apache helicopter

which came across to iraqi insurgents who were in fact trying to surrender and the crew of the helicopter took legal advice about opening fire they also american military noise whether they should open fire and the noise came back to them and said look you can't surrender to a machine you can't surrender to a helicopter that's perfectly legal if you go ahead and shoot them and that's how just two of these people were killed there were wiki leaks has been slammed by washington for allegedly in danger of american lives and international security and you've been hearing anything about how just to find out is that true. well we have been talking about that today as well obviously these last revelations that wiki leaks made where in july they were called the afghan war diaries about the war in afghanistan and the pentagon said at that time how irresponsible it was that wiki leaks to release these documents which contained as they said the names old people afghans themselves who had helped the u.s.

forces in afghanistan and also revealed some details of how u.s. operations are being conducted and what the tactics that were. that's a look at a very successful p.r. exercise for the pentagon and that was picked up by a lot of mediocre guys ations he said to get a response to wiki leaks well it's however it has become clear that in the three months since then in fact new no danger to american lives has been seen none of the afghans who were named in those documents were in fact killed so it seems that that threat has not materialized and even u.s. defense secretary robert gates has admitted that himself. there are going to be fifteen thousand more afghan and documents released which have also been redacted by the wiki leaks team and they're very confident that no harm will come to anyone as a result of those we spoke to an expert to craig murray today and he has been talking about how ridiculous the suggestion is that wiki leaks is endangering lives let's hear what he has to say. chip during the wars in iraq and afghanistan and

international security these are not wars which are genuinely keeping us safe in the west of these are wars which are actually decreasing international security so i think actions like those by wiki leaks in releasing so many documents and letting in the truth about what's happening helping long term international security. as far as what the results of today's leak will be it seems that that will be some legal action that will result from this one of the organizations that which leaks has cooperated with in the release of these documents is something called public interest lawyers they are dealing with allegations from iraq he's of british and u.s. forces torturing them in iraq and they say that that will certainly be a legal case to answer as a result of this well the report certainly suggests a u.s. indifference to the fate of iraq yes but we gather there is also evidence of direct

american action that's resulted in iraq he doubts is about the case laura. i need to i can hear you very well but we are we all these documents do relate to the united states just because of the source that they come from they all relate to u.s. military action and there certainly is evidence of unlawful death that that it seems that the public interest law is all going to take forward there is little less evidence of british involvement in life they just because of the filth that these documents but my colleague melissa leo went recently to fill lucho which was the subject of a future military action in two thousand and four and she filed this report about the plight of ordinary iraqis. has been so out signed fighting for the board 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 see. 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 when fallujah all contaminated sometimes i can hardly breathe. iraq is littered with buildings like that but 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 burnt and reports show that after the eight month standoff higher rates of cancer leukemia and infant mortality were found here and in hiroshima and nagasaki after the atom bomb drop in

world war two we found that the infant mortality rates compared with egypt and. jordan were about four or five times. and about ten times the country who with us but. 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 that the american combat operations caused environmental pollution both the u.s. 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. or r.t. iraq. in other news this day france and britain have erupted in a wave of outrage at reforms carried out in response to the economic downturn mass demonstrations are being called by trade unions in the u.k. which is facing the most severe spending cuts since world war two in france huge nationwide strikes are set to rage on after the summit approved a controversial two year rise in the country's tarmon h r t is covering us out of a 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 same. one who don't know we're out here showing our dissatisfaction because personally i'm 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 but while these people fight against what they believe to be a grave injustice 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 if 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. the wall. 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. i'm sick and tired of all these strikes and protests the people who really want to work they just work unlike protesters who are interested only in demonstrations i'm personally not interested in victor isn't the only person feeling this way we called 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 goals are students to go to the. calls so we ask everybody to just to just put us into the truth of 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 say it's now time to step back and consider 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 continue to thrive gas retailers are pairs. well i examined our law is the chief economist of the financial consultancy there he says the strikes should come to an end soon as they are causing problems and

many key areas. well french businesses have been really hindered by these strikes first of all because people just aren't going to work so of course that will disrupt activity both for manufacturing companies and for services and now the main issue that we've got also are petrol shortages so that's hard for people to go to work for before people to go shopping come basically spending money and you mustn't forget that consumer expenditure is sixty percent france is g.d.p. one third of all just transport road transport is severely severely hindered by these shortages so what we're hoping for is things to die down over the next few days of people just can't afford to stay in strike for too long and you can get people who were you know on the fence they weren't sure they forward gates or for my sake they said i just want to finish with this because we know alternately that the pension system has to be reformed because it was completely unsustainable given

the demographics of france. here with our t.v. line from moscow there is plenty more ahead for you this hour including digging literally olympic construction in sochi has helped on the cover of the ruins of an ancient civilization that is sort of still in some gaps in the city's history. but first russian security forces have killed four militants in two separate shootouts in the country's north caucasus region in the republic of the two gunmen were cornered in a house during an anti terror operation held in response to recent attacks on police in neighboring in two militants were killed after they opened fire when their car was stopped for a security check point this right authorities efforts to crack down on terror over russia's north caucuses remains fall the tile on tuesday militants stormed the chechen parliament killing three people all the attackers were shot by security guards. so let's take

a look now at some other stories from around the world in brief for you suicide bombers to united nations office in western afghanistan a man drove his car packed with explosives into the gates and three others stormed the compound no un staff have been harmed by it there are no reports on whether afghan guards were injured the taliban have claimed responsibility. to call the epidemic in haiti has claimed almost two hundred lives more than two thousand others and been diagnosed with the disease while experts warn that numbers will rise before the spreads contained doctors warned that the conditions are right for call the right to strike in areas with limited access to clean water part of that's down to the ongoing the facts of january's massive earthquake which killed some three hundred thousand people. protesters in southern italy have clashed with police during demonstrations sparked by conditions at a local group which stump residents want to call for the waste deliveries to what

they say is an over. the government's blame but with the state on bad management prime minister berlusconi promised affronts the move. into the crisis pledging millions of euros in compensation i'm denying there has been any health risks to residents. strong winds and torrential rains have battered coastal areas as powerful typhoon made game made landfall in china thirty three hundred thousand people have been evacuated from low lying areas while the contras entire fishing fleet has been ordered into ports star has already killed twenty six people in the philippines and at least twelve in taiwan hundreds of rescue workers are searching for survivors and providing food to those caught off in the mountains and maggie is believed to be among the worst in fifty years to hit china. now it's such a power forward with it's a live picture preparations the massive construction works also revealing the russian city's ancient past archaeologists are hailing the discovery of an eighth century temple which has been uncovered during building work for the twenty

fourteen games parties does polaski has the story. it could be a scene from an indiana jones movie archaeologists try to sold the secrets left behind by architects. these routes in the middle. east are considered among the most prized discoveries in the area but you could. 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 walls so that the fireplace could be spread around so now will be able to put the pieces back together and see if this heating system worked. until last year the old ruins were covered by a thick layer of rubbish they were first discovered by the soviet archaeologists and in one nine hundred fifty s. and later lost again for more than happy century. till all 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 this 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. and we'd like to turn this site into an open and museum to make it accessible for cultural tourism moral way it's important there'll be inside the limbic bog which is one of the russians white old territories and it will be visited by people from all over the world. smaller findings from the olympic park like these bronze age artifacts from now on the will be on display in sochi is historical museum its personnel preparing for the most significant arrival of new items and decades that clean

washed badness to sort 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 monuments forever and i can't alphen happens elsewhere. with the limbic construction pool steam ahead we already know is there say they're doing their best to save the region's reach historical heritage. so in two thousand and thirteen which will be celebrated in sochi as the year of museums the seeding may see not only the grand opening of stadiums on strings but also newly discovered landmarks like the christian same jury in the very two old there's board ski party sochi. well as the weather starts to take a turn for the worse start his moscow out team looks at ways lots of ice can entertain themselves indoors. and don't worry it's not about what the race is.

any one where they are not with or are experts of any age or enjoy the sex if they felt they had helmets in the clothing it's all provided for you. we got. well to discover more places to enjoy the warmth don't miss moscow out in an hour's time but first let's check the weekend business with china. hello and welcome to the business program here on r.t. with me charlotte i was folly top finance officials in the world's major economies of agreed to boost the power of developing countries in the international monetary

fund at the g. twenty meeting in korea but they failed to set targets to address the tensions surrounding currency deflation the i.m.f. deal with the europeans give up to see twenty four strong board to powerful developing countries and transfer six percent of voters to the g twenty finance ministers and central government say they will also move towards more market determined exchange rates system but a u.s. proposal to set your american targets on external balances was rejected by countries such as china and south korea. ben-hur is editor in chief of business new europe says the g twenty countries all struggling to coordinate their efforts against the competing demands of ensuring their own economic growth. we are now in a very difficult part of the recovery and when the finance ministers around the world are facing into the abyss of global depression two years ago it was very easy for them to coordinate all their actions and to a large extent it's been successful in so much as we've avoided

a great depression and despite all the talk about a double dip i think most people agree that it's unlikely to happen however we're now in a very difficult stage with. some economies already emerging other economies like in america the recovery is slowing and there's a need. to protect the growth i mean that politicians are now starting to turn inwards into their own markets because of course there's a lot of unhappiness anger indeed over the economic problems and the whole currency debate is part of that there's a need to continue to coordinate and the fact that people are meeting and talking about it and agreeing in principle to me is a good sign but nevertheless. temptation for some countries like the states to weaken their currencies which will solve the problems of making that will boost growth in exports but then that's at the expense of the recovery of other countries now this week the government gave details of its five year privatization program but wait a second large that off of publicly and russian companies so the end of the soviet

union and reports. the biggest privatized 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 sort of change the investment to people of these assets to attract private investors and if you 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 in the country's biggest lenders burbank and in the national airline and afloat the finance minister believes investor dimanche will exceed supply but analysts are

more cautious on. logic companies the company perhaps. being traded on the market such as. crossed after. concerning other companies i'm not sure because it would very much depend on investors which in turn would depend on the way the russian on 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 that most likely as a goal of my company as it can be also. there are well known names like oil companies all for these shifts there with the investors how is it seems that.

it was in the six to brown boss prove it is a sure bet that. the largest part of this placement target as it would. push 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 so this will usher in an era of greater transparency as companies become more accountable to the new. business. composite of the stock market rush at the end of the week mixed after a choppy day the country's top poll produced a poll yesterday. on fears of rising dollar. stocks this week has been affected by news of the privatization program and corporate data supporting the russian markets troika dialogs vice president

explains the main trends in markets were bought very well to. the general trend globally is that the markets are expecting the release of information and you know what if you're sitting in from the states. we saw very good results on the corporate. quarter results from the united states most companies it was eighty five percent reported two very good results well above expectations and probably the thought factor which is very important for russia is there's been no cement of new approaches or problem and the share update for this hour but you can always buy more stories on our website r.t. dot com slash business.