potential showing and economically developing economies and countries he hopes that that relation between those countries and russia will only grow and prosper if the russian president spoke at length about the importance of the asia pacific region and russia's cooperation with. the successful completion of the new asia pacific houses in the country's interest in. a constructive life i would like to note that russia is akin to this kind of cooperation especially the creation of alliances course many issues were addressed during the ac and working sessions for example the issues of natural disasters which of course this region is specifically prone to also various other issues like economic cooperation global security dealing with the aftermath of the global financial crisis all those issues were discussed to my satisfaction it seems from the a.c.l.u. region is a very attractive one primarily because it has

a lot of growing economically growing countries china of course is one of russia's main partners and is of course a part of bric brazil russia india and china says some experts say one of the strongest emerging economies in the world today and those poised to deal with the effects of the global financial crisis a lot better than the so-called economic giants like the united kingdom the united states and the european union support also its relations with vietnam go back a very long way and they do seem to be very strong ties as the russian president dmitry medvedev said in an article published in the local newspaper russia stood by the vietnamese as they fought for their independence and will continue to stand by them as they emerge a strong economy into the twenty first century into the world arena has my calling ready with a notion of found out the economic ties between moscow and noise are growing stronger by the day. in the twenty first century it might luke. the throwback to cold war times but it's not the case vietnam is more noisy

its economy growing at an increasing rate and it's looking to its old allies to help spur that alone. russian money big companies are flowing to vietnam bringing millions of dollars of investment which is a good sign of healthy relations. but the biggest venture is still ahead russia has to build vietnam's first atomic power plant it took several years for geologists and environmentalists to find the right place here in vietnam to build the country's first nuclear plant they chose the central province main charge haiti's locals call it the land of sand and so on. there is no rain here now it's raining but it's for the first time in the last few months and as a result few people live in here and that makes it an almost ideal place for a future project and the plans include eight power stations within the next two decades we think the first unit we launched by twenty twenty it will provide us

with cheap and safe energy to meet up to fifteen percent of the rise in demand local people welcome the idea of their region which is among the poorest in the country becoming vietnam's energy powerhouse communities here have traditionally been dependent on fishing and dries growing but now they sense a brighter future. for structure and give us opportunities i think one day my children could be working at this plant and for this they all work hard to get a good education and be smart it's an honor. but one long reach over the red river north of annoy vietnam the country's longest for years it symbolized a long friendship between vietnam and its strongest ally the big communist brother u.s.s.r. its vietnamese name could be translated as rising dragon and it seems the drug on its tail flying high twenty years on after the collapse of the soviet union russia

is among vietnam's closest partners review notion r.t. vietnam. and on the sidelines of that summit moscow and washington vowed to continue talks on the u.s. missile defense shield program and a new european security plan the russian foreign minister sergey lavrov met with the u.s. secretary of state hillary clinton the two also praised the successful joint drug operation in afghanistan and agreed to go on with the fight against that narcotics trade thursday russian and u.s. special forces conducted their first ever major joint operation against drug producers in the region it destroyed four labs and seized almost a ton of heroin. well still ahead for you this. on russia's new drink. as it aims to cut the country's shocking record of road but some say it's going to. go to the high ranking officials.

specialized in military equipment like this heavily on the. security hardware exhibition that's just taken place outside. first a new spy scandal has flared up between georgia and russia after reports of twenty people have been caught allegedly spying for moscow although many experts say this could be a p.r. stunt by tbilisi. has more now from georgia. what we do know about this story is that twenty people all of them georgia nationals have been arrested by georgian authorities no other details have been released in fact georgian authorities say that no information will be available and to the end of next week and they're all keeping mum about the details refusing to give out any comments whatsoever and fred we are from christian science monitor believes this is something to be this is something to pay special attention to when someone is arrested they're entitled to due process that means they can call a lawyer that family members can be contacted therefore arrests are announced and

it never happens i can't tell you how bizarre it is to hear a police spokesman say. i can neither confirm nor deny that arrests have taken place secret arrests are the hallmark of a police state and we do have to remember that the political situation in the country which has been in place for the past so year or so a lot of opposition a lot of opposition leaders and members are finding themselves under increasing pressure from the authorities a lot of them are essentially being oppressed and if we listen to one of the opposition leaders. we will find out that in fact you do not have to be a russian spy in order to be suspected by georgian authorities of spying for russia . which. i do not think these people but i know that it's quite you know to be some.

spinach move but if. business. shows to make. in fact a special report published by the u.s. state department in march says that there has been an increase in ourselves kidnappings and arrests all of them politically motivated in georgia now many experts believe that this. so it could be yet another political stunt by president saakashvili experts in russia believe that georgian authorities are just looking at their american partners and learning from them of course many of us remember the spy scandal which rose in and the united states over the past summer with many juicy details and interesting personas such as on the chapman rising in the aftermath and of course some say that we could expect something similar from this is spy scandal as well because of course the expertise there georgian authorities are simply copycats are simply copycats of the american politicians now howard that

is still or that still remains to be seen because we do have to understand that the situation the political situation offered in relationships between georgia and russia has been somewhat complicated to say the least all of it of course culminated if we could say that in the south the city of georgia war in two thousand and eight to board the support of their public upset the city and now of course we still have to wait and see what exactly happens where the spy scandal in georgia the latest by scandal in georgia is going to go from here yet remains to be seen. reporting there from the georgian capital. a comedian in america have more power than the president the majority of voters online men's magazine certainly thinks so selecting jon stewart who hosts a national daily talk show is the most influential man of the year in the u.s. . reports this saturday he'll see if his popularity translates into political

action. when if and bots get in the way of political promises. promised during the campaign change of the believe in right it wasn't change it to believe in eighteen months when the media war was over with fear and anger. and the minds of a population are attacked with misinformation there's such a lack of truth on the airwaves were being dumbed down by the news business who are americans left to trust according to a poll conducted by an online men's magazine comedian jon stewart is the most influential man in america after eleven years on the daily show how from million voters bump him up to the number one spot and i would be concerned if it was they said larry the cable guy was the most trusted man in america so i feel like. one way of earning the trust has been confronting the mainstream media we need help from the media and they're doing us dissecting the lies being spun by pundits

taking over t.v. screens in america who. are you know you can't you know you feel you know you know you know you were on the board really doing the learning. you. know. i don't know do you think it is dangerous well i wonder what the letter would have to say about that. care. in the us these days it is taking a comedian to show that the lack of trust in the media is what's causing programs ratings to crash i have privately amongst my friends and also an occasional missionary version television show. mentioned this show as being bad and you made the right choice you are leaving this place you know where you are you the last guy

out of a burning building and draw on. and you are so tough and so comedian jon stewart became the most trusted man in america he calls crap like he sees it and always uses humor humor and simpler reasons to he's just a handsome man he's just a handsome trustworthy fellow but it's far from just the ladies appreciating the humor for the first time a sitting president has appeared on stewart's show just a couple of days before the midterm election democrats this year seem to be running on. please baby one more chance. in the same poll stewart won the number one spot obama didn't even make the top twenty with tens of thousands of americans if not more headed to jon stewart's rally to restore sanity this weekend the fight for truth in media and in politicians is moving almost right into the homes of the political elite and even those stewart denies being a man of politics there is this idea out there that comedians do not have

a personal political agenda but has one i can say that we do if the comedian were to push his agenda forward the most trusted man in america would have his followers join him which should be a scary thought for all those politicians media pundits and the rest of the establishment so far be willing to earn trust with their own people especially if you're going to see new york. and i've got a website it's their feed twenty four hours a day that's all. online right now for you at the moment most of them by unpause are flocking to moscow looking for trick or treat some of the scariest night of the year to have a halloween in the capital is not just fun it's also an exquisite show that. has all the details. and below the surface where you find more than just its payments metra couple has an underground river running right through the heart of the city. waterway in picture gallery all available at all to local.

drivers here in russia are launching a campaign against the new drink driving law they claim it's too strict with even home the strings like milk pushing them over the limit but traffic police say the zero tolerance approach is in fact effective as you found out. operation in the break the driver is in full swing it's the latest attempt to combat russia's drink driving problem one of the worst in the world these offices are equipped with brand new breathalyzers and all because zero tolerance law that allows no alcohol at all and to drive a system. instead of risking more people we're actually seeing a drop people are deterred by the new laws. indeed the several dozen draws stopped

by the police and this night all test clean authorities say that the combination of tougher legislation and more in terms of policing is having the desired effect not everybody agrees drivers' associations have been up in arms they say statistics show the drink driving has been on the wane in recent years regardless of legislation and they claim the new laws are unworkable and discriminatory drinking a small amount of alcohol has no impact on driving wire licenses being confiscated from those whose ability to drive isn't impaired. it's the same question current through their sergei dieudonne is asking so for our benefit sergei tries a government sanctioned breathalyzer. after a cup of tea he takes the test again now he's over the legal limit. i got one of these government sanctioned breathalyzers for my birthday last year when the legislation was introduced i tried it and was surprised to discover alcohol content

can be triggered not just by drinking small amounts of beer but by bread spicy food in milk and now i'm starting a campaign against islam because i am not a criminal with sergei is still driving and hoping his coronary experiences won't cost him his license while the police hope that the number of drink driving related their fall from the two thousand record last year whatever it takes you go around the party moscow. time now for a brief update on some international headlines yemeni authorities have arrested a woman suspected of sending explosive parcels to u.s. synagogues bombs were found on u.s. bound planes in the u.k. and by officials in yemen of also seized over twenty suspicious passengers fingers are pointing towards the country's active al qaeda branch well last year it attempted to blow up a detroit bound airliner. so the north korea holding reunions for families separated by the korean war sixty years ago hundreds of south koreans of travel to

a mountain resort in the north for three days to meet every night since on wednesday north koreans will begin similar with their southern relatives this time such meetings were held was a year ago there are no mail telephone or email exchanges between citizens across the border. an exhibition to showcase the latest arms equipment available to military and civilian security forces has taken place in the moscow region sarah ferguson along for a ride on one of the new super vehicles at the front line of the war on terror. politics. has a fourteen inch knife. so that means the provision estates akira say the life demonstrations going on today at the moment we call the honor guards a putting the ceremony and throughout the day they gave me all these tests among some high ranking officials just the russian forces a capable of this is a three day event and it combines full connected specialized exhibitions one with the international exhibition at police and defense technologies another is the

international specialized exhibition of technical systems and facilities the buddhist service and specialized international exhibition at the medical equipment and technologies in that area is one of the largest offenses kind in russian is a very unique event with support from the russian government that's the only exhibition in russia that demonstrates in the way it does the technical capabilities the base the full says and the equipment he had a demonstration by the russian and terran n.s.a. pleasurable the combat operation and you can see now that the landing that i have on sat and especially the so-called it will be going in and taking this building here by the stove as well as a high ranking officials this gives all the participants of the exhibition a chance to get up close and personal to some of the specialized military equipment like this heavily armored vehicle. taking live they could easily carry up to ten sodas at a time and you can see that it really does provide

a unique opportunity took the disciplines a big submission to see exactly how these vehicles work in combat situation. reporting that the us overestimates the threat of terrorism and therefore squandered billions of dollars on going to trial for asians abroad such as antiwar activist blogger and author tom and his interview is coming our way for sure in a few moments here on stay with us.

sir thank you for sitting down with us today good to be here but let's just start off by taking a look at the extent of the u.s. military presence throughout the world right now it's global i mean that's the first thing you can say the pentagon is a little hard to tell in detail the pentagon usually at mit's to about yearly to about eight hundred military bases or sites from macro to micro but in their count they don't include anything in a war zone and tom dispatch you know we've done some reporting for instance on the afghan war at the present afghan war zone where we have upwards of four hundred bases again from tiny combat outposts to enormous basically american towns with boardwalks with fast food joints and whatever that we just built more or

less from scratch it's an awful lot it's an imperial presence of a kind i don't think we've ever seen in history and it's particularly strange because the basis. is it traditionally bases more or less where the way you kept companies but for us the bases are actually the thing when you say global it's a frightening word it sounds like every single country throughout just globe has some form of military presence from the united states that i can't swear that it's every city probably isn't every single country but a striking number of countries if you think if you take this another way and you think to yourself. the u.s. military now has a kind of secret military inside it and those are the special operations forces which have been incredibly peeved up and taken over certain activities that once were more cia type activities in the bush and now obama period those special operations forces and there are thirteen thousand of them according to the

washington post stationed outside the united states their station now in seventy five countries there are only one hundred ninety two countries in the u.s. i think that's the latest figure so you're talking about somewhere upwards of forty percent just for special operations forces you know it's very interesting that to draw that dividing line between declared war is an undeclared wars which you raise this point in your work often most americans are aware of declared wars with iraq but afghanistan over the last several years what about the un declared boys how come nobody really talks about that the war's skirmishes whatever you know it's hard to know in this country what people know i mean i mean even the wars the afghan war for instance has disappeared more or less disappeared for years at a time from i think from the media public consciousness you know it's hard to say what the u.s. media you could always find something i mean there's something there that is that is it's not there's ever no coverage but you have to be

a news jockey like me you have to be reading the inside pages of the papers the war in the pakistani border line and americans obviously know very little about that i mean we are proud of our drones and so we're caught always between calling it a cover. war and actually. had actually bragging about it and americans are remarkably detached from the wars that being are being fought in their names and the various other military positions and so on and so forth on the globe it's one of the things that i focus on as it is just the degree to which we are doing things that americans could know about basically don't and i have to ask you do you feel like the media and the military are sort of sleeping in the same bed at this point there's a history with the military of a post vietnam history of trying to put journalists in bed with it when you are embedded with the military there's an element of stockholm syndrome there just has to be with it and you tend to if you're out with american troops in afghanistan you

are in the end i mean your life is at stake you are at the end going to a dead a fight with american troops let me ask you this you spent years the ciphering the sort of the military's agent of the us foreign policy when when when should that line be drawn between you know reasonable national defense and really kind of paranoid extension of that line ever drawn any more no but basically it basically is no longer drawn and so what you really get this you get american treasure who are into by the multi-billions into you know into into remarkably strange wars approach i've long been convinced that if osama bin laden you know had a dream for him in a nightmare for us it was to involve us in in inconclusive wars in distant lands would cost us a fortune there's a kind of intelligence national security bureaucracy that's fed in this country fear and americans are irrationally scared since two thousand and one the number of americans who have been killed by terrorist actions it's

a bull shark attacks below everything else dangerous in our world and yet the fear level is so remarkably high and everything is justified upon us those lines are drawn. and we don't think seriously about what our national interest is and we're paying for it now you've mentioned money and apparently the pentagon is going to be able to enjoy as much as seven hundred twenty six billion dollars next year or something along those nice debts and i have to ask you i mean it might seem a sort of a naive question but it has to be asked couldn't this money be put to better use and especially now in this economy of course you know commanders in afghanistan can walk into a village they have they have a fund so they can find an afghan village elder if they want to do a hearts and minds' sort of thing they can see that the infrastructure is weak that they have canals or filled in or whatever they can just pay money to people to start digging out those canals you can't do that in the united states we're a can do nation here we can't build anything we just we just decided not to build

a tunnel between new jersey and new york city where i live because it was too expensive but we can spend billions building these bases very efficiently if they are extraordinary in a way can do x. these huge bases in afghanistan or iraq or wherever else i think it's quite startling actually and. the cost of civilians on the ground civilian lives we have piled up many towers in response to the towers that went down to two thousand tree three we have piled up many towers of dead they don't have memorials nobody thinks about them i mean except obviously their families and their countries we don't know the numbers in iraq or afghanistan but they are they are startling numbers not only has the idea of peace gone just on the idea really of diplomacy in the normal sense as opposed to a militarized kind of diplomacy but the very idea of victory the most basic thing to military culture is going on in one of your latest articles you ask this

question how old will you be when the american envoy stary state goes down and you often bring up this point of a terror of an internal state of war you know is that essentially americans do. yes denise and one more i'm starting out i actually think not this can only go on so long all things of course must end but in the american case you know we cannot simply continue fighting trillion dollars to three whatever it might be a trillion dollar wars at infinite my this country simply can't afford it and washington thinks that we're in a slow long manageable to climb i think this country like the soviet union in an earlier period it's in decline now most this is what americans know asked the question is this country in decline sixty five percent of americans the most recent poll say yes we are in a state of decline americans feel this washington doesn't fully feel this yet.

this is our. top stories now that the russian president is in vietnam meeting with leaders of the region that's poised to become a major plan. is already in a deal to build a nuclear power plant in the southeast asian country. and there's another spy scandal brewing with reports of georgian authorities arresting twenty nationals who are said to be russian agents officials won't confirm or deny the reports that promise a statement in the coming. one american politicians are fighting to win people's trust there is a comedian who's managed to gain. national daily talk show the most influential

man of the year. for you in less than fifty minutes from now in the meantime preparing for friday. he's taking on a tour of haunted moscow looking for creative ways to celebrate halloween here in the russian capital that's next on. listen this weekend thousands of people would dress up as witches all ghouls and celebrate halloween.