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 house is in the country's interest in came a constructive life i would like to note that russia is akin to this kind of cooperation especially the creation of alliances of 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 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 in those boys 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 split 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 as my calling body is the notion of found out the economic ties between moscow and how we are growing stronger by the day. in the twenty first century it might look like a throwback to cool. but it's not. the case the economics more noisy its economy

growing at an increasing rate and it's looking to his 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 georgeson environmentalist to find the right place here in vietnam to build the country's first nuclear plant they turned the central province 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 a 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 rising 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 the sense of brighter future. infrastructure 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 riven ocean 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 to praise the successful joint operation in afghanistan and agreed to go. on thursday the russian and u.s. special forces conducted their first joint operation against produces in the region destroyed for almost a ton of. this. new drink driving ban is getting tough as. some say it's going too far plus. the high ranking officials.

will have more from the state security hardware exhibition that's just taken place outside moscow. a story still to come but first a new spy scandal has flared up between georgia and russia are off to reports that twenty people have been caught allegedly spying for moscow with many experts say this could be a p.r. stunt but 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 till 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 the secret arrests are the hallmarks 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 say 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 if we listen to one of the opposition leaders that. 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 may be there but if. you judge it. 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 our soldiers kidnappings and arrests all of them politically motivated in georgia now many experts believe that this old. so 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 why 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 often in relationships between georgia and russia has been somewhat complicated to say the least all of it of course culminated if you could say that in the south the city of georgia war in two thousand and eight. and up. 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 from the georgian capital. could a comedian in america have more power than the president of the. men's magazines. and national daily talk show as the most influential man of the year in the u.s. and. in the reports this saturday we'll see if his popularity translates into political action. when if an bots get in the way of political promises

were promised during the campaign change you're going believe in right it wasn't change you can believe in 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 are 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 four million voters bumped 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 please no no no you tell me you were on the board early is doing the lying there you. know. i don't know do you think it is dangerous well i wonder what the letter would have to say about that. in the u.s. 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 newspapers and 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're the last guy out of a burning building draw on. and you are so up 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 stewards denies being a man of politics there is this idea out there that comedians do not have

a personal political agenda but it 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 the scary thought for all those politicians media pundits and the rest of the establishment so far feeling to earn trust with their own people especially if you're going to see who your. don't forget our web sites there for twenty four hours a day dot com online right now at the moment small still sometimes flocking to moscow to be paid trips will treat some of the scariest not appear in the capital is not just fun it's also an exquisite show. has all the details we. will see. more than just its famous metro the capital has its own underground river right through the heart of the city set sail on the ancient waterway in a picture post on those beaches in front of.

drivers in russia launching a campaign against the new drink driving or they claim it's too strict with even harmless drinks like tea or milk pushing them over the limit but traffic police say the zero tolerance approach is in fact effective as. i operate 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 an all girls zero tolerance law that allows no alcohol at all and the driver system. people were actually seen a drop people are deterred by the new laws. indeed the several dozen drivers

stopped by the police and this night all test clean authorities say that the combination of tough 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 licensing is being confiscated from those whose ability to drive isn't impaired. it's the same question current through their surrogate dieudonne is asking. for our benefit surrogate 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 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 over on the. moscow time now for a brief update on some international headlines this hour yemeni authorities say the woman suspected of sending explosive parcels to u.s. synagogues bombs were found on u.s. bound planes in the u.k. and to by officials in yemen have also seized over twenty suspicious passenger fingers are pointing towards the country's active al qaeda branch last year tempted to blow up a detroit bound airliner. north korea are holding reunions for families separated by the korean war sixty years ago hundreds of south koreans of travel to

a resort in the north three days to meet their relatives on wednesday north koreans will begin similar reunions with their southern relatives the last time such meetings were held was a year ago mail telephone or e-mail exchanges between citizens across the border. exhibition to showcase the latest arms equipment available to military civilian security forces has taken place in the moscow region and sarah ferguson all 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 already so that means a provision of states akira say the live devastation is going to hit the moment we've got the honor guards a putting this ceremony and throughout the day they gave me all these ten months of my back the officials just the russian forces are 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 border service and specialized international exhibition at the medical equipment and technologies in that area is one of the largest offensive it's 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 full says and the equipment he had a demonstration by the russian and terran n.s.a. a special report the combat operation and you can see now that the landing that i have also and especially the so positively going at it taking this building here by its toll as well as the high ranking officials this gives all of 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. take it live they could easily carry up to ten soldiers at a time and you can see that it really does provide

a unique opportunity took the disciplines a bit submission to see exactly how these vehicles work in combat situation. so reporting that the us overestimates the threat of terrorism and therefore squandered billions of dollars on military operations abroad so says antiwar activist blogger and author tom engelhardt in his interviews coming your way in just a few moments here. sir

thank you for sitting down with us today good to be here i'd like to 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 a year early to about eight hundred military bases or sites for macro to micro but in their count they don't include anything in a war zone and that 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 a normal 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 bases traditionally bases more or less where the way you kept companies but for us 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 so i know it's very interesting that you draw that dividing line between declared war as 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 can always find something i mean there's something there and it is there 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 cool. but always between calling it a covert war and actually. that 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 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 sort of the military's agent of the u.s. foreign policy when when when should that line be drawn between you know reasonable national defense and really kind of paranoid extensionality is 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 and 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 boat shark attacks below anything else dangerous in our world and yet the fear level is so remarkably high and everything is justified. 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 that's 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 field 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't 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're 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 gotten 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 a military culture is gone in one of your latest articles you ask this question how

old will you be when the american envoy stared state goes down as you often bring up this point of a terror of an internal state of war you know is that. sensually america's destiny ended one war and started 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 thousand effort might be trillion dollar wars add in for knighted by this country simply can't afford it and washington thinks that we're in a slow long manageable decline i think this country like the soviet union in an earlier period it's in decline now almost this is what americans know they 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.

looked forward to be held down say. the pain and suffering will never be forgotten. as well as the joy of nomination. year a spring of nineteen forty five on our. more news today violence is once again flared up. these are the images and seeing from the streets of canada after. giant corporations rule the day.

live from moscow. twenty four hours a day top stories now. russian president. meeting with leaders of the region that's poised to become a major world play. into a deal to build a nuclear plant in the southeast asian country. with reports of georgian authorities arrested twenty nationals who are said to be russian agents officials won't confirm or deny the report but promised a statement in the coming days. and while american politicians a. host of national

daily talk show is the most influential man of the year in the. us will be with you as the news continues in the. in the meantime we follow a quest for the truth undertaken by the parents of a u.s. soldier whose death was blamed on drug abuse but turned out to be caused by a medicine prescribed by his superiors that's a special report next on a. long time. what was it like being on the base.