it.

all.

the rescue operation continues to free the remaining. case but the price. the condition of. u.s. firms cashing in on conflict more than half of americans oppose their country's wars we have why and would deal a blow to business for some corporate giants. the bleak future facing britain's

elderly let me come to you to retire as pensions and interest rates for them to keep up with the rising cost of living. on air and online twenty four hours a day this is r.t. . two russian ice breaking ships have started a scorching a refrigerator vessel which has been stranded in frozen waters off russia's far east for almost two weeks because among several vessels that became trapped in the ice now leaves a supply ship with more than three hundred crew stuck on board and the next to be freed. is across the latest developments and joins us now with. the icebreaker ships any closer to getting the vessel into clearer waters. well we've just.

been holding a press conference. and we know that the progress really is being hunted. since the early hours of the morning break. and the being working to take. most of the remaining t.v. the refrigerator vestal towards the rise we know that they are having some problems getting through this incredibly thick ice and what we've heard from the federal agency press conference is that while they're out here trying it's a two ice breakers again to try and change that position slightly to find another way of trying to break up this i say progress but we can hear from the press conference some of the latest information. the ships will soon close together. for another thirty five miles. ten to twelve hours very difficult to make any. break his will return to the supply ship.

so he has to go that supply ship waiting for the ice breaker to get the smaller vessel to safety and then to come back and free them up as well the eva three hundred three. now we know the crew is safe they've got plenty of awards to supply so they have an incredibly long time twelve days just to recap what happened there with the three vessels originally the who held on december thirtieth then later earlier last week we had a couple motions get stuck in the ice so the ice breakers to be working to free them up they managed to free three of them and that towing the one now and then they'll have to gave back the fifth one but it's progress really being slowed down by the extreme weather conditions that we've seen out here since been a long operation as you say sara do we know how long it would actually take the ice breakers to finally get vessels out of that icy trap and to safety. but it's really

hard to say i mean it's true that these are the final stages of the rescue operation the entire process has been extremely painstaking they've had to break free this incredibly because they've been working very tough condition. this is a condom bay where these vessels have been. at that being a very dangerous marine area anyway very clear the areas we know we've had some reports that there are going to be helicopters looking over the area to try and get the lay of that i just how bad the situation is that we know that at the may move with the excuse me. the go both went back to the area was unusual and has resulted in these vessels being shot as some official says that the possibly it will be tomorrow that these ships could get freed up we know that there's going to be further updates. and so they're really they're going to be looking to these

weather conditions hoping that they'll eat up a bit and they. can find a way of maneuvering through this incredibly thick ice and bringing up these. twelve they. keep us updated sara for reporting that thank you for that. still to come about how the world has just gotten my two sons are still powerful microscopes and i'm specialist one point to probe into the tiniest. seven hundred twenty five billion dollars that's how much the u.s. plans to spend on its very attractive. it's the world's largest ever defense budget comes amid the economy and burgeoning national debt the pentagon says it's cutting its cloth and for next five years but with all of this to reports that's going to be difficult when there's an entire industry even going on was to continue. when it

comes to the afghan war well over half of americans oppose it and after a year of record casualties and having plowed in over three hundred sixty six billion dollars why is the u.s. committed to staying the course they're all trying for the war in energy motives and profit motives in st. egypt motives and if you're wondering why some in the u.s. just might not want to see the war and ever hear of three reasons thirty six billion twenty five billion twenty three point five billion those are roughly the dollar amounts the top three american defense companies were handed in government contracts in two thousand and eight a president once warned about this industry we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence whether sought all runs on by the military industrial complex it was fifty years ago that us president eisenhower said those now famous words let's look at the where u.s. defense spending has gone since then it's skyrocketed from just around five hundred

billion during the vietnam war to more than seven hundred billion dollars now during the post nine eleven wars and some argue that escalation is tied to exactly what eisenhower was warning about but there's a whole range of business that just you know lives off fighting wars and i think it's you know particularly the arms companies because they have representation every state and district in the country in many cases they have a congress on their side here to build the weapons or if necessary to use them lawmakers cast the votes that ensure a military contractors such as lockheed martin gets two hundred sixty dollars from each household a year according to heart on three search making it the single largest recipient of taxpayer dollars meanwhile companies like lockheed dole out millions in political contributions and for lobbying each year and promise to deliver politicians not just weapons but jobs sometimes they will even say you know if you vote with us

we'll put a sector in your district to those who agree with hartung say the defense dollars are sure to keep coming for contractors as long as the influence continues and as long as the empire continues to expand you're suggesting then a permanent u.s. presence in afghanistan something which you consider we have bases. all over the world when you think strategically you may wonder if the u.s. really wants to end the war or ever leave afghanistan in a stand it's next to the middle east and it's next to russia and it's next to china it's a wonderful place to have bases and weapons and nuclear weapons it's a place where they very much want to look at natural gas pipeline looking at recent history our combat mission is ending but our commitment to iraq's future is not what does it mean to say a war the united states would like to end the iraq war by keeping the military bases there keeping fifty thousand troops there keeping enough control of the economy so that if the iraqis do anything at all that the united states and its

investors don't like we can immediately kill another hundred thousand iraqis and while in afghanistan the u.s. is still spending billions trying to win the hearts and minds of the people it looks to some like resources are going in a different direction than tribal law and for at least a mile and a half there will be a wall and there is some kind of big american construction of ammunition depots and housing happening on the other side of that wall and on the other side of that road you see the people who are displaced are actually living in tents without heaters and without blankets not through a cold winter afghans left out in the cold while the u.s. government and corporations appear to capitalize on a war that looks here to stay lauren lyster r.t. new york. a top ranking u.s. officer is openly voicing concerns over the professional conduct of the country's own forces in afghanistan. and says it's been severely challenge to nine years of

war and these reviewing these are going to contribute to the amateurish personnel undermining american defense policy board. and the national defense university which is the top military madrasi in the united states and. michael mullen who is the joint chief of staff chairman conducts the soul searching jam session for the military profession the top objective is to spill the guts been the military community from the outset the admiral has made it perfectly clear that couple of subjects we'll be off the table without any benefit of the doubt the first of them is the behavior of some lose cannons and the strikers brigade in kandahar because couple of those road warriors so gold sculpture hunters

not only have discredited a large part of the image of the u.s. military abroad and specifically in afghanistan but by their thing from afghan civilians they undermine the u.s. state department democratic finger pointing to the other contraries abroad thus on demining the whole least dick and integrated us foreign policy. to britain where pension is going bankrupt faster than any other group in the country u.k. insolvency service findings highlights how seriously those investing five are struggling to keep their homes running this costs rise as a team store and its reports amongst the people's budgets have already been cut to the bat. retirement depicted as a golden age where older people get more time to enjoy their families and hopis there's a new survey shows a different side of old age in britain

a worrying picture of a country where more and more elderly people can't afford to retire pensioner lydia portsmouth will say how much money she gets from the state but she's forced to dip into her limited savings to pay her monthly bills like many others she wasn't able to push away a lot of money for her retirement and what she does have is now earning so little interest in the bank that she regularly has to spend the capital that money. going . to try and make out the money that come in that because nothing back in again. lydia is one of the lucky ones she owns her own home and has a small amount of savings but data from the office for national statistics shows more than half of single pensioners in the u.k.

live on the equivalent of less than forty five dollars a day with nearly a quarter of a million getting by on hoth that the consumer credit counseling service helps people to repay debt when they get into trouble they're seeing an increasing number of older people with huge credit card debts and no way to repay them and they say life's only going to get more difficult they're going to get worse and all costs. clean the. state. will go up as quickly. so that's going to be a problem it's a bleak picture for pensioners present and future rock bottom interest rates mean the elderly can no longer live off the interest from their nest eggs if they have any and interest rates may not go up for several years a new pension scheme which will oblige employers to pay into a fund for all their employees isn't due to come online till twenty twelve the

result seven out of ten people in the u.k. contant visit a traditional retirement in the future where people stop work and live off their pensions for thirty years and for every year the government raises the pension age currently sixty for women and sixty five for men it stands to save itself twenty billion dollars it's a freezing winter here in the u.k. so many pensioners will struggle to pay heating bills and it's unlikely to get any easier for older people the government plans to raise the age at which people could receive a state pension to come back to government debts and as a response to higher life expectancy but while that's all right for the rich critics say it's the poor who will suffer by being forced to work until they drop. you know rabbits see. the text our naughtier the code what lies ahead for the world in twenty seven trends for costs and gerald so the n.t. says there's one thing we can be sure of the beginning of the end of. the federal

reserve of the united states be saw the thirteen trillion dollars that they in washington lend spent in garenne tede since two thousand and nine they shuffled under the table to banks around the world twenty trillion that's with a t dollars worth of deals they gave money to the banks to chip pan the banks in south korea the banks in the netherlands to credit suisse to do a check to the banks in ireland. they gave money even to the banks in canada the federal reserve gave these no interest or extremely low interest rate loans to corporations such as general electric gave its. donal's. buddies in the hedge fund so we don't know these things are going on behind closed

doors and the only way we found out about it is because of that one time reporting requirement that came about from that dog frank bill that was supposed to bring about a new type of financial regulation and it really brought back more of the same so we don't know what schemes they're doing to prop it up but what we're saying that in twenty eleven the game is going to run out. some world news in brief now twenty two has been the attempt to killing over u.s. congresswoman counts of the democratic governor since two critically ill being felt in her. during the massacre at a supermarket in the state of arizona a gunman opened fire at the politician venters killing six and injuring a dozen others one of her aides was among the dead as well as

a nine year old district judge. one of the flight data recorders from the iran the plane which crashed in the countries on the west has been covered the bering seven to seven was on route from terror around the city of rain when it came down heavy snow and fog moving east seventy seven people died and around thirty others injured officials say the bad weather is hampering them cover the operation she's getting stuck with crashes in iran since two thousand and five with u.s. sanctions being blamed for making it hard to maintain the country's industry. there are more weather warnings for queensland and australia off the stricken state of a few of the rain for causing flash flooding in view areas town west of the state capital was deluged killing one woman who was swept away others had to cling to trees and for safety nets to make it two hundred thousand people have been affected by the

disaster at least with. just ten minutes time here naughty peter viles cross-talk guests get fired up if it would be just writings here's a taste of what's ahead. look at. me and then me what do you see nothing but a backwater mess. buel was what do you see dead meat why is that stomach what is and bob. because a lot of allies and well first of all i don't think the islamic world is wrong but i think frankly i think frankly you are you are articulating your own opinions which you are absolutely entitled to do but they don't necessarily become a generalization that everybody can follow if you say that you. can reject the prophet muhammad or reject the law that's your right to do that but don't try to impose your you know your particular view of that on more than a million people who know most of you you would probably vehemently disagree in

most cases. like world of microbiology just got a whole lot bigger thanks to the work of russian scientists they've developed a system which uses a powerful microscope to get them to clear views of the tiniest teria that scientists anywhere in the world take a look at this time bottom discovered this white christmas sheens two faces some big hurdles. imagine a terrible virus sweeping across the planet scientists racing to try and understand it then stop it then imagine a new tool enabling all those scientists by the web to see the minute structure of that virus within minutes it's a question that concerns these scientists and engineers moscow we should know all

about. all that. because it will be portable. to develop the new york. we sure will defeat of the. the device is called a scanning probe microscope and they've existed for some time in many countries but this team has zoomed in on a novel potential this professor from a university in faraway italy isn't just able to talk about the microscope online using special software he can actually control it program with him to our program can be connected to any microscope in any part of the world and it's just one click away with. the benefits of being able to scan images via the internet or becoming ever clearer now doctors can share information about newly discovered viruses or bacteria as they're scanned and it's also helping to instruct students the world over but i want to take any one microscope and each student can work and compete is

there and at the same time it's there all the process is going on in real time moot of course it's not all seen through rose tinted lens so making something is the size requires top quality components laser accurate engineering coming out of paper thirty thousand dollars a piece and the teams if it's to keep the cost of the microscope down get it sold a regular straight line. because he thought big. thing with. by that. theory of. still hope some other ones lie. construct cooperating in how they see the world the very small it could bring big changes to the worlds of medicine and science in this and other machines the team hopes to build over three hundred microscopes every year by two thousand and fifteen they want them accurate

they want them affordable and they want them into connected via the internet so the team and their customers will be watching this space very closely indeed tom watson r.t. moscow. but our stories are updated twenty four hours a day at r.t. dot com that's plenty more to gain you sound analysis there to the what's just a click away right now the nuclear superpower threat and then to go on the maintenance raid. moscow bunker with tourists how close the world came to learn from it and watch the americans of all since treating autism from paper and make the most of the ching there in this room marriages incredible stories at the party dot com and follow us on facebook and twitter. is easy.

to believe. that every moment syria brings us all the business news stated. billy graham. hello and a very warm welcome to the business news twenty eleven may become a revolutionary year for russia's finances the privatization program that starts this year promises to become the largest since the post soviet selloff in the

ninety's and it's going hand in hand with plans to make moscow an international financial hub exxon trigon cut takes up the story. at the start of last year russia was the owner of thirty five hundred seventeen federal state or enterprises and a shareholder of twenty nine hundred fifty joint stock companies if the goal is to sell off state property within the next three years goes to plan the russian government will release one hundred fourteen state enterprises and another eight hundred nine stock companies into private hands including stakes in ten largest firms the expected proceeds from the sale of make top thirty billion dollars and it's not just about the possibility to tackle budget deficit which is the government's first priority the second one is actually be crazy the governments are on the ship of the economy in previous transparency. for governance and to make it much more competitive in the first deal is the perspective sale of up to thirty

five point five percent state land d.t.b. which the government hopes to complete by early two thousand and eleven among the other companies being mooted for the position are as near to russian railways as burbank those hydro and so i've come for in most cases the gun plans to retain a controlling stake at least in the initial stage however it instead is the need to be flexible and wish them a computer which we can go further and sell the controlling stake so in the majority of companies we can lower the state share to twenty five percent plus one this flexibility will be key to winning investors given the amount of deals expected outside russia and also within russia this year which will make for other tough competition the preservation programs which are going to be implemented in poland in turkey china is one of the biggest issue as an emerging market as we all know and also let's not forget the russian private sector which pre-crisis has been issuing twenty to twenty five billion dollars worth of paper a year although many questions still have no answers regarding this some vicious

bridges ation one thing is for certain the desire to make it happen. business arcee . the past here was a game of two hobs for the russian markets the head of strategy at u.b.s. in moscow explains how investor attitudes changed. two thousand and it was very difficult here for the russian equity markets it was characterized by increased volatility that was a function of what has been happening globally like concerns about sovereign defaults concerns about recapitalization of european banks in the second half the situation started getting bad with. certain areas like investment growth and that translated in russia performing quite significantly the rest of the remaining emerging market universe let's all stream gas pipeline project aimed at strengthening european energy security is on track and should be on line by twenty

fifteen south stream will open a new route to solve an e.u. markets for russian gas across the black sea in addition to the current troop through ukraine the head of south rooms been given business r.t. an update on progress. we are working on the. feasibility studies now in various places along the approach the feasibility study off shore is very far ahead is in many respects already completed then there are defeated building two studies on shore the other important steps that we are on the taking right now is of course working. shareholder agreements we have to make sure that all the shareholders agree on how to structure the project commercially and financially we're having discussions now also with the european commission our main point in these discussions is of course to commission and you should make sure.