it's team weather conditions playing that praise to the rescue mission to free the team. on the ice of. cashing in on conflicts although more than one half of americans are against the country's war there are fears the plan cuts the pentagon one go ahead big business gets its way. and pension of poverty the traditional image of a happy retirement in the u.k.

is shattered by a report which says the elderly suffering financially more than any other group. this is from moscow welcome to the program trapped by ice for almost two weeks now a refrigerator a vessel stuck in frozen waters off russia's far east is being towed by a pair of ice breakers several other ships have been rescued from the same situation over the last few days. in just one moment with over three hundred crew as the last to be freed. has the latest. two icebreakers still working hard to free these remaining two ships but it has been incredibly tough. i think because it is not the macro not to say the smallest at the remaining t.v.'s those

are the refrigerator said and they bought a ticket that trying not to get it too was the thin ice area but it's been tough going they've had to bow to this incredibly thick ice and the plan is to bed it was safe to the eight woods agave back and get the launch of the ship which is the supply vessel that is so that was going to be much trickier to get out of the ice they going to really need to combine the efforts of base is the middle of a press conference today we had the federal fishing agency saying that there really is a lot of complications with this they're trying to come up with different maneuvers for the ice break his teammates effectively break through the size muesli heard that they were possibly thinking of dispatching a helicopter to try and help with the navigation of it in the tough conditions that we see on the full visibility that has to be fulfilled at the maybe we can hear more from that press conference no. the ships will show you clips together to ruggieri rufino you see for another thirty five miles. because we return to the

point ship. now these tough weather conditions we see really affecting this whole operation i remember it's been twelve days now but the original three ships couldn't so that rescue we then saw the two ice breakers make out in and out no macros dispatched to help them and earlier last week another couple of ships getting stuck in the ice and then had to be helped so they've managed to free up three of them as we said the towing the full and they're planning to go back for the fifth officials are saying that hatefully the one that's being told at the name of the refrigerator vessel should get to center ice and. possibly some more ice at some point some more and. be able to pay back the largest supply ship that we've also heard that that's going to be made. some problems with refusing these icebreakers so is no certain exactly what's going to happen with that yet of course the crippled the supply ship that eva three hundred three months we should

desperately get out to be freed of the i thought that's all they did but as he said the weather conditions at the even make it very hard to give an accurate estimate as one of the freed up. so you start with the latest developments of this maritime rescue operation. well the u.s. plans to spend seven hundred twenty five billion dollars on its military this year that's the world's largest ever defense budget now while the pentagon plans to trim its spending over the next five years many say that will be jeopardized by the interests of big business and such of lucrative military contracts lauren list investigates. 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 us committed to staying the course they're all trying to build if for the warre energy motives and profit motives and strategic motives and

if you're wondering why some in the us just might not want to see the war and ever here are 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 someone runs on by the military industrial complex it was fifty years ago than us president eisenhower said those now famous words let's look at though were 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 in some 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 they. sincerity use them lawmakers cast the votes that ensure a military contractor such as lockheed martin gets two hundred sixty dollars from each household a year according to hart 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 factory in your district those who agree with part time 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 who'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 put a 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 looks to some like resources are going in a different direction you can drive along 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 the. road you see the people who are displaced are actually living in tents without heaters and without blankets out 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. still to come for you in the program here on our going viral on the internet quite literally team of russian scientists invent a powerful online microscope that lets researchers zoom in on all new strands of viruses and microbes but they can do it from anywhere in the world. to the u.k. now where pensioners are going bankrupt faster than any other group in the country and insolvency service report indicates that over the past decade the number of

elderly with growing debts and reduced income has risen at least six fold and it's artie's lower and it has been finding out that leave them struggling just to afford the basics. 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 of us she wasn't able to push away a lot of money for her retirement and what she does have is now owning so little interest in the bank that she regularly has to spend the capital that money is going if you know that.

to try and make out the money that come in that because nothing has gone back in again and it's getting. in the end i would have to fill that. 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 in all costs. clee the. state. is quickly. going to have to borrow. 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. canton 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 were at it oh it's the. mean time trends for costa gerald celente believes that the social unrest where you so are in many european countries spending cuts tax rises is the beginning of a global revolution that full interview is coming your way in about an hour's time but here's a quick look. look what's going on in europe the people of woken up what they call a stereotype measures this is what austerity measure is you know that degree you have in worthlessness that you went to college for you can't get a job oh and by the way those services you're getting we're cutting that oh and those pensions and benefits that your parents are getting or other people who are working we're going to cut those to zero and one more thing we're going to raise

you tax cuts you know that education that's not worth anything it's going to cost you three times as much to get one particularly in england and that's why they're taking to the streets so that's why we have on one end it's the wake up call and the other one it's screw the people but the people realize what's going on you're going to see a revolution worldwide the youth of the world have particularly the united states now in terms of debt to climb no way to the top they're seeing the too big to fail bailed out they're seeing the gap between the rich and the poor the widest in the united states of any of the realized ships so now they have a corner because it's seeing them so what we saw in the. with oil field here in hades what we saw in italy with the students taking to the streets you're going to see in spain you're going to see in ireland you already

sore in france figure it out. when it's nearly quarter past seven on this monday evening here in moscow. now let's take a look at some other major headlines from around the world this hour and at the bar . has declared a permanent ceasefire but spain's deputy prime minister has rejected the announcement describing it as nothing new saying it didn't go far enough. in two thousand and six when it planted a bomb killing two people it's often violent campaign for independence from madrid has claimed more than eight hundred lives. and four people have been killed as flash floods ripped through the northeastern australia. town in queensland washing away cars and trapping people on roofs there are more weather warnings for the stricken state which is taking a pounding from heavy rain and overflowing rivers an estimated four thousand people

have been evacuated from their homes. and. investigation into the boeing plane crash that killed seventy seven in the northwest of the country. with one hundred four passengers on board failed to land at the sydney. was due to poor visibility it was circling for another attempt when it disappeared from radar there have been at least five major crashes in iran since two thousand and five u.s. sanctions have been blamed for making it hard to maintain the country's aviation industry. and trading has been suspended at the main stock exchange in bangladesh after thousands of investors rioted over a market plunge police were deployed to contain the situation to disperse the crowds. stock market has been volatile over the past few weeks with many people losing their life savings many of the demonstrators voiced concerns that the market failures were engineered by the government. well there's

a growing tendency in western countries to consider the muslims in the context of terror but to what extent is that a misinterpretation and what could muslims. to change global public opinion about their religion later cross talk guests get fired up over the perceptions of islam in the modern world is a teaser of what's ahead for you in about fifteen minutes time. the underlying foundation of islam is to take all sides the world. muslims you know has to believe in islam as an illusion and as a state what stands out i'm not i love to live and that's the american constitution they are here to eventually go to plays that i made it down constitution with islamic sharia because no one is allowed to live and that. this is what mohammad said well thought well that is that is that all of that is

contrary to the reality of a person like me who is an eighth generation american whose parents are christian whose associates and friends and loved ones in many ways in many cases are christian no one has ever told me in any religious context that i've been in that the purpose of my life was to somehow overturn constitutional law and replace it with sharia that simply isn't true and nor is it true in agreement on radio you know your place is in the muslim world in which muslims are way way way in which muslims or either a majority or a minority so i think you're simply taking a nap sprinkler. and trying and you're right in your trying to universalize it in a way that's not true. you. want. and

across those coming your way in about fifteen minutes time now many would agree that sharing videos and pictures online is old news but sharing your micro bacterial catch of the day on the web is something different altogether russian scientists have developed a microscope system that lets their colleagues from around the world to zoom in and view the tiniest bacteria over the net in real time these top bottom brings us this close up shot. but 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 via the web to see the minute structure of that virus within minutes it's a question that concerns the scientists and engineers in moscow we should know all about the why of all particles in the cave we were given all the knowledge about the viral particle if it were possible for off. to develop in your way.

we sure will defeat of the virus. 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 that the benefits of being able to scan images via the internet are becoming ever clearer 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. it takes only one microscope and each student can work at that competed and at the same time observe all the processes going on in real time a lot of course it's not all seen through rose tinted lens so making something this precise requires top quality components and laser accurate engineering coming out

today for thirty thousand dollars apiece and the team's efforts to keep the cost of the microscope down and get it sold a regular frustration of russia's bloated bureaucracy. and if so difficult for last thing with part time to buy that power project to another country or a theory that if they are part of that i still hope. other ones labs can start cooperating in how they see the world of 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. all right now time for the business news with dmitri.

welcome to the program you're watching business twenty eleven may become a revolutionary year for russia's finances the ambition 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 as excited to explains. at the start of last year russia was the owner of thirty five hundred seventeen federal state units for enterprises and a shareholder of twenty nine hundred fifty joint stock. 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 just stakes in ten largest firms the expected proceeds from the sale of meat 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 garments our ownership 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 in state land v.t. b. which the government hopes to complete by early two thousand and eleven among the other companies being mooted for the position our russian railways is 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 does stands the need to be flexible and wish them with a beautiful we can go further and sell the controlling station so in the majority of companies we can lower the state's share to twenty five percent plus one this flexibility will be key to winning investors given the amount of deals expected also russia and also within russia this year which will make for other tough competition the privatization programs which are going to be implemented in poland

in turkey china is one of the biggest insurers in 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 the submissions privatisation one thing is for certain the desire to make it happen. given good business our city. look at the markets now european stock markets are down the banking sector is coming under pressure as sovereign debt concerns spotlight is yet another european economy this time it's portugal that may be needing a bailout in london the footsie is down well almost half a percent will join british petroleum is slipping after a leak at the trans alaska pipeline forced to virtually shut down production at its biggest field in north america frankfurt's dax is down one point two percent with shares in commerce bank down three point three and deutsche bank down one point

seven percent u.s. stocks are pretty much following the same pattern therefore laying as europe's debt troubles are coming back into play for every stock rising there nearly two for laying this out of the dow nasdaq are dropping point six percent. meanwhile traders in russia have been on a holiday and will only start working on choose stay the past year was a game of two hobs for the russian markets the head of strategy at u.b.s. in moscow explains how investor attitudes have changed to thousands and turned 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 so we capitalization of european banks in the second half the situation started getting bad with. certain areas like investment growth and translated in russia be forming quite significantly the rest of the

world meaning emerging market universe. the south stream gas pipeline project aimed at strengthening european energy security is on track and it should be on line by twenty fifteen south stream will open a new routes to southern e.u. markets for russian gas across the black sea in addition to the current routes for you crave the head of south stream has been giving business out to get updates on progress we are working on the. feasibility studies now in various places along the approach the feasibility study of sure is very far ahead is in many respects already completed then our decision visit to study is on shore and the other important steps that we are on the taking right now is of course working on the shareholder remains we have to make sure that all the shareholders agree on how to structure the project commercially and financially we're having discussions no also with the european commission our main point in

these discussions is of course the commission and you should make sure that this project has the same opportunity and is not in any way disadvantaged as potential other projects. gold was a clear medal winner and twenty two and beating all records delivering a thirty percent return for investors russia has the world's second largest reserves and its ranks fifth in terms of production and that gives russia minus some of the best growth profiles in the industry as it gets sort of from deutsche bank russia told r.t. . but. i think some of the bush along kind of the ball price will increase because i might be used not only as safe michael but also in the industrial production for logic stuff and the safe with the

used for more in the industrial production it will generate the investor of the month or this model. has a lot of for input from the long term pros of the problem is a piece of the company will make it. then it will spark new must be with us for the stock. well next see the headlines after this very short break.