angeles times. is available. after weeks of antigovernment on rest of the egyptian president prepares to address the nation the cia says it expects him to step down within hours for the criticism that the u.s. is pulling the strings. the new exodus christians in iraq being driven out of their country with attacks targeting the minority group. also this hour a surprise visit by the president concerns over transport security in russia as to me personally discovers major lapses of one of the main train stations. and with some u.s. politicians famous for the bloopers they make when advising the world on democracy it seems the american people are being turned into the object of ridicule.

from our studios here in central moscow this is r t with you twenty four hours a day so the egyptian president hosni mubarak has to address the nation later tonight the cia says it expects he'll resign it's been more than two weeks since the mass uprising in the country which has been accompanied by a wave of clashes between pro and anti government protesters we're bringing these live pictures from central square where massive crowds are staying put refusing to leave until the president stands with immediate effect a professor at the u.s. naval war college michael says the money the u.s. has been pouring into the barracks corrupt regime has been with the direct aim of securing american influence in the middle east as he told me. the u.s. got. in a sense step by step it got sucked into our. approach

to the middle east where the middle east became the greater middle east including pakistan the most important focus of american foreign policy and in the case of egypt there were two dynamics at work one you had. the camp david accords and that sort of locked in a year early by another word egypt was being egypt peace with israel was being paid for every year and if you look at it that way that helps explain why the u.s. has been locked into this important financial transfer year after year after year but also egypt became something of a substitute for the loss of iran and being one of the anchor core countries in the arab world maybe the cork this was seen as a great triumph for u.s. . foreign policy and so we were almost immediately heavily invested in maintaining what we call stability. the u.s.

has been long planning to get rid of mubarak who's been against some of the american foreign policies in the mideast says the author william engdahl. mubarak's government realized that the u.s. was preparing a regime change that along the lines of the so-called color revolutions in georgia . and so forth. to the united states sometimes received in the state department sometimes at the national endowment for democracy or freedom house these are all quote unquote private and specialized training for washington and what's going on is really a major. destabilization of the u.s. ally. has been opposed to most of us policy views of. nations. over the last several years so he's become in effect a thorn in the side of washington's greater agenda since two thousand and one. well

still to come on the program this hour on r t a brain drain in the baltics. lithuania has one of the highest levels of emigrate should it be you many of the young people who i've spoken to here say they see their future employment beyond the borders of country we explore why the educated youth of lithuania is looking abroad for opportunities. germany's chancellor is quizzed over the killing of dozens of afghanistan civilians in an anti taliban strike two years ago. a story still to come on r.t. but first sectarian violence has forced iraqi christians to seek haven in the relatively calm northern region of kurdistan hundreds of thousands of the minority group fled in the years following the two thousand and three u.s. led invasion and sebastian minor reports from iraq those are continued targets of extremists. every night miriam gets ready for bed with her family but it's not her

bed it's not even her house miriam and her family are. christian iraqis who have been forced to flee from baghdad to the semi autonomous kurdish region because they become targets of extremist groups in the country in two thousand and seven miriam was hit by a bomb that was planted outside her house they lack i went out with my arms just to buy some chocolate and come back and went out and didn't see anything i just had the bomb and i fell to the ground miriam was lying in the street with her foot dangling from her leg her father i had rushed outside. i saw my daughter lying lightly groans it was a live in my my daughter was lying in the growing and people were running shouting everything was covered in dust and a shortage of glass so i picked up my daughter with her legs dangling i almost lost it i was shaking my daughter's date she's been hit by

a bomb but. luckily i had was able to get her to a doctor who could repair her leg but others have not been so lucky in october last year fifty six people were killed by militants when they attacked the our lady of salvation church in baghdad in the following weeks dozens more were killed in attacks across the country many fear that eventually christians will be driven out of iraq completely of the eight hundred thousand christians in the country before two thousand and three almost half of fled in the past month alone four thousand have moved to the comparative safety of the northern kurdish region here they can worship and live in peace but in the even their homes they've lost absolutely everything many like miriam's father and are forced to make a living cleaning toilets in bars and restaurants. i served for seven years in the military under saddam hussein i'm an iraqi christian and i don't have a square foot of land to my name why what's my crime many in the church feel that

countries in the west are responsible. americans are liars. we don't trust their reputation is terrible because everywhere they have light the us train the sunni and shia and they just watch while they kill it is impossible not to see all these murders but they don't get involved. it's the end of a long day and time for the family to go to bed everyone gets ready and eventually the lights are switched off in the darkness and uncertainty miriam and the rest of her family are left to dream about and hope for a better tomorrow sebastian meyer r t so i'm in the iraq. an urgent investigation has been launched after the russian president personally discovered major security lapses at a railway station here in moscow and came in to between inventive paid a surprise visit to one of the capital's main stations and as altie sarah firth discovered the check up has caused some major red faces. start in the passenger.

train station with extremely surprised today by the arrival of president. plans to check out the security systems at the train station we know that he was extremely displeased with what he found when he entered the station he couldn't see any police officers so in a metal detectors now he was accompanied by the heads of the federal security service and the interior ministry we know that he addressed the staff and the son of the police officer and he was actually quite angry when he was questioning that as to why exactly these measures were in place but as for the order i haven't seen a single policeman at the railway station i understand that there are c.c.t.v. cameras but still what about. their standby duty and ruwi station we've walked around the whole together with the minister but i haven't noticed a single priestman transport security has been the talk of president medvedev is

agenda since. the date of course and today carrying out these extremely serious and ensuring that the measures and now up to scratch no when he visited here is he said he spoke to they stuff and we've heard him speaking at the come in today of course the finger of a play pointing a number of authorities that he really highlighted the federal security service as really holding top responsibility and what he was saying to them is they really need to be making sure that they're doing their job not just immediately after the attack but they're putting these merged in place that will stay in place. from now on the federal security service will be responsible for coordinating security measures on transport the railways must be protected exactly the same as you must know what your officers are exactly doing at that moment they must not drink tea or walk without any purpose they must do their work. so strong was surfing present of again in the wake of the attacks we had to talking very seriously about what he

calls a sin. to failure really they need to get this up to standard now and they're going to be very serious about implementing this and if people on the job we've had in say simply be replaced by people who are we've already seen a number of high profile firings. of the chief of the federal transportation security says they can today with this highlight the major security lapses possibly further firings to can but the essential message now is that the security system needs to be tight and uncompromising and the shakers going to continue until that. reporting there from central moscow the german chancellor angela merkel is now being questioned over a strike which killed dozens of civilians and afghanistan's province almost two years ago it comes as the country's parliament voted to extend the military mission in the country by one year of two hundred forty two people were killed dozens of them civilians as a result of the strike on two fuel tankers the point taliban militants incident

sparked a political storm in germany claiming the jobs of several top military officials were for more analysis on a slow response forestall the business and government consultant joins us now from berlin christopher good to have you here on r.t. tell us the german chancellor is facing a grilling at this very moment over the strike it's proving to be quite a long questioning any any revelations so far. no there are no revelations we in fact get no news i am in constant contact until the last minute before this interview about what is going on one thing is very clear the weekly magazine der spiegel has found out that merkel in fact was lying to parliament when she promised full revelation of all facts more than one year ago and people knew that she knew in fact are the facts twenty four hours after the massacre which in fact cost one hundred thirty seven civilians their lives out of one hundred forty two people

killed just five taliban. well this sort of thing being revealed at the moment doesn't exactly help germans the german cause there in afghanistan does it we've already reported of course that the parliament has decided to extend the country's mission there in afghanistan and why is germany involved why is it is it benefiting from being involved in this conflict. you know nobody here in germany is benefiting from this. over thirty did soldiers thing is a heavy story in on the morale of the troops of course it's a heavy strain on the people of the politicians and everybody in the stories quite often we are there because of nato to put it straight there because washington ordered us to be there and that it's going to continue no matter that seventy to eighty percent of the german people are opposed to this military a good gauge but nevertheless as you say it's part of nato is obliged to be that is supporting the us but would you say despite what the population in germany thinks

is the government enthusiastically supporting the us there or reluctantly. nobody here is very enthusiastic about this war we are fighting it's a very sorry war we are killing mostly civilians there is no sign of any better future through nato in afghanistan in fact we have really losing this war we are losing the good will of the population and we have lost it in the tenth year now after two thousand and one we were able to push the taliban from power quite quickly. the vast majority of the of on people who were behind this and were happy about this event and now the taliban simply come back and if you read the new york times of two days ago the taliban in. eastern afghanistan reestablishing government . like many other governments in the nato alliance germany says it's

very necessary to be part of this campaign in afghanistan because it protects germany from the threat of terrorism it's a good point isn't it. that's a very bad point in fact because the opposite is true because we. germany is more open more of these times in the face of terrorism even inside germany and not alone in afghanistan the whole reasoning is completely wrong we are losing the good will of the afghan people and we cause hatred among muslims against germany all over the world that cannot be a happy outcome of policy. seems to me that your voice in the concerns of the majority of the german people because i understand that the parliament's decision to extend their campaign in afghanistan was met with a lot of public opposition and yet the government didn't seem to be listening to the people is that a typical trait of the democratic process there in germany. well

we have this all over nato the german resentment against this war seventy to eighty percent is even overcome by the spanish with eighty to ninety percent alike in britain against this war still the politicians are not listening and that means they must be more afraid of washington than they are of the old people and of course this is a very severe. decision to go against your own people as an elected politician and that means that our democratic structures are no longer well functioning our mass media are lying constantly about the afghan war our politicians are lying and the whole selection process even of members of parliament to be candidates for to stand for election is not democratic anymore because all these votes are open so if somebody votes for the wrong candidate his political career is finished by the top of the political party this is practice in germany

today and that is one reason why the members of parliament are voting constantly in the case of afghanistan and in other cases against the will of the people but looking ahead all this will be resolved because like other nato countries germany will be putting out its combat forces in afghanistan quite soon so. surely all the protests and the fuss will die down after that when it. yeah maybe but in fact how to say we would pull out our troops if washington orders. and we would do that no sooner and no later than that germany is not at or sovereign in this decision and what we have is a lot of empty promises so the so many preconditions for example the police and army training in afghanistan are succeeding exceedingly well this no sign that this happens and that is the precondition for withdrawal of troops so i don't see that

withdrawal with a supportive role from germany in afghanistan in the future be acceptable at all as opposed to a competent one because obviously afghanistan even according to its own government its own military needs help in the future you can't just pull out and let everything perhaps become right in such a short time yeah that's of course true as a very deplorable is that even the leftist party which was opposed to the whole war from the very first duty is not how to say setting up a. complete and very fight with the taliban discussed with the taliban exit strategy we don't have that here and in my personal case i have made it an exit strategy with the taliban and with the resistance with. i got there ok and i got nobody in the german government to listen to me and that's quite interesting nobody in nato even wanted to know about it even people why there was the election campaign going on in two thousand and eight wanted to listen to well we've been

listening to you christophe hostile thanks very much indeed for joining us live here on r.t. business and government live there in berlin thank you. us politicians don't often hold back when it comes to their views of the world but it seems they haven't always check their facts and there's artie's gonna cheat you can reports it's the american people who are becoming the butt of the joke. advising other countries on democracy seems to be a must for any u.s. politician and some of them get so carried away that they confuse what countries exactly they're talking about i also want to thank the president with the way now group of our members of congress visited with her us choose a great leader a but we also had the opportunity meet with members of the opposition many of whom have fellow countrymen residing in prison have been beaten and tortured hard.

during the same conference the former presidential candidate down one of the most influential republican senators refer to russia as the soviet union we all know that our missile defense rather modest. earmarked and. we are proceeding with it because of the threat we face from iran not from the soviet union but senator mccain's gaffes don't stop there i'm afraid that it's a very hard struggle particularly given the situation on the iraq pakistan border probably only in mccain's mind did pakistan share a border with iraq but he's not the only u.s. politician who's quick to share their expertise in world affairs without checking some facts george w. bush will not prides himself on having pushed democracy in egypt during his presidency thought africa was a nation africa's a nation has suffers from incredible disease the winner of hearts and minds of millions of americans sarah paling two thought africa was a country some two years ago but now nothing seems to stop her from handing out

advice on how to deal with egypt this is paling has further contributed to her credibility in foreign affairs when commenting on the u.s. stance with regards to north korea obviously got to stand with our north korean allies were bound to create by trees and worry about by well the paradoxes is that politicians who really know nothing about these things have to appear to know something. they have to speak out on all of these issues to be considered credible figures so sarah palin you know who could see russia from her door in her window you know is now an expert on russia or whatever else the reason why u.s. politicians feel free to make bloopers on your national issues could be that many of their audiences can't catch the inconsistences well it's very easy to manipulate people when they don't know anything so on foreign policy generally americans. indifferent they don't pay attention to world events and you can easily manipulate them cos of their public ignorance or ghastly after waging wars in iraq and

afghanistan for years figures show most americans still have difficulties finding the countries on the map giving them the money. or. if the public is not able to notice the ignorance of their politicians they won't be able to hold them accountable for their decisions something that is one of the biggest threats to democracy in america i'm going to check our reporting from washington r.t. . if wayne is experiencing a worrying brain drain with a population plummeting by more than ten percent in the last decade and the impact of the will financial crisis and make the outflow of people even more aggressive. young educated and unemployed the rhenish have it she's a twenty four year old computer science graduate she can't find work in her native build this so is headed to another country in search of a job she's one of the lucky ones she'll be reunited with her mother and father who

have already made the switch i have finished university here and i couldn't find a job because of their economic. situation in the country so and my parents and they are living in ireland for a six year solar a day and i decided to off to ireland today with them and to find a job there more and more lithuanians are falling victim to the baltic brain drain young people finish their studies at home and then look for a job in western europe where salaries are much higher however the global financial crisis and falling recession in countries like ireland means that the move abroad doesn't always provide the opportunities it once did its always so brazen but. it's now a days it's better to go to ireland and to find a job there. is job then sitting just here and doing

nothing else lithuania is carrying out a census in march to determine the current population demographic luminary government statistics for twenty ten show that last year alone an estimated eighty three thousand people left the country many in search of work elsewhere if you or anyone has one of the highest levels of immigration in the e.u. many of the young people who i've spoken to here say they see their future employment beyond the borders of their native country this is one of the reasons that the twenty eleven census that will take place here will be the most comprehensive in the nation's history. with questionnaires in english russian polish as well as a few indian the department of social statistics said desperate to find out how many people are living in the country they expect to see the two thousand and one population of three point four million for almost five hundred thousand with no apparent end in sight to the exodus the long term estimates paint

a bleak picture for the next forty years. but it's excellence. in the year two thousand and fifty. five million in. the task of bill this is to try and keep the best and brightest from being lost to the brain drain to safeguard the future the how social security the second was to provide health security was the third maybe it is to provide conditions for people to study for us now it's really difficult because it is becoming expensive for people spend money on something i mean after money and when i can do. that i think we have to reinstate system access some sort of people for especially for young people any changes come too late for arena she's already made her move to pastures new and to search for employment in western europe these are all other bills. coming up to twenty five minutes past the hour here in the russian

capital i'll be back with a look at i'm a new stories in five minutes now in the meantime business is next with dimitri. which bright. sun from the still. stands on t.v. dot com. welcome

to business r.t. with me dmitri medvedev the government's intervention and fuel pricing has led to a reduction in the cost of diesel for consumers that's according to russia's anti monopoly watchdog the watchdog group and of formal investigation into three of the country's top producers for price fixing after prime minister putin questioned why fuel prices were rising faster than crude oil two years ago the watchdog already imposed fines of nearly a billion dollars against the likes of rostam fluke or kitty for fixing prices but it doesn't seem enough general director of the national energy security fund believes fines are not the right way to ensure that. the problem is that we have no in the refineries and us all serious refineries there the part of this we have to integrated and in my opinion if we really want to struggle for law with all prices across the wall we must think not about fines we must think about structural reform of our industry we must have independent refineries and only i think

this is the only one way to struggle with high oil prices if we want to low price on petrol we must have a real computer use of our market if you will have no independent why that is there will be no competition. quick look at the markets now in the u.s. the lower despite a strong jobs report i can my. technologies felt sixteen percent at one point. after the company said competitors were forcing it to learn the prices for its web streaming services european stock markets are also lower they were led by heavyweight banking stocks in london of course the dax managed to recover the end of the session. shares were down seven point seven percent at the close after the airline issued a profit warning and it's had said there was excess capacity on some routes russian stocks ended. in negative territory third session of losses in

a row investors were shifting their assets out of developing countries concerned the inflation the will hurt growth in emerging markets energy majors and banks where the main drag in russia gazprom never was dropping just under two and a half percent at the close investors were worried that the refinery would suffer most of the monopoly was forced fuel prices lower drugmaker protagoras down over around three percent at the close despite reporting twenty thousand revenue rising nine point one percent. this is not been the best of the week for russia and again i think it will turn out to be having been one of the worst performing emerging markets story here which is to one of the best performer markets so far this year it's essentially profits when you when you when you made some so i think what we're looking at is profit taking having basically been on the forefront for this week. french girl make a run i was a lost twenty one million euros from the bulls and with russia's make up of us last

year rhino adds it expects along with its allies by the need to acquire children stake enough to buy the. lesson for me i'll be back in one hour's time with more stay with us.