freedom of speech on trial an activist in australia awaits a verdict after being accused of inciting hatred in her critical lectures on islamic and shari'a law. putting spy scandals and mysterious murders behind that moscow and london hope to overcome the diplomatic tensions as russia's foreign minister visits the u.k. . and tough choices but not where wars are concerned as the u.s. washes its next deficit budget that big remains relatively untouched.

one pm here in moscow this is r t thanks for joining us now we begin in austria where a free speech activist has fallen foul of the law for expressing similar views being chorused by major european leaders elizabeth somebody says that after decades of mass immigration multicultural society is not working well she faces a three years in prison for inciting religious hatred after she criticized islam and shari'a law that in a good show of our reports from vienna. was just a night. a european citizen peacefully debating islam with a muslim is nothing unusual in a multicultural country like full stream but it's a tall peak not always discussed in such gentle fashion are you not to burn the koran about your. being what you. learned.

well you know your enemy elizabeth supper to travel has been on trial and a vienna court on charges of making what is described as a hate speech against islam a left wing all strand magazine recorded and published a speech at one of her seminars lending who are in court i have nothing against people who want to practice their faith. but i would like them to do this in the privacy of their own homes here ideas she says are nothing new and when europe's political elite express them they are not prosecuted for the same views multiculturalism has failed this is nothing new and my group and i have been saying this for years now all of a sudden. and others come out of hiding and agree with us i don't know why but elizabeth proponents say she crossed the line here a speech is outraged not only the muslim community but also made. it's not a matter of free speech that i can spread hatred about large groups of society

now we have to respect individuals in our society and we have to ask them to integrate and we have to help them to integrate yet european leaders such as german chancellor angela merkel french president nicolas sarkozy and british prime minister david cameron say multiculturalism in europe isn't working there are huge muslim communities but frequently such as in all strata they leave in their own areas a physical sign of non integration there is this should sit in vienna is known as the little people here speak their native language they prepare their national dishes and wear the clothes which they are used to and this is exactly what elizabeth subaverage wall found here a fellow like sounds taking a stance against self segregation at top which was once. who is now at the top of

the european political agenda with multiculturalism now open to multi criticism from some of the continent's most influential political leaders we've yet to see how their views might fully influence debate on the ground and the future shape. exceeding of their children our team from vienna. all danish writer and columnist says europe's push for political correctness has gone too far and is now limiting citizens freedom we've allowed that too much multiculturalist. it being represented in the public sphere and now we've gone and gone even further to practice legislation against hate speech against a defamation and limiting the free speech and and the soul which is european heritage that that we should really care about so we've gone far to too far with with all these soft spoken tolerance basically all of the government's not facing

the facts standing up to reality standing up to the social phenomena popping up in belgium and holland and germany and in through out of for through europe and sweden and denmark as well you can you can't blame a whole. group of people for not doing this or that but you can you can blame the politicians for not dealing with the problems not not turning them into subjects can be criticized and and be paid which is exactly what they're trying to do now. and moscow and london will be hoping to turn a page of their fact as relations as russia's foreign minister visits the british capital now events over the last few years have cost diplomatic tension but with a relatively new government there so for a fresh start our reports. russian foreign minister sergey lavrov is visiting the u.k. at a difficult time for the two countries relations earlier this month the guardian correspondent luke harding was expelled from russia he maintains it was because of

his work with wiki leaks russia maintained he breached accreditation requirements is now back in moscow after was widely seen here in britain as a climb down by the russian authorities but that's just the latest affair and what hasn't been an easy relationship for some years most notably the murder of former russian security officer alexander litvinenko in london in two thousand and six disrupted relations in a way that hasn't been overcome yet the u.k.'s chief suspect in the case is russian parliament. and the two countries can't see eye to eye on the u.k.'s also harboring people who are wanted criminals in russia tycoon. akhmed zakayev person so far refused to extradite them despite repeated requests despite difficulties day russia remains one of britain's most important trading partners with more than a thousand british companies working in russia recently we saw

a huge deal signed between b.p. and state oil giant nest and trade between the two countries is estimated to run at seventeen billion dollars on the agenda are european security cooperation in europe's missile defense projects russia e.u. and russia nato relations and the situation in the middle east and afghanistan together with iran's nuclear program those last two points russia has allowed allied forces to use its transport routes for troops and supplies crucial for the war in afghanistan and it's also led fruitful negotiations with iran on its nuclear program the fact remains however that while russia has good relations with other european countries and the reset button on russia u.s. relations has been pressed and appears to be working for us to visit to the u.k. may not be an easy one however. slowly progress is being made in particular with person expressing interest in resuming cooperation with russia own security and the fight against terrorism that's expected to be officially voice during that visit

and still ahead in the program twin blasts rocked russia's caucuses killing two policemen and injuring over twenty others. suicide bombers strike at russia's so the republic of dagestan join me in a few moments for all the latest. stay with r.t. as we take an in-depth look at the wave of popular revolt sweeping across the arab world. now the u.s. is cutting its next deficit budget with president obama saying tough choices and sacrifices have to be made but there is one place the administration does not want to make major cuts to and it's defense but defense spending that is now with numerous u.s. military bases located far beyond its territory artie's didn't go solves he found out where american taxpayers' money is really going. back.

home they are signs of american power and might. military bases spread all over the world just how many apparently too many to count what we. know about. what's business or. what. we just hear sure but what we can be sure about is that the us defense budget is now about the same as military spending in all other countries combined and since nine eleven military and security expenditures have soared by one hundred and nineteen percent military expenditures in faraway places like new zealand colombia and japan and have you ever heard of the marshall islands quadrumana told specifically while the united states. is there too and some locations serve dual purposes like kuantan i'm obey and they're all sustained by hundreds of millions of dollars of taxpayer money just how much money i don't.

and speaking of those miscellaneous expenses. i think i'd rather. golf courses and see a lot of largess. that's a little bit extra isn't it and brian becker of the answer coalition says it's not just the golf courses that are extra clearly there is no need and from the point of view of self-defense for the us to have military installations all over the world it's really part of maintaining a far flung global empire its place the us has a military base the us has political power economic power and it's a matter of coersion a corps and that isn't always welcome in fact usually breeds more anti-american sentiment for example in kyrgyzstan. we're living here and raising our children would we need this us or an aco now where locals have to give up ten to twenty

percent of the island to the united states for a military base that they associate with noise crime and pollution and take a look at this in the wake of demonstrations in arkansas will last year activists place this ad in the washington post trying to tell the obama administration that they don't want to base in their hometown all of the proxy governments that accept u.s. military bases in to their country become vulnerable once the people actually start to rise up and mobilize which they almost always do rising up against a double standard the u.s. would never tolerate china having military bases in canada in mexico in haiti in the dominican republic in other words in the countries that ring the united states the united states is the seven hundred pound gorilla it sets wherever it chooses to sit and choosing to sit down wherever usually means that those most affected by these bases both here at home and abroad don't have a place at the table for our tea. jacob hornberger from the

future of freedom foundation says the huge defense budget is taking money out of the lives of ordinary americans. the military is just like a part of the government it doesn't have free money in order to fund this enormous military empire and you've got to take the money from the american taxpayer people families are having trouble making ends meet they're having trouble seeing their kids to college they can't pay their health care costs april fifteenth is coming up income tax day and all to fund what this dominant military role around the world it's really does create nothing but problems for us i mean they have they have some of the nicer resorts in the military that you can imagine and you've got generals and admirals flying around in private jets anywhere they want in the world i mean it's it's a high lifestyle and it's a very expensive lifestyle it's a huge burden and this nonsense that the department of defense can't be put on the

cutting board is just absolutely ridiculous the country is going broke we're spending more what one and a half trillion dollars more than what the government bringing in the national debt story at a large part of this is the u.s. military and the military industrial complex that's what this is all about power and money. twin suicide bombers have rocked russia southern republic of a stun explosions happened just two hours apart two people were killed and another twenty injured all of them policemen are all over has the details. around eight pm mosco time on monday a female suicide bomber she turned out approached a police station in the village of good day and in the southern russian republic of dagestan she threw objects kindly at the police station at offices to to draw attention to itself when one of those offices approached she detonated the device that she was carrying now this device is believed to be to

a small particles pieces of metal that have resulted in the injuries. they caused police to step up security security. interests in the area in the village of dead in dagestan and later on for a few hours later police checkpoint police pulled over a car that was then another explosion was detonated from within the car killing a nother policeman so that's the situation at the moment as a stunt two policemen have been killed in dagestan many other wounded in the wake of the suicide bombing on the door dead of the airport's president dmitri medvedev who is very forthcoming in saying that security would be the main watch word that he was wanting to completely revamp the security system here in russia to make sure the terror attacks wouldn't be allowed to happen no he's being very dissatisfied with the current level of security that has been in place he was scathing in his criticism of airport security chief side of aware that blast occurred less than

a month ago and just recently he visited a metro station and a major train station here in moscow and was equally left as early dissatisfied with what was in place to try and stop terror attacks now he's promised that this will be addressed we're expecting very shortly to hear to see a major overhaul of. the laws here in russia and the police say russia as well as being put on a high alert and told based on t. terror operations are now the main altar of the day that their main goal is to try and make sure that no further terror attacks can take place here in russia and in nearby stuff recall five militants have been killed in a gun battle with security service says one policeman was also reportedly killed and at least three others injured in the clash on the border between the stuff of paul region and the. republic a special operation to flush out militants is ongoing it's the latest in a series of violent incidents in the volatile caucasus region. now remember there

is much more in that and other stories at r.t. dot com there's plenty for you to explore including in the news coverage and analysis and blogs and here's some of what's online right now early release valve accused of training the two thousand and five london bombers walks free from a u.s. prison but find out why he's out after less than five years. and a virtual reality for the first time astronaut sets foot on the surface of the red planet as created by russian scientists find out more on our t.v. dot com. egypt has been gripped by fresh strikes with thousands of workers demanding better pay and conditions it comes as the new opposition is trying to build bridges with the supreme military council which is an interim good troll following the departure of president mubarak well the military which has dissolved parliament says it ordered its has ordered

a new draft constitution which will be put to a referendum within two months now the army is calling for an end to protest by threatening to impose an outright ban on gatherings and strikes but while the general seems to be moving to set the country on the path to civilian rule middle east expert all of a while says the military is plans for egypt are still unclear. we know from bitter experience that revolutions can go terribly wrong and the fact is that egypt faces appalling problems. the same problems essentially that it was facing in the low bar the same problems that other countries in the region are also facing economic problems over rising food prices unemployment underemployment and so on problems of corruption problems of ingrained habits of brutality in the security forces all these things can perhaps be put right but they can't be put right overnight now the army in egypt is the secretive and probably nobody outside the egyptian army knows exactly what their intentions are of course of plenty of other examples where

revolutions have been hijacked by the military what we. is to see which way the military are going to take egypt for the moment we don't know. where the impact of the uprising in egypt continues to be felt throughout the middle east in yemen are protesters demanding the resignation of the president have clashed with police and government supporters well some three thousand people have taken to the streets in a fifth day of unrest now in nearby bahrain security forces fired tear gas in an attempt to disperse thousands who joined the funeral of a man killed in a rally on monday but protesters are demanding more political freedoms from the ruling monarchy and in iran a one person was shot dead demonstrators clashed with security forces they chanted death to dictator referring to president did a job that they believe was fraudulently reelected in two thousand and nine the u.s. has given its firm support to the thousands of demonstrators that r.t.

contributor wayne madsen says the american backed it up our position groups is only giving the current government a good reason to crack down on them. but the problem is with the so-called green revolution it had too many u.s. fingerprints on it from soros to usa id international down in for democracy so the regime in iran can always point to that and say this is the united states behind this whether we are behind some of the groups but legitimate opposition is suppressed because of that mantra that's put over all the opposition by the iranian government iran's a little bit different although there's a stirring from morocco all the way across the what we used to call the the islamic crescent into. iran is under economic embargo from the u.s. in the u.n. it's also facing us straight as u.s. troops in afghanistan in iraq so the regime there can point to the fact that

they're under siege and also under the threat of a military attack. by politicians in israel the united states they can point to that and say you can't be you can oppose the regime we're under siege that's because we have basically frozen iran out there was probably a mistake on our part. by doing that we're suppressing the legitimate democratic opposition in iran. well the recent unrest in north africa is giving rise to thousands of immigrants flocking to the e.u. italian authorities have captured a boat carrying thirty two people believed to be egyptians in the waters off the coast of sicily well it comes after some five thousand have eagle immigrants arrived on italian shores over the past week has requested one hundred million euros from the e.u. to help deal with the thousands of asylum seekers currently being house on the italian island. and our contacts trafficking submarine has been discovered by a little bodies in colombia it's believed the vessel is able to travel for colombia

to the coast of mexico the submarine was found in a river in the state of about four hundred kilometers southwest of the capital bogota authorities found weapons nearby but said no one was arrested and no drugs were found when they made the discovery. news just in the italian judge has ordered italian prime minister silvio berlusconi to stand trial on charges he paid for for sex with a seventeen year old girl and bed tried to cover it up at the trial is set to begin april sixth of berlusconi has denied all the allegations disgraceful. well it's a key testing event ahead of russia's hosting of the twenty fourteen winter olympics in sochi training for this week's european a cop in alpine skiing has gotten underway on a bradley slope which will be the centerpiece of the games are these that he is

following the action there. we are now at the rosa khutor ski resort in sochi one of the most important venues for the two thousand and fourteen winter olympic games the resort is situated in the cross napoli on the mountain range about forty kilometers away from the central part of the city and it will be connected with the olympic village near the coast by high speed rail way and highway now what we see here today is one of the first field tests of the sporting facilities before the actual games to see how they perform under live conditions even though the olympics are three years away russian and european athletes already are getting a chance to test some of the steepest now during the two thousand and eleven alpine european cup and also domestic competitions while the mountains are covered in snow now there were plenty of nerves beforehand organizers were very concerned about the weather this is just a few weeks ago it was raining here in the mountains and everyone was waiting anxiously for the snow to fall and as you can see their prayers were heard and the

steep mountain slopes are now in excellent condition for ski but if the weather fails to deliver enough snow there is always a plan b. in the form of recently installed snow making machines to ensure there's plenty for competition what we see here today is the initial stage of the l. point european man's car pretty skiers are having the training is a this tuesday and the main part of the competition will be held during the coming days a total of seventy four test events will be held in sochi before the two thousand and fourteen winter games twenty nine of them and national competitions it's the start of serious testing of the olympic infrastructure not just the venues but also roads bridges tunnels and power lines the construction of most venues is still underway although the organizers say it's answering the final stages and it's over the most difficult initial phase the organizers among them members of the russian government sports industry pros and construction companies will use feedback from

these events to fine tune preparations for the olympics themselves. i'll be back with the headlines shortly but up next all the latest business news with you we'll . that's right time for your business update and russia's state owned ficci bank which saw a successful privatization of a ten percent stake in the company on monday has decided to go belly up with one of its rivals bank of moscow it to be wants to buy out one hundred percent of one of russia's top five banks and the top of the year currently the biggest shareholder of bank of moscow moscow city government estimates the bank at six billion dollars some minority shareholders even estimated at up to nine and a hoppin in hot weather one of these supervising reports members presidential aides had a card you voted for which was against it was

a show you set to do which didn't go through a tender process the tampa moskos decided to become an international financial center. and the unemployment rate in russia is showing signs of resurgence having gone down by one percentage point in the past year but despite its trends president but that of still sees it as water with the country's top problems data compiled by the international labor organization says the number of russians without a job as willing to five point four million people in twenty eleven from six point two million a year ago as it stands there are currently about seventy five million working people and russian president medvedev urged the government to shift from anti crisis measures to more long term actions when tackling unemployment. ok let's have a look at tal the stock markets are faring a bit sour it's a busy day for europe euro zone g.d.p. figures along with economic sentiment data from germany and in the nation figures

from the u.k. are due on tuesday but so far the european indices are flat my. and most financial stocks are in the red on the footsie xstrata is supposed to biggest loss is down two point two percent. and also more than one percent on the foot see whether energy shares pushed up by high oil are keeping the index to positive in frankfurt the tax is trading marginally in the block. and here in russia investors are also looking to hear reports from europe and the us later in the day they are ts in the might six up to positive our oil and gas companies are the top gainers in the my six on rising oil prices the branch heard close to one hundred four dollars on continued and growth in the middle east and robust chinese demand. ok now let's have a look at something does russia second largest gas company not

a tech is leading the gains on the my six its shares are up two point eight percent after russia's federal antonopoulos satis approved mother to explain cho holder venue the he sells it for twenty five percent of the shares and. though he has corporation through his corporation and this world bring the company's stake in super fifty percent. and the euro which was already under pressure by events in the euro zone continued falling this week unless fear of its will fall into tendency john davis from vermont asset management says analysts stick to emerging markets currencies which show stable growth at the moment. we don't like the euro we don't like the dollar either we don't like g seven slow growth low rate currencies safehaven currencies like swiss franc or pound sterling we actually are very active in the effects trades and we like as you'd expect you know high growth commodities

centric inflationary emerging market currencies like korean one ruble seeing dollar type bottom dollar etc etc. that's it for knowledge joining me in less than one else time for more business news here on our team.

our. stop we are going to come back. we'll have a rally will sell lots of beer will. they will wear uniforms that will damage is down the black man moving but very little damming the white. and they are the key to our problem our own writing.