troops the incident sparked international support for the demonstrators cause an independent state of lithuania however one local politician now faces a possible jail sentence that disagree with the fish operation of the beds goddess poleski this is a member of the vilna city council and says soviet soldiers were responsible basing my opinion on the witness list and on the book which was published by the former head of parliamentary the national security committee chair so he wrote in his book and nobody denied that but from this tower representatives of libyan authorities where shooting down into the crowd. and other businesses why no who lived in that area and still live wanted to build houses here on the roofs off which houses better people for the shooting and they sold them. fresh opinions on historical

events and nothing unusual so based on newly discovered evidence others merely conspiracy theories what's different is that mr polanski is his argument that it was lithuanian government that were responsible could land him in jail i am facing a charge of. up to two years in prison i mean i i may receive a fine for up to two years in prison i think this is absent from term in terms of human rights and freedom of opinion absurd or not it's the law in the few ania that course as well because boards are part the lithuanian penal code provides for criminal responsibility for the public denial of genocide crimes against humanity or war crime rules people who believe so these crimes are more victims should be held responsible as the nine hundred ninety one aggression against lithuania and its citizens falls under the definition of a war crime. as an elected official mr polanski is

a mune from prosecution however he has waived this right and is prepared to stand trial local historians question plates cases sources and back the official version of events for the most part i mean we're. on the one hand there were civilians who wanted self-determination on the other hand it was military might in my assessment the events of january nine hundred ninety one were an attempt to solve a problem with the use of force claimed innocent lives. but should question in history bring with it a criminal investigation. i don't think that this is a reason for a person to be prosecuted it's his personal opinion the authorities have overreacted but it's up to the lawyers to decide it's a provocation but it's based on certain logic lithuanian authorities did make attempts to provoke the save you authorities and compel them to start solving the lithuanian issue. should he be found guilty by the courts in his native lithuania

and gladys polanski says he will appeal to the european court of human rights an appeal he's convinced would be carried out from a jail cell history may not agree with the opinion of mr pollard scarce when it comes to the events of january one thousand nine hundred however those same historians are unsure whether it's the role of the legal system to determine who can say what about the circumstances of the deaths of fourteen people here in vilnius peter all of a party. now live in the information age and the era of the internet but for many people around the world russia remains a mysterious and misunderstood land it's often portrayed as an evil totalitarian state where only vodka helps people survive the eternal winter as it is going off reports it seems for media finds dated caricature is a better story than the twenty first century truth.

two decades have gone since the cold war ended but its ghost seem to be alive and well in some western quarters but it's the way russia has presented is often one sided or plain negative and if there's no proof sometimes authors just refer to their own previous publications it's absurd that. translates foreign articles and blogs for a news website so russians can read for themselves how their country are seen and brought up and quite often this is what she has to deal with paranoid mischievous and heading in the wrong direction russia is an awkward prospect for barack obama russia the totalitarian regime in thrall to it's our who is creating the new fascist empire russia is institutionalizing a state gangster culture which promises repression and ultimate economic failure for itself perhaps during the call the war the iron curtain which are either blocked or distorted most of the media reports made it easier to create a specific image of an isolated steed but times we have changed most foreign press

has all been available either in its original language or in translation to anyone with access to the web the nonprofit internet domain in a forum publishes daily translations of articles about russia from ten countries and other material from up to ninety others. and judging by what's written russia is too often seen as a vodka drinking beer overrun by mafia seeking world domination. president's made a video of an obama have been pushing horror that we stored in relations but it is the western press deliberately avoiding a restart of its own because cold war stereotypes are simply easier to sell. the press as a hostage of macdonald is ation a product has to be easily understood and quickly consumed and if the reader is developing intellectual obesity it's his problem as long as this theory of type helps make some money and boost ratings the ruling war over twenty years ago but

perhaps some coverage just doesn't want to let the facts get in the way of a good story why do i tell you all the stuff you go to school of moscow. coming up later in the program hungry for change by rolling prizes are seen as a key trigger behind the rallies rolling around the middle east will look at which countries will be next. and with speculation of a change at the top among the occupying forces what mistakes are still prevailing and again a state. the uprisings in tunisia and egypt have triggered a domino effect of protests calling for reform across the arab world and here i am in riots continued for a fifth day between thousands of pro and anti-government demonstrators demanding the country's u.s. ally president step down two protesters am bahrain were killed and several others

wounded in the violence there police had to use tear gas and baton to disperse the crowds in iran members of parliament cold for the execution of opposition leaders they say orchestrated protests on monday that saw two people killed president ahmadinejad also vowed to punish the organizers while the u.s. strongly backed the opposition egypt itself is gripped by a labor strikes or interim power is now in the hands of the military which is rewarding the constitution but some experts believe it was the ideological splits the army leadership has more to worry about from u.s. interference. they will not want to fully democratize egypt they will not want the military to be subject to civilian political control so they will be reaching out to civilian politicians who are willing to allow the military to continue to have

power continue to have a very important economic power and the military will seek to ensure that it is those sorts of people occupied so whether the presidency. whether in parliament whether in the media and so we can anticipate that there will be some opposition arising from the civilian political force there is awareness that the concern with the business enterprise has gotten in the way of the military enterprise. the primary concern of the minister of defense and those around him is business not the military there are officers who are professional and who think the business of the military should be the military not business itself so the high command is going to have to wrestle with that problem and the middle east is sandro to american foreign policy experts say the push for democracy is creating difficulties for washington

as a tries to balance an approach to demonstrators with its helena janda. the united states have been developing a global policy throughout the last decades global policy in which it came into support with most of the authoritative governments that you can see on the broad middle eastern scene the americans consider that defending their own interests in the region can't come without making as if they were really supporting the democratic processes that are prevailing in the region and that is why you could see that in the beginning when you had the riots in egypt they didn't really support the public opinion they came much more with a position that was keen to what hosni mubarak wanted but when they noticed that they couldn't do anything against the result that was taking place then they decided to compose with the public opinion in to tell them that it was in favor of democracy process but i think that anyway whether united states are willing to do

is concerned or is defending their own interests and that is why they try to anticipate things and they try to make as if they were the best friends of the public opinions that are present in the ground well the age of protests may have and it as a demand for the moccasin but it was the cost of putting food on the table that actually drove manny onto the streets food prices they are became overwhelming for ordinary people and it's a problem being seen across the world archie's correspondent kalen ford takes a lot. in egypt the revolution took to the streets. but it may have started at the table when food prices began skyrocketing for the more than forty percent of egyptians living on less than two dollars per day. and it isn't just egypt around the world where there are billion people who are already hungry they spend more than half of their money on so these kinds of huge world

crop price increases can translate into twenty or thirty percent or more increases in their cost of. food prices rapidly rising beyond the levels of the two thousand and eight food prices are forcing americans to make tough decisions at the cash register to vote the price we have to really have to learn how to do things. because they don't know we don't get a raise. and everything means basic staples like milk be coffee and cereal which rose five percent in the last few months alone. every summer going to fifty dollars and i get a lot of i mean if i want to. but decisions about who pays and how much aren't made at the register says journalist frederick kaufman imaginary wheat being bought and sold by financial giants is controlling the price of real weed they're made on wall

street by big investment firms who distrust dollars and euros and instead hedge their bets on commodities who's winning you've got it goldman sachs j.p. morgan chase the largest holders alive largest financial dealers in this they're doing very well as the u.s. pushes producers to convert corn crops to ethanol the crisis deepens around the world demand for biofuels has tripled over the past six years and will triple again by two thousand and twenty growing demand for biofuels all. challenge increasing the amount of produce for people and. farmers are having a tough time keeping up but americans aren't as eager to push for stray sions from the grocery store to the streets of america to take. you know we have got sick and tired of being sick and tired but we get that we are doing thirteen point nine billion dollars in cuts to food stamp programs over the next three years means that

the average american family will receive fifty nine dollars less per month bringing less food to their tables but it's unclear whether it will also bring them out in the streets in florida part of washington d.c. and with which shortage is undeniable in countries around the world how to solve them is the question on everyone's lips later peter labelling has crossed i guess discuss what should be top of the to do list. do we look at food as a priority or trade as a priority and trade and and commodification financialization of food seems to have become more important than actually feeding people and people meeting their needs so they're you know the bottom billion basically doesn't have their mates know their needs met because we're so concerned about the big traders making making their fast buck ok patrick if i go to you again if we do if you don't want to go down the path of speculation that's ok but the whole mechanism of the food industry here giving it to market as you pointed out i think there's just simply too many intermediaries involved in all of this and it kind of loses the point really. i

mean there's two things i think you're absolutely right peter first of all we far too many intermediaries in the position of always what happens when we have not a problem of rogue traders because that's not the issue of told i'm sorry i totally take issue with deborah the problem we have is a little bureaucrats that are endlessly adding extra layers of bureaucracy to try and justify their own budgets and the whole thing. and i watch cross dog in just over an hour here on r t also remember there are always plenty of stories for you to explore at r.t. dot com online twenty four hours a day but here's a taste of what you'll find there right now. the concept of multiculturalism is criticized from the very top find out why european leaders are turning against the idea. and the winter olympics host city sochi finally reveals a purslow bready for competition as preparations for twenty four thousand of the

take shape for our website are to dot com or you can also find more of the bigger was there on our youtube page. used. to. be official. from the. video. and. now in the palm of your.

on the dot com the pentagon says it's not the side of when the top u.s. commander in afghanistan will leave his post there have been newspaper reports that general petraeus will step down this year he was appointed eight months ago as part of a senior us staff reorganization and the country but our military contributor says that despite all america's efforts the number of mistakes is only increasing american occupation of afghanistan has already exceeded all possible saw that mistake in that contrie and accomplished even more than that in a negative sense and simultaneously having missed all the positive developments that were triggered and promoted by the soviet union intentionally or not in afghanistan i'm not going to justify the soviet military campaign in afghanistan

however i do believe that the current american military campaign in afghanistan provides and ample evidence to exonerate the soviet political economic and military presence in afghanistan from their rays e.g. of the united states information agency of propaganda which ruled supreme during the cold war battle again and stated the economic objective was to distribute the farmland to farmers and that's why they're so its forces will fighting the landlords the united states do not try the landlords befriending the landlords and have turned them into the drug lords and the main negative success story for the united states occupation these that have been a stand has been turned deliberately and knocked into the narco caliphate.

and the former u.n. anti-drug chief says corruption in afghanistan prevents the majority of aid money from ever reaching its intended target pienaar locky told r.t. that nato itself is contributing to the problems. for me too it doesn't do. because its operation. the contribution of a corporation of the ministry of peace nobody need to over. these different. their contribution to put up should be military logistics. they subcontract. you know from history to private companies. but if the subsequent. meetings are just. a business of a couple billion dollars. for the companies who are comprised by world roads and sometimes even by the thought about. to go to the security.

goals from kabul where the way in afghanistan in exchange of huge amount of money and the money that these taken from the media. logistics is more. than the money that i would but it takes from drug trafficking. and i can cash a full interview and ten minutes time here on our team now let's take a look at some other stories from around the world and a u.s. immigration force was killed and another hurt while driving through northern mexico on tuesday one was critically wounded and died from news injuries the second he was shot in the arm and leg remains in a stable condition. it's not clear if the attack was related to the escalating drug violence in the country but u.s. and mexican officials are working together on the investigation. leader of north

korea's communist regime can ya nail has turned seventy crowds have started to gather in the capital pyongyang to celebrate his birthday. the government officially list his age is sixty nine the records show he's a year older it's thought celebrations will be more low key this year due to a food shortage in the country. barrels connie has been indicted on charges he slept with an underage prostitute and then used to use influence to cover it up the woman at the center of the scandal admits receiving money from there was tony but denies they slept together so the judge in the land gave the go ahead for the trial of the thai and prime minister to begin going has rejected all accusations and labeled the case a farce. senior official from the south of sudan has repeated accusations that the north was arming militias operating in the region at least two hundred eleven people have been killed in a wave of violence over the last week in south sudan's oil rich state more bodies

have been found in remote villages the violence has highlighted security concerns in the region the last month opted overwhelmingly to declare the panels from the north. well that brings us up to date here in r.t.f. next all the latest business news with you a status. hello and welcome to your business update the week's news maker of bt b. which successful a sold ten percent of its shares on monday and has plenty to snap up bank of moscow is expecting the record profits for twenty ten the addition in addition to these

positive developments p.t.b. step but it chairman gathered more says that non-performing loans have been steadily shrinking in the last year while its credit but follow is growing a bath the market. in two thousand and ten we close in the years i've said i think we expect to grow above market. expectation will grow somewhere in the area of twelve to fourteen percent for this year two thousand and eleven we have you know fairly high growth expectations we think corporate books will grow in line with market and we think that will be approximately fifteen percent. told book will grow above the market and we expect to hear growth of about twenty percent what about what do you think they will reach this year we certainly past the peak where now we've seen a steady fall in the last three quarters of two thousand and ten i think for this year we expect that for the to fall and we expect for the new long portfolio course

the risk or percentage of reserves that we create against the bad loans will be somewhere between one and a half and two percent so very very long number we think that's more new normal post-crisis two to realize approximately one hundred two percent of the bedlam of your crude but for. time to have a look at the markets most asian stocks extended their gains but tech shares benefiting from we jumped into profit at dell japan's nikkei gained point six percent with cheap make us elpida memory and bring the subsidy tronics railing three point seven and seven point nine percent respectively hong kong's hang seng is up a bit more than half a percent but continue to produce a low number for a rising two point two percent ahead of its earnings results expected later in the day. and in russia the r.t.s. is slightly higher in trade the russian indices saw a change in direction on tuesday the origin of my six month low point seven percent

as investors would not finding reasons for growth usually enough to see the on going to find a buying opportunity here let's see what one's day is going to bring as soon as the market starts to trade in an all time. so to will outperform in the coming week streaming by expectations of the state tax reform but larger you can move from corporate corporation to create here believes the retail sector will also catch investor interest. apart from the oil and gas sector what we've seen so far is a profit taking the consumer space the consumer names in the last twelve months before the beginning of this year have outperformed dramatically so this could be just pure profit taking and rebalancing in terms of allocations for major international funds we would expect some. rerating in the consumer space as well because what we currently see in terms of their valuations for names like x.

five percent they're trading below their historical average multiples which makes them good buying opportunity. the demand for gas has gone up since the start of twenty eleven companies gas production has a plan volumes by about nine hundred million cubic meters of gas burns due to the growing demand for natural gas for example bellows takes nine percent more gas every day than it's provided by the contract. and russian business week has kicked off in london to address the most pressing economic issues facing russia the world our correspondent global and that is attending the event. it's an annual conference which brings together russian businessmen and foreigners involved with russia to discuss the business and investment environment russia's one of the u.k.'s most important trading partners with a round just thousand british business is working in russia arms trades topping seventeen billion dollars as such participants drawn from the public and private

sectors in russia will address opportunities with and for russian companies and how to strengthen the political and economic image of russia in the world they'll be presentations on the role of foreign capital in the oil and gas industry and also a look at the changing investment climate in russia as the country diversify is away from hydrocarbons and tries to be far its technology and small business sectors they'll also be sessions on building and promoting moscow as a global financial center but human capital is also high on the agenda with an emphasis on preventing a brain drain in russia they'll discuss the importance of attracting talented people back to the country to encourage innovation in all areas of business economics and technology. parties laura emmet reporting more news announced time.

cultures that show much when you've really made a lot of people over here in the biological years that we've been. prices. tens of millions of people are joining the.

street. from the field. with the top stories in the. world responsible for the death.

of. the middle east. cattle drugs coming. people in russia and the e.u. the number of addicts in russia has reached two point five million most of whom use avg and heroin that's the subject of today's interview were former un antonio card exchange p.r. locky clients he's five year plan to eliminate drug production in the region that's up next.