mario and the protesters are organizing themselves with twitter and facebook and other social media and this is what we're witnessing also in morocco where the call has gone out for massive demonstrations to take place this sunday february the twentieth now the protests are against the king who is a popular figure but what people are calling for is that his role be reduced to come some kind of ceremonial role and that democracy be introduced into the country algeria is also planning protests in the coming few days here to using social media which is the inspiration that follows from those egyptian demonstrations now for the sixth consecutive day we are witnessing demonstrations taking place in yemen we're being told that as many as two thousand people took to the streets they clashed with police they are against president ali abdullah saleh who has been in power for more than thirty two years and they're also concerned about poverty unemployment and corruption in the reign of the protests there continuing today thousands of people took place in a peaceful funeral procession that was to bury one of the people who was killed in

demonstrations there on monday human rights groups are accusing the security forces in bahrain of using pellet guns at short range now the king has vowed to investigate these claims and institute reforms and then lastly in iran it too is witnessing demonstrations thousands of people clashed with police in a funeral procession and therefore protester also killed on monday we're also hearing from government officials and clerics they are calling for the trial and execution of opposition leaders who they claim are behind these demonstrations so paul of morocco iran and libya yemen egypt would you're seeing a tsunami of on roasters spreading across the region let's step back for a moment and look at the broader picture the middle east strategically it's vital for the u.s. which is also heavily engaged as we know in iraq and afghanistan polls washington going to push its agenda in light of the latest regional events.

washington as you can well imagine is increasingly concerned if we look at just some of these countries yemen is an important american ally the rain is an important american ally i mean if we look at a place like the rain there the united states houses the headquarters of the u.s. navy's fifth fleet the big question mark for washington of course is iran because it does not have a strong american influence there in these clashes that happened today wednesday a lot of protesters were holding up and t. even with signs they were they were chanting anti american slogans and the feeling is growing within iran as it has been for some time against the american administration if we look back at what inspired a lot of these events the toppling if one can call it that of president mubarak in egypt the united states was giving him putin messages very confusing messages that people here in the region were receiving at the beginning of the demonstrations it seemed to support mubarak the u.s.

had supported for thirty years if they slowly changed its support to the demonstrators and by the time the barak was overthrown it clearly put itself of the demonstrators the people here asking the question this doesn't really change the u.s. influence particularly in egypt because now the army is in place and for four years the u.s. has been financing with billions of dollars the egyptian army so to some extent the army is really just the other side of mubarak's power so the u.s. watching these developments with increasing concern and needing to balance itself people here criticizing a american involvement and b. their involvement as being of double standards and then of course israel comes to the party as well watching events israel increasingly concerned that it could see islamic republics erupting on its borders is one of course had a peace treaty with egypt it's concerned whether or not that will continue so as the tsunami continues to sweep across the middle east the u.s. and israel as well increasingly alarmed. about his policy alive and some of the thank you. all for

a researcher. who says that washington is trying to promote its own model of democracy in the region so as to keep the people under control. clearly the united states will support anything that will promote what they call regina change in iran especially considering that the rand is such a powerful country from the point of view not only of its potential military and also its potential with oil but also its potential as being a theocracy we are in the islamic world the as a whole is based in tehran hold great sway over the literally hundreds of millions of muslims so whatever happens in rand is far more important than he even of what happened with saddam hussein in iraq we have to understand that what the united states now i believe is trying to achieve is a way to promote change in a way that will facilitate things for them the best instrument they have to control the country is the so-called democracy because only for

a democracy it is basically a vote counting system handled by the mass media where you can get the guy who wins whether it be a president or prime minister or a senator or a deputy is the one accountant with all the support of the money power whether it be for his campaign for media and t.v. time and so forth so for example in the joy of argentina democracy is the best way they have to control the country against the people's interest and i think when they hear that they are promoting democracy in egypt i trembled for the egyptians because it was going to be a democracy when the brand as it was promoted in argentina or or those sort of throughout latin america it will only help to support both long term objectives and this global power structure operated from europe and from the united states and not the actual interest of we the people to say that in a vertical local and generalized manner. well there are some that say that rising food prices were one reason behind the wave of anti-government demonstrations in

north africa and the middle east the u.n. has warned of and pending social upheaval in countries that are quite literally hungry for freedom the issue is also creeping into the u.s. where food stamp programs are being slashed. in forty reports. 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 food so these these kinds of huge world crop price increases in two thousand and 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 fries and then we have to really have to learn how to do things. because they don't know we don't get a raise to go into everything and everything means basic staples like milk be coffee and cereal which rose five percent in the last few months alone. is going to get some are going to fifty dollars and i get a lot of i mean if i want to eat. 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 sign actual giants is controlling the price of real wheat they're made on wall street by big investment firms who distrust dollars and euros and instead hedge their bets on commodities whose living you've got it goldman sachs j.p. morgan chase the largest holders a lot largest financial dealings 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 by all. challenge increasing the amount of food we have to produce for people and. farmers are having a tough time keeping up but americans aren't as eager to push frustrations from the grocery store to the streets to take. you know we haven't got. the we get did we do with thirteen point nine billion dollars in cuts to food stamp programs over the next three years means that the average american family all receive fifty nine dollars less per month bringing less food to their table but it's unclear whether it will also bring them out in the streets in florida washington d.c. . and the u.s. we explain to you later this hour explores how a new budget proposal is making some americans fear even more for their future.

find out why they claim trillions in federal spending will fall into the wrong hands and will only benefit those in power. ok let's move on to lithuania now where disagreeing with the government can land you behind bars an opposition party leader faces jail time after blaming his country's wealth or abuse for orchestrating a fatal gun battle with soviet troops two decades ago. looks at both accounts of what happened that day. oh. january nine hundred ninety one fourteen protesters dying up to clashes with saudi 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 equation of the events of the goddess polanski this is a member of the vilna city council and says soviet soldiers would 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 liftin and all for a case where shooting down into the crowd and other businesses for i know who lived in that area and still live pointed to valves houses here on the roofs of british houses better people for their shooting and they solve them. fresh opinions on historical events are nothing unusual so based on newly discovered evidence others merely conspiracy theories what's different is that mr polanski's his argument that it was live gunman that were responsible could land him in jail i am facing

a charge of. up to two years in prison i mean i have 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 when you that was first were called boys 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 belittle these crimes or more victims should be held responsible as the nineteen ninety one aggression against lithuania and its citizens falls under the definition of a war crime. as an elected official miss the player is a mune from prosecution however he has waived this right and is prepared to stand trial local historian's question player to give his sources and back the official version of events of mice that i mean when. 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 the problem of the use of force it claimed innocent lives. but should questioning 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 your thirties 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 your thirty's and compel them to start solving the lithuanian issue. should he be found guilty by the call. it is needed lithuania and gladys polanski says he will appeal to the european court of human rights an appeal he's convinced will be carried out from a jail cell history may not agree with the opinion of mr combs to the events of january one thousand nine hundred wall 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 over r.t. lithuania. you with r.t. live from moscow now european security the middle east and economic cooperation they're all on the agenda of russian president dmitri medvedev this visit to italy he's in rome to hold negotiations with his counterpart as well as with prime minister silvio berlusconi italy is a leading business partner for russia so the visit will focus on diversifying trade and modernizing the economic partnership but we are therefore also meet the pope at the vatican becoming the first russian leader to go there after the two sides established diplomatic relations in two thousand and nine. let's go to some other international news in brief for you this hour an iraqi defector who says saddam hussein had weapons of mass destruction has admitted that he lied. claims were

among those used to justify the u.s. led two thousand and three invasion of the country he said he saw an opportunity to topple the old regime and bring democracy to iraq or the war resulted in over one hundred thousand civilian deaths. a couple cool low pressure system which developed into a category one cycle own has battered the northern australian city of darwin dozens of homes were inundated and the main roads have been cut off by floodwaters high winds and heavy rains lashed the city overnight with trees and knocked down power lines schools in the city's airport are still closed and carlos is expected to intensify to a category two as. nears the coast and will affect the region until friday. korea is celebrating the birthday of its leader kim jong il who was turned sixty nine although some records show he's a year old of. people climb to the foot of a giant statue of the country's founding leader and kim's father what we call

festivities including exhibitions ice skating and music shows it's widely believed the leaders health is ailing after a stroke in two thousand and eight the son kim jong un is being groomed as a replacement. and animal rights activists in china condemning a magic trick with synchronized fish they say cruelty was required to make the fish move in unison the actor was made famous after being broadcast on state television during a lunar new year celebrations last month in the most watched program you know the magician responsible says there's no abuse but refuses to give away the secret of the trick. for us president barack obama has unveiled his two thousand and twelve federal budget proposal in which he highlights to the country's financial priorities the plan includes a budget cuts and tax increases all aimed at reducing the deficit over the next

decade and while washington is calling for over three trillion dollars in federal spending experts say regular americans will not benefit from this. i think we have a political system that is sclerotic and what i mean by that is all the beneficiaries of government spending the companies that get subsidies the military producers who sell goods to the government the working people who get some benefits even if they're small all of them have mobilized to hold on to what they get to make it politically costly for any congressman or woman to go against them those people whose programs will be cut they will be hurt those people whose taxes will be raised they will be heard but these are very small potatoes the basic picture which republicans and democrats alike support is a budget that's going to be basically of one and a half trillion dollars short the government is going to spend that money the

republicans and democrats agree on all of that they're just squabbling over little amounts but the larger picture nobody addresses nobody debates and that's an economy that requires a huge amount of government support to keep hobbling along and debts into the future that we will suffer a farm much more than anything being debated by republicans and democrats in washington. and that was professor richard wolffe there explaining why he believes the u.s. federal budget proposal will not save the country's economic problems. well you can always log on to our website for much more news and video you can also read our blogs from all around the world and leave your comments. on line for you right now . so if you. put it to the test as the two thousand and fourteen winter olympics prepares to hold the european cup.

was the part of a. neighborhood. party spoke to find out what he had to say dot com. it's an hour twenty minutes past the hour here in moscow you would r.t. the. rumors that the u.s. commander in afghanistan will leave his post by the end of the year the british reporter general david petraeus is due to leave afghanistan along with the largest share of u.s. troops. pull all of its forces out of the country by two thousand and fourteen quote come hell or highwater. says the u.s. failed to learn from the campaign in afghanistan. american occupation of

afghanistan has already exceeded all possible saw that mistake in that contrie and accomplished even illegal 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 raise e.g. of the united states information agency propaganda which rolled supreme during the cold war battle you know afghanistan the economic objective was to distribute the

farmland to farmers and that's why the armed forces will fighting the landlords the united states do not fire 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 not into the narco caliphate. and former u.n. anti drugs chief lackey says that international corruption in afghanistan is under reported and accounts for great problems in the country. i would put forty billion dollars. in afghanistan for the civilian aid only eight of these forty went through the affidavit that is the international the production international newspapers particularly western news being it was never speak directly to this big piece of the key base because the time about half of the

production which is there of course but this is more. the biggest corruption. that i discovered or the steal of african people eighty percent there with international aid. and you can watch the full interview here on r.t. in around ten minutes time but first let's get the business update now with dimitri . lo and welcome to the program russia could quit the birth gas alexander police or oil pipeline project that bypasses turkey's bosphorus straits according to russian media russian partners comprising of trance nafta was left to gazprom that are about to officially end their financing of the project however trance they have to deny this information saying russia doesn't intend to redirect oil deliveries to other pipelines but analysts doubt the economic value of the whole project.

together with the completed one pipeline and together with the plan to be completed next year to pipeline i think currently. russia has enough expert capacity is probably distribution i mean geographical distribution overall is not so diversified as russia potentially may want or potentially many i don't think that. construction of some. extra additional pipelines. is justified economically. just from expects export revenues this year to top the pre-crisis record as natural gas prices increase and the demand for the fuel recovers for out your company said the total export revenue could exceed seventy two billion dollars this year which is two and a half billion more than in two thousand and eight. to boost its exports to europe this year expecting european gas prices to rise fifteen percent said it is already

shipping ahead of schedule meanwhile ukraine snap together says the price that it pays for one thousand cubic meters of russian gas will go up to two hundred eighteen dollars in the second quarter of twenty eleven. so going to the markets now in russia is these are rising as investors continue to trade cautiously we're seeing the odds years and the mice a. half a percent shares are mixed however when it comes to blue chips burbank is gaining one point six percent this our stock is finding it hard to recover after declining around eight percent over the past couple of weeks sevastopol is up one percent following reports in may cut steel supplies to car maker after that meanwhile norilsk nickel there you can see is down one point three percent european shares up also rising french drugmaker said if you're ventus up two percent up to agree to buy its rival call for twenty billion dollars. in cash.

french land the societe generale said it's a fourth quarter profit quadrupled due to a turnaround of its russian units the russian consumer banking business had a thirteen million euro profit compared with the loss of fifty eight million last year russia which is the lenders second largest market by employees says it may become the biggest contributor to the international retail by twenty. and the possible merger of russia's heavy truck producer car mass with its bellerose rival mass is a step closer to reality of the belorussian the prime minister deputy prime minister the minister moscow echoed russian technologies as i can to consolidate the two companies the potential merger would see come as biomass to create a new company ross bell. and ward in turn gave mother shareholders a forty nine percent stake. i'm back in one i was time with plenty more business

news and update of the figures on the markets headlines are next with rory to stay with us.

her. mum. mum. mum. mum. on her. street still keeps its secrets but now it's time to move feel. the soviet farms nikitin seems to often like movement on oxy. more news today says once again flared up if these are the images the world has

been seeing from the streets of canada. china operations are relieved a. mum. wealthy british style. markets why not. find out what's really happening to the global economy in these kinds of reports. she's available in. the. renaissance cookie crumbles encircled the. holiday inn. hotel. in the indian country club so sure to find this piece of the first. couple boutique hotel.

four thirty pm here in. the headlines now. and instability in iraq the arab world as protesters in the region follow the example set in egypt by demanding reform washington has expressed its support to the demonstrations in tehran but some experts accuse the u.s. of having. democracy as a pretense. of global. financial giants are accused of fueling the demonstrations by causing a hike in food prices and lists the original course of frustration which forced people out onto the streets. a politician in lithuania may face jail for disagreeing with his own government he claims local authorities are not soviet

troops were behind uprising some twenty years ago. from prosecution to stand up for freedom of speech. in the baltic states. more than half of all drugs produced in afghanistan are consumed here in russia and the e.u. over thirty thousand people die every year from drug addiction in russia alone spoke to former u.n. and two narcotics chief pino are lucky about a new five year plan aimed at eradicating drug production in afghanistan that's up next. are like you thank you very much for being with us today. now some experts.