the stability of its allies in the region and saudis policy reports washington strategy in the middle east is about satisfying its own agenda. 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 in 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 teach us 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 given conflicting messages at the beginning of the demonstrations it seemed to support mubarak the u.s.

had supported for thirty years if they inserted changed its support to the demonstrators and by the time a brick was overthrown it clearly put it south of the demonstrators but people here are 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 to 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 it's all watching events israel increasingly concerned that it could see islamic republics erupting on its borders so as the tsunami continues to sweep across the middle east the u.s. and israel as well increasingly alarmed. live there on the russian president dmitri medvedev who's on the fischel visit to italy expressed hope that the q.

rights and liberties of people living in the revolution torn states will be observed and respected. it's a very difficult process we hope that all conflicts that are taking place in the middle east will be settled on a legal basis through observing the constitution and fundamental rights and freedoms of people living there. medvedev is in rome holding negotiations with his counterpart as well as with prime minister silvio berlusconi and we'll have more on his visit in our business update that's a little later this hour. the us unconditionally supports the corrupt regimes of the region but switches sides as soon as the dictators are toppled and that's according to middle east expert opinion coming them who spoke to us earlier from protest stricken bahrain. yes foreign policy is replete with contradictions and they heal the virtues of democracy free markets free speech and these kind of things but in reality on the growing show one. present to be food

square behind regimes that are the antithesis of these values regimes that are brutally repressive regimes that are corrupt elites regimes to destabilize the region through their misconduct. relations on the neighboring book populations it's very telling in the the very mature real positional of the us regarding the demonstrations in egypt and elsewhere they do you have to give some sort of lip service understandable support to the movement for democracy it was very noticeable that these supporters quite lukewarm and it's quite a laggard really in its it's not. food some support for the demonstrators and my beauty. is quite evident that the walking a very fine line because of their protests areas contradictions. experts say rising food prices were one reason behind

a wave of anti-government demonstrations in north africa in the middle east the u.n. has warned of impending social upheaval in countries that are quite literally hungry for freedom the issue is also creeping into the u.s. where food stamp programs being slashed carrying forward has more in this. 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 a billion people who are already hungry they spend more than half of their money on crude so these these kinds of huge world crop price increases can translate in 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 fries and then

we have to really have to learn how to improvise and do things like us 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 of 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 journalists frederick kaufman imaginary wheat being bought and sold by financial 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 who's winning you've got it goldman sachs j.p. morgan chase the largest holders a lot of 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 bottles oh my. 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 for americans to take all. you know we have been sick and 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 all 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 staying with dollars in the u.s. we explain to you later this new budget proposal is making some americans fear even

more for their future. they think pretty and federal spending will fall in the wrong hands and will only benefit those in power. they faced this is not a problem you should look toward. it and you should see everybody you should it's a pretty tree they have no idea about the hardships to face. they wanted. to do things for the army life never use is the most precious thing in the world. uses of self-sacrifice and heroism with those who understand it fully but you have to live a. real life stories from world war two. victory nineteen forty five dot dot com.

news today. and these are the images the world has been seeing from the streets of canada. today. sure is that so much you're going to make it a lot of people look at the world they see the serious and sustained food prices are at an all time highs and tens of millions of people are joining the dinner. disagreeing with the government can land you behind bars and opposition party leader faces jail after blaming his country's authorities for orchestrating

a fatal gun battle with soviet troops two decades ago. takes a look at both accounts of that day. january nine hundred ninety one fourteen protesters dying after clashes with soviet 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 official version of events and the goddess polansky this is a member of the vilna city council and says soviet soldiers would responsible basing my opinion on the witnesses 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 fish houses better people for the 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 is his argument that it was live in government that were responsible could land him in jail i am facing a charge of. up to two years in prison i mean 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 wanita that was as well because both of our party lithuanian penal code provides for criminal responsibility for the public denial of genocide crimes against humanity

or war crime was people who belittle these crimes or mock victims should be held responsible the nine hundred ninety one aggression against lithuania and its citizens falls under the definition of a war crime you get those. as an elected official mr panetta says a mune from prosecution however he has waived this right and is prepared to stand trial local historians question put to sources and back the official version of events. on the one hand there were civilians who wanted self-determination on the other hand there 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 it 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 soviet 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's 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 political 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 until this peter all of a r.t. lithuania. now time to update you on some other international news in brief for you this hour in our world update in iraq the defector who said saddam hussein had weapons of mass destruction has admitted he lied but offered allergan obvious

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 our research group so the war has resulted in over one hundred thousand civilian deaths. to australia now a tropical low pressure system which developed into a category one cycle and has battered the northern city of darwin dozens of homes with lucia main roads have been cut off by floodwaters high winds and heavy rains lashed the city overnight up rooting trees and knocking down power lines schools in the city's airport remain closed cycling is expected to intensify to a category two as it nears the coast and will linger until friday. south sudan has been announced as the name for the world's newest country it will come into existence in july after a referendum last month went overwhelmingly in favor of a split from the north there have been much speculation over the territories name and among suggestions were couche and the new republic the separation is hoped and

decades of conflict between the north and the south. and the rights activists in china condemning a magic trick which synchronized goldfish they say cruelty was required to make the fish move in unison yeah it was made famous after being broadcast on state t.v. during a lunar new year celebrations last month in the most watched program of the year magician responsible said there's no abuse refuses to give away the secret of the trick. so he looks fishy there it is in the u.s. president barack obama has unveiled his twenty twelve federal budget proposal in which he highlights the country's financial priorities the plan includes 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 sclerosis 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 amount 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. that was professor richard wolfe two russian cosmonauts on board the taking this year's second space walk flight engineers oleg and dimitri. stepped into open space as part of the russian space program cosmonauts would work outside of the station and state of the art space suits which have interactive displays that tell them what must be checked and what to do in the merging. to last for six hours. by the way you can always log on to our website for much more news and videos you can also read our blogs from around the world and leave your comments here's a taste of what's online right now at r.t. dot com. search the ski slopes are being put to the test of the twenty fourteen winter olympics host city prepares to stage the european cup. and ever

wanted to travel back in time to see was a part of a film called distant neighborhood based on the japanese manga comic well r.t. spoke to the lead actor and you can find out what you have to say on the web site r.t. dot com. the pentagon is denying rumors that the us commander in afghanistan will leave his post by the end of the year the british press earlier reported that general david petraeus is due to leave afghanistan along with a large share of u.s. troops washington's promise to pull all of its forces out of the country by twenty fourteen quote come hell or high water when our military contributor says the u.s. failed to learn from the soviet campaign there. 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 day raise e.g. of the united states information agency of 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 they're so armed 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 not into the narco caliphate. the former u.n. anti drugs chief says international corruption in afghanistan is under reported and accounts for great problems in the country. forty billion dollars. in afghanistan for the civilian aid only eight of these forty went through the african bowl. is international the production of national newspapers particularly western news bit was never speak about at least a big piece of a key base because the time about half of the production which is there of course but this is more than. the biggest corruption. by this

quarter the steel from african people eighty percent there with international aid. when you can watch that interview in the next hour here on r.t. and shortly we'll be joined by peter lavelle for the latest edition of cross talk which will look at the possibility of an upcoming food crisis has been reporting here in r.t. but now let's get the latest in business and dimitris with the russian markets looked pretty upbeat today than they did absolutely because well all factors are pointing to a higher being and that's what exactly happened we've got oil prices going up about the u.s. markets well look at that in just a minute first of all. gazprom is set to join the elephant oil field in libya in an acid swap deal with the tally an energy company any the one hundred sixty three million dollars deal is expected to be signed during an official visit of russian brother me to medvedev it's only on wednesday among other topics for discussion and

the potential to dissipate is the potential participation of any end they'll in russia's high tech hub of school cover and also stream project which is to carry fifty billion cubic tonnes of gas from russia to sudden europe across the black sea . meanwhile russia could quit the jubilance oil pipeline project that bypasses turkey's bosphorus straits according to russian media the partners from the russian side that strands never crossed nafta and gastronomy eft are about to officially end their financing of the project now this would effectively kill off the whole idea that russia bulgaria and greece agreed to three years ago and that's to build almost free hundred kilometers of an oil pipeline to export crude to european clients however transnet has denied this information saying russia does not intend to redirect or the liveries to other pipelines but some 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 may need but i don't think that. construction of some. extra additional pipelines world is justified economically. similar to markets first to the united states where the markets are up as new home construction in the u.s. came in better than expected we're seeing dow jones the nasdaq in more than half a percent european shares are also rising just minutes before closing the session french drug makers event is up four percent paris after it agreed to buy its rival genzyme corporation put twenty billion dollars in cash in russia wednesday's

session has ended in positive territory point four percent investors continue to trade cautiously pretty much all session long say look at some of those stocks burbank was gaining around a percent at the close of d.t.b. one of the biggest gainers of the day that's three point eight percent. it's finding it hard to recover after declining around eight percent over the past couple of weeks nor is nickel as one of the biggest losers of the day as fitch ratings says it's reconsidering the outlook for the company as a buyback of roussel stake in the nickel could damage liquidity service dollars up to half percent of the close following reports that may cut steel supplies to car makers after this. and other news french lender societe generale said its fourth quarter profit quadrupled due to turn around its russian units russian consumer banking business had a thirteen million euro profits compared. with the loss of fifty eight million euros last year russia which is the lenders second largest markets may become the

biggest contributor to the international retail earnings by twenty fifty. and the possible merger of russia's heavy truck producer come hours with its bella roots rival mars is one step closer to reality after bell rings deputy prime minister vladimir putin moscow echoed russian technologies desire to consolidate the two companies the potential merger would see come as biomass as to create a new company after and would in return give massive shareholders a forty nine percent stake in retail diesel prices in russia for them by two point four percent in a week with aviation fuel dropping in price to now this came after russian prime minister vladimir putin criticized the oil companies for unjustifiably high prices prices for diesel in aviation fuel in russia rose for fifty and thirty five percent respectively in the last four months. i'll be back in one hour's time with an

update to stay without seeing.

her. place. blame. her. sister st still keeps its secrets but now it's time to move feel up to the soviet firearms the teachers whose job is to light the light on the toxic. mold. bring you the latest in science and technology from around russia. we've dumped a few jerks covered. he .

for the full story we've got. the biggest issues get a human voice face to face with the news maker. in indonesia available in the. photo the ritz carlton hotel hotel the new millennium hotel in china you can see. the venetian marco resort hotel. with. riviera hotel cintra hotel mccown.

she's joining us for a welcome this is. in moscow with a top story. the protesters in the region follow the example set in egypt. by demanding reform. support from washington but some experts say it shows. some of the democracy. in this global tidal wave. of fueling these demonstrations. was the original cause of frustration which caused people to take to the streets and. may face jail for disagreeing with his government local authorities and troops

will be. fatal uprising twenty years ago waived his right of immunity from prosecution to stand up for freedom of speech in the baltic state. i'll be back with more news for you more developments in this and half an hour from now in the meantime is there enough food to feed the world while this is one of the many questions peter velo asks his guests on the latest edition of cross talk that's next stay with us here on r.t. . will. review the latest in science and technology from. the future covered. in.