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 hit quarter 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 conflicting messages at the beginning of the demonstrations it seemed to support mubarak the u.s. had supported for thirty years and then slowly changed its support to the demonstrators and by the time the bike was overthrown it clearly put itself of the demonstrators but 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 any 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 so as the tsunami continues to sweep across the mid east the u.s. and israel as well increasingly alarmed. reporting on the russian president dmitri medvedev who's on an official visit to italy expressed hope that the key rights and liberties of people living in the revolution 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. during the visit agreements were signed including one on military transit to afghanistan and an asset swap deal with an italian energy company when you couldn't read more on that small on our website it's dot com the us unconditionally supports the corrupt regimes of the middle east but switches sides as soon as the dictator is a toppled well that's according to finney and coming up he's an expert on the region and he spoke to us earlier from protest stricken bahrain the us foreign policy is replete with contradictions of what they heal the virtues of democracy free markets free speech and these kind of things but in reality on the growing they've shown past and present to be first were 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 the misconduct abuse of the populations under new bring but populations it's very telling in the very mature real position 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 movements for democracy it was very noticeable that the discipline is quite lukewarm and it's quite laggard really in its it's not food some sort of word for word the demonstrators and my. use of that is quite evident to walking a very fine line because of their protests areas contradictions. experts say 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 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 are being slashed. ford has this report. in egypt the revolution took to the streets. but it may have started at the table when food prices begin 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 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. have to learn how to improvise and do things.

because they don't know we don't get a raise. and everything means basic staples like milk coffee and syria 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 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 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. 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 street from earth to take. you know we have to get sick and when you get there we're 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 table but it's unclear whether it will also bring them out in the streets for a heartbeat washington d.c. . and staying with dollars and the u.s. we explain to you later this hour how a new budget proposal is making some americans fear even for their future. trillions in federal spending will fall in the wrong hands and will only benefit

those in power. to lithuania now where disagreeing with the government can land you behind bars an opposition party leader faces jail after blaming his country's authorities for orchestrating a fatal gun battle with soviet troops twenty years ago ortiz petone of it takes a look at both accounts of that day. i think january one thousand nine hundred ninety one fourteen protesters dying in the 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 to disagree with fishing patient events i'll get out as polanski this is a member of the build a city council and says soviet soldiers were responsible i am basing my opinion on the witness list and on the book which was published by the former head of

parliamentary national security committee chair so he wrote in his book and nobody denied that but from the star our representatives awfully thin 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 valve's houses here on the roofs off the shelves as better people for their shooting and baseball than. you fresh opinions on historical events are nothing unusual some based on newly discovered evidence such as others conspiracy theories what's different is that mr polanski's his argument that it was lithuanian gunman that were sponsible turds in london in jail i am facing a charge of. up to two years in prison i mean i may receive a fight for up to two years in prison i think this is absolute from term in terms

of human rights and freedom of opinion absurd or not it's the law when you but also as well because boys are part the lithium union penal code survives for criminal responsibility for the public eye who have genocide crimes against humanity or work with people who believe so these crimes are more victims should be held responsible as in one thousand nine hundred. mission against little you know and its citizens falls under the definition of a war crime if you could because as an elected official mr play at this is a mune from prosecution however he has waived this right and he's prepared to stand trial local historian's question plates give his sources and back the fischel version of events for the most part i mean we're on the one hand there were civilians who wanted self-determination and the other hand it was military might in my assessment of events to generate nine hundred ninety one were an attempt to solve a use of force 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 thirty seven 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 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 one 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. well coming up later in the program we bring you the story of a. mental institution in russia norway. where. m.m.a. fighter great man coming up as big political asylum in norway overturned russia and. some other international news in brief for you know an iraqi defector who said saddam hussein had weapons of mass destruction has admitted he lied. used to justify the u.s. led two thousand and three invasion of a country he said he saw an opportunity to. bring democracy to a research group has resulted in over one hundred. deaths. which developed into a category one. dozens of. floodwaters

and heavy rains lashed the city overnight operation trees and knocking down power lines schools in the city. is expected to intensify. as it nears the coast. until friday. the name for the world's newest country will come into existence in july after a referendum last month went overwhelmingly in favor of a split from the north had been much speculation over the territories. and the republic separation is decades of conflict between north and. trick with synchronised goldfish they say cruelty was required to make the fish move. that was made. on state television. in the most program of the year. but refuses to give away the secret.

it was present 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 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 urged but these are very small potatoes the basic picture which republicans and democrats alike support is a budget that's going to be basically 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 probably long 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 according norway has ordered a russian nationalist be extradited back to his country which is like that sequels are known in his mixed martial arts days as the ginger tarzan escaped from a psychiatric ward in russia and sold political asylum auntie's katrina czar of the

latest. a request was sent by the russian prosecutor general's office to norway asking that this man be returned to russia to stand trial he is of course wanted here in this country for a number of robberies he is also of course known for many strange and bizarre acts he. leaned in relative to some sort of gods that he believes to be of russian descent he has called himself the view lord of the more room school forest which of course is a region in russia has denied christianity as this country's religion has proven itself to be a hardcore neo nazi and even the fighter is the result of course not the m.m.a. fighters the mixed martial arts bunch of perhaps other a few on well known figures in the fighting community have all said that as a fighter and even as

a human being that just loved atsic is not one of them and he of course continues to shock the public with his escapades the latest of course ring that he broke out of the psychiatric hospital apparently allegedly tearing at the fencing with his bare hands and then rode in a boat to norway from st petersburg that is how he arrived in that country and asked for political asylum that was refused to him and he's currently serving a prison sentence there for illegal possession of and on the registered firearm of that prison sentence will continue up until may receive eight months behind bars as soon as may which may be extradited back to russia of course and his the lawyers say that they will fight this decision by the use of force just loved does it is already considering asking for political asylum in both law to be and lithuania. by

the way you should log on to our website for much more news and videos in addition to what you see here on r t you can also read our blogs from around the world and of course leave your comments is a taste of what's online right now r.t. dot com the sochi ski slopes are being put to the test as the twenty fourteen winter olympics host city purse to stage the european cup. i never wanted to travel back in time it was a plot of a film called distant neighborhood based on a japanese manga comic who spoke to the lead actor and you can find out what he had to say on the website. the. two russian cosmonauts on board the have taken this year's second space walk flight engineers dimitri. have now returned back to the station after spending

about five hours in open space the cosmonauts were clad in space suits which have interactive displays telling them what must be checked and what to do in an emergency shuttle to take six hours but the cosmonauts were able to complete their work sooner. i'll be back with a look at our main stories in about ten minutes from now in the meantime 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 here in russia alone and also spoke to former u.n. chief lucky about a new five year plan aimed at eradicating drug production in afghanistan and that interview is next on r.t. .

thank. you thank you very much for being with us today very well here here now it tore to afghanistan. do you agree with american ambassador eikenberry who says that president karzai is brother is a major afghan opium trade or when i was in the missions this guy was already known as a major trafficker so it's true course it is true but this is just one. out

of any problems whatever you work so closely with afghanistan that's why i'm asking revelations for example in diplomatic cables to u.s. diplomatic cables it dry disastrous picture afghanistan for example is it true that afghan minister arrived to dubai with fifty million dollars in cash or like other cabinet members have privately last in palm trees already in dubai is a true absolutely true. but this is just one the piece of the truth you might have a part that you would find many figures. and one important figure is this that out of forty billion dollars that lived in afghanistan for the civilian aid only eight of these forty went through the afghan government so the corruption of the african government is big so where does the rest go to the government officials know that there is international corruption so they're all intertwined yes which is

never addressed international newspapers particularly western newspapers never speak about this big piece of the cake they speak all the time about corruption which is there of course but this is most like. the biggest corruption. that i discovered or the steal of from african people eighty percent of the international aid operation on the bigger scale for instance and they tell us anti-drug policy in afghanistan has had any impact ranging in two thousand and one up to now while many thought doesn't do the cortex causing separation. the contribution of a patient the military occupational by you need. of any stanleys different. their contribution to corruption is they military logistics. they subcontract to

your friends to private companies. these companies subsequent to. the military would just use a business of a couple billion dollars to africa companies who are comprised by world roads sometimes even by the taleban. they go to the security of. boiler trucks or goes from kabul grey anywhere in afghanistan in exchange of huge amount of money and the money that the state and for the military nato military logistic is more i calculated then the money the taliban takes from drug trafficking well now you as an executive director at the office for drug control and crime prevention i know that your policies almost brought about a collapse in afghan poppy trades did you directly negotiate with the taliban to kill the poppy crop or i spoke with the taliban leaders in one thousand nine

hundred seventy when they just conquered. the country about daily munition opium poppy cultivation in exchange for international aid for the occupation. they did not abide to the agreement we've got. and i change the strategy. i ask of the security council sanctions they got substance also i submitted them politically from the countries that surround the focused on the states fifty percent of having was having to russia or before arriving to europe. after going to have a state in the region both to pakistan. to the six countries borders and i created an alliance with these countries to put pressure on the taliban on stopping

the cultivation and that this fact or blige at certain point the taliban to be the production for the year two thousand and one there was almost zero production for this time this is important because. i showed that it is possible to eliminate the drug cultivation of understand it is not something that is beyond our possibilities for example in a recent interview with russia today its recent interview with cars actually said that you know it promises that we are in control of there is no poppy production where we're not in control we you know we can't be responsible. it is a draw that if they cooperate with the international community in the plan to provide africa base and alternative livelihood. drug production can be eliminated i'm sure that to the point that with the even of. we in the with the between russia

and the e.u. we are going to launch a plan to eliminate production in five years thank you very much. thank you. you. see. her. play. her. her. her. successor st still keeps its secrets but now it's time to move feel that the soviet

silence keaton's from between black and white on the oxy. wealthy british style sucks in. markets why not. come to. find out what's really happening to the global economy with mike's cause or for a no holds barred look at the global financial headlines kaiser reports. he. says he. sees.

something. in. the. princess hotel. suite hotel one called the imperial. hotel. moto the cruise hotel but discovery peach hotel. the sea entrepreneur result. in israel.

just. a few miles from the russian capital top stories. with many in neighboring countries political reforms and protests getting violent. support from washington that some say the u.s. is using the pretext of democracy but displaying double standards. for culprits with. food price hikes planting the seeds of revolution analysts say this was the original cause of frustration which forced people to take to the streets. with these government. troops. twenty years ago. he's even way too smart of immunity from prosecution to

stand up for freedom of speech in the baltic state. and that's it for me today my colleague unit ship of all of it should be here innocent enough now in the meantime is there enough food to feed the world and that's one of the questions peter lavelle aussie's guests on the latest edition of crosstalk that's next on.