after a private dialogue with the u.s. representative to nato rasmussen took all mention of the two organizations growing closer out of his address to the alliance in two thousand and nine but why would the u.s. try to pressure its allies. as one of nato is key players the u.s. tries to prevent the alliance from growing too close to the russia in the former soviet bloc because the region is of strategic interest to america they of course would prefer to build exclusive bilateral relationships strong ties between two military organizations such as nato in the c.s. is not in u.s. interests. this is an odds with the image of the alliance tries to project a strong union where every opinion matters even the people in the street understand that. calling the shots. left right left or right. this is what is happening in reality that people know the documents published so far haven't exactly uncovered anything groundbreaking but if every

member a nato is supposedly equal it has raised questions over whether the u.s. will really trust the alliance out ghastliness are the r.t.e. . shock waves from up peoples in tunisia and egypt spread all across the greater middle east with opposition protests sweeping through other countries in the region clashes between rival demonstrators of once again groups yemen and what's now the eighth day of on rest government activists have been using social networks to call for as many people as possible hit the streets on friday that demanding the country's president ali abdullah saleh to step down after more than thirty years in power clashes also erupted in jordan's capital amman government demonstrators according for reforms. peace treaty with israel protests turned violent in libya where at least twenty people have been killed in recent days in clashes with security forces police reported to use farmlands to disperse the crowd in egypt people once again gathered in tahrir square to celebrate

a week since hosni mubarak huge pressure on him to quit presidency well earlier the military council which runs the country suspended the constitution and dissolved both houses. middle east specialist james denselow from king's college in london told me earlier there are no significant changes in egypt so far because the parents associates are still in power. it is interesting to see today crowd celebrating the successful ousting of mubarak yet this hasn't really been a revolution in a traditional sense mubarak's power structure is his cronies are still really in a similar place is they were all this wall the battle to our has been won the war over the future of egypt is really yet to be fought and we see what happens next in terms of real constitutional change changes to the state of emergency whether political parties can rise out of the ashes of mubarak's authoritarianism the genie has well and truly been left out of the bottle and reverberations from what

happened in tunisia and now being felt in every single state and i think as the persian tales go if there were to be three wishes from a genie out of the bottle the government would wish that the populations would accept the compromises that made the population seem to wish that their leadership disappeared and the international community seems to be busy wishing that it knew which side of the fence to sit on. and thousands of mourners have gathered in bahrain for the funerals of anti government protesters killed in a brutal crackdown their police in the gulf states reportedly use supplies made by british companies to clear the protest human rights watch dogs are calling for an embargo on arms supplies and a disclosure of why export licenses were issued all of the plays from the campaign against the arms trade says britain should reconsider its arms trade policies. we can see across the middle east that the government is selling to repressive regimes all over that this could happen at any a point in and we've got to be aware that when we sell you both non-lethal and

lethal equipment those will be used and. generally at some point that they will be used on someone innocent the u.k. government needs to seriously reconsider how approaches arm sales in the first place not only have these arms being licensed to be so diocese in the case of bahrain. they are actively promoted as such the u.k. government and actively promotes arms sales to a number of repressive regimes this very weekend the u.k. government is sending representatives out to the large arms fair in abu dhabi it's called i debts. which the arms industry trade body in the u.k. claims ten percent of its exhibitors will be british at this spare and the u.k. actively encourages these companies to sell including the very equipment that is being used to protest this in the middle east to seriously look at not just where the selling to a specific country is and which i is a good idea but whether but how it should be selling arms and if it should be

selling arms at all. is the these weapons are widely misused and the u.k. is a arms and export criteria which look good on paper very rarely applied with any record . but to be page talking to the lowly undoes those tensions rage across the middle east debate is heating up over which country is going to be next and having its leader toppled well in the next hour in cross talk piece of the bell and his guests will be asking if iran is that likely to follow the example set in tunisia and egypt or whether that would just be wishful thinking from western governments but what's the risks facing as we talk about massive changes going on in the arab world part of the problem is that no one knows the extent of the opposition because most of the logs go off the leaders with force on the ground after the after the demonstrations in june two thousand and nine after the election so the true it's true level of discontent with the government remains very very hard to quantify actually so no one's really said it on this program but i'll ask you the question

this point blank as i always do are people tired of having the islamic republic of iran i didn't vote for mr imagination i've said this on numerous occasions there's there's it's clear but there's no doubt that he is highly popular throughout the country every province that he goes to is like a rock star you have tens if not hundreds of thousands of people who surround his but it's easy is really his we're lots of programs the demonstrations it's very easy for them to do now is not true if that was true then they gyptian regime could have done that now it's it's obvious that it's that's not the case. and. that's crosstalk coming your way in the next. two astronauts from the mars five hundred program of carried out their second walk in a virtual surface of the red planet is part of

a unique project that simulates an eighteen month mission many purcell from the european space agency explained the meaning of the imitation. so we have to ask. this is xander from russia and from china doing their second walk and you see a simulated martian surface which is no more than forty square meters and what we see the two were in the in their space suits which are pretty close to what we would expect for real martian martian mission and what the two are doing is also what we would expect the first humans doing on mars namely collecting soil samples and preparing them to bring this back home if the cord which of course would not be there or on the real mars and their core supplies to the to us to know it. with electricity and also with air and of course in

a real martian mission that all would be in the big take to us to know what's scary and they are on the break they are doing very very well so. everybody was really surprised that everything is going so well everything one of the reasons for that it's. really very interesting goal of simulating the first wark on the mars and also if you would expect a real mission on mars we could expect that after ten or fifteen minutes astronauts would there would have to take a small break the. major point here is that they are really of everybody of them is really focused on their task and that's that's the main reason why this is so so real and so close to reality you always have to do a first step and this is a very good first step because it is very clear that. the mission the main mission to mars would be international it's a very good simulation it's also international simulation if you participation in

chinese participation. if you look at the future you know that we are right now in the process of. extending the international space station for another ten years. after. we would do maybe the next steps but this is. still a discussion which would be the exactly the next steps for human spaceflight there is a crew of six and it's of course a really russian project or if international participation. has quite good relations with the in situ for biomedical problems and that might be the reason why we are involved but there's no particular exclusion of anybody from the project and in fact there is participating scientifically but not with their own astronaut

by the way you can follow the whole mission to mars on our website that's a dot com and if you're a cosmic fan a british cartoonist may have something for you in the story the first man in space yuri gagarin's trip gets retold once again in a comic adventure book based on the true story. also on the web so it's a glimpse of the personal and professional life of a man who changed the world nobel prize winner first the only president of the u.s. a. child. japan's chief cabinet secretary yukio edano is going to view russia's less secure alliance from an airplane it comes after recent visits by russian officials to the archipelago which tokyo claims earlier russia said it would not tolerate japan's radical approach towards the territories and announced reequipping the cools

military garrisons the islands in the pacific ocean were handed to russia as part of agreements at the end of the second world war however it seems that other parties are interfering in the dispute with washington once again underlining its position over the letter could all change saying the territory belongs to japan so you struck him from russia's commerce and newspaper says the u.s. is pushing russia to review history. again comes as a double surprise because of that let me remind you that. was a san francisco agreement or flamed in fifty who gave up all the claims for coriolanus and in addition to that as the new united states were are barely in the second world war so now there's an attempt to reconsider the results of the second world war on the part of. their gently pushing us where. more and more americans bear the brunt of the recession but major banks profits are still on the rise one of these thriving companies is j.p. morgan which cashes in on food stamps used by those struggling to survive on

a daily basis but is miniport find out how the rich benefit off the back of the pool. americans are generally known for their healthy appetite some eat what they crave while others like gabrielle jemma can't use the food stamps here for me to express of only eat what is affordable is there a way to give me two dollars worth. of these go look for the sixty one year old is unemployed and maintains a monthly food budget of two hundred dollars governor is among the forty three million americans relying on federal food subsidy here's. the electronic benefit transfer card allows food stamp recipients to spend their allowance the plastic lifeline for the hungry and unemployed is also a money maker for j.p. morgan chase the largest processor of food stamp benefits in the u.s. meaning an increase in food stamp recipients equals more profit for the investment

bank every time i use my debit card goldman sachs or j.p. morgan in this case make a little money off of my transaction j.p. morgan is responsible for the fact that i want to apply so it doesn't surprise me that every every aspect. of this program and everything else has been privatized j.p. morgan chase provides food stamp debit cards in twenty six states and the district of columbia the firm is paid per customer and in the state of indiana j.p. morgan makes roughly one hundred eighty six thousand dollars per month critics say the investment bank is making a fortune off american poverty as long as the out of line great remains high as long as families are struggling there's sort of this perverse incentive for j.p. morgan chase to continue to benefit off of high unemployment and they're living up to this person so no because in many states they're actually offshoring jobs

related processing steps to save money. j.p. morgan has been routing benefit card customer service calls to india where employees reportedly earn no more than three fifty an hour. meanwhile in the u.s. the business of economic hardship nearly fourteen million americans like every are unemployed bailed out to the tune of twenty five billion dollars in two thousand named j.p. morgan has bounced back reporting a seventeen point eight billion dollar profit in two thousand and ten the same success can be said for the people forty percent of food stamp recipients are working americans unable to keep up with the cost of living. archie new york. and the limbic venue in the russian city of sochi has been checked by the country's top officials in an atmosphere of. and.

russia's president the prime minister paid a visit to the european cup being held this week the two were satisfied with the track and the soundtrack for the event featuring a headline by the new treatment. of the competitions in full swing in three years time. now time for a quick look at some of the headlines from around the world at this stage a suicide car bombing in the eastern afghan city of khost has killed at least eleven people including two police officers and wounded. the incident took place at a roadside checkpoint and police say they grew suspicious of the bomb and opened far from team to detonate explosives officials of playing the taliban who frequently target security checkpoints. at the whale hunting season and to new pressure. group the four ships fleet was to kill. returned to shore but activists say they will continue their protests commercial whaling has

been banned for two decades but it is allowed for the purposes of scientific research. well you also have been given a brief respite there's a different kind of crisis unfolding in the amazon we investigate how all corporations have been dumping toxic chemicals in ecuador and forests for decades threatening the existence of indigenous populations well our special report is coming your way at eight thirty g.m.t. but here's a quick look. israelis

and palestinians have been a long time and in these but for mothers who are desperate to save their sick children the conflict takes a back seat and it's ready clinic is saving thousands of youngsters lives so many neighboring countries even though israel has had tense relations with. has this report. every our way is touch and go for fourteen months i don't know whose little heart was born with a hole in it for the operation in this hospital my son would have died and in the next ward fourteen year old one yell who was almost did when she was wheeled in one

of five iraqi children flown from baghdad to a month and then driven across the border to jerusalem she was almost she was so sick that you could not walk very talk she was very these parents face the most difficult decision of their lives bring their children to israel a country at war with this and risk punishment and even death back home or prepare for the alternative possibly losing their child initially it was very difficult for them because i was their enemy the parents were very anxious they didn't know what to expect i was very scared to come to israel very frightened. and she had good reason to be her country rock forbids its citizens from traveling to israel despite them there's there might be a layover in another country like you know for instance from africa they come in there because it's the only place in africa that was. before the israeli doctors that treat these arab children the decision is simple doing what they think is

right to do and doing anything. in the last fifteen years more than two and a half thousand trolldom have been brought here on third and created half of them come from gaza the rest come from iraq indonesia and across africa the main goal of this organization is to help developing countries create the medical ability to treat children with heart problems by themselves in order to achieve that we bring children from these developing countries to israel we also bring doctors from these developing countries for training here in israel and it's a vision that's paying off not only is so easy you turn to be grateful to the israeli doctors the. saved her daughter's life she's now brave enough to tell the neighbors back home home what i will tell everyone we were in israel and how the saved my daughter's life i'm no longer afraid to say because my daughter is alive and so while the politicians continue to have

a go at each other and israel and her arab neighbors will further apart on the ground at least in this spot a very different story is unfolding policy r.t. . well that's the news update for the moment are we back with a recap about eight minutes from now in the meantime business is next with dmitri. thanks very much bill the russian finance minister the inflow of foreign direct investment into russia dropped by a third last year to around thirteen billion dollars. so that the growth of foreign investment is vital for the g.d.p. growth of at least four percent but chris we've stratas that were also says the same time russia remains very interesting for portfolio investors. we're seeing stock market flows coming in and. we get this data on a weekly basis from from an agency in the u.s. and that does show that this year in full you investors prefer russia to the other

big emerging market fund so for example the last four or five weeks there has been net outflows of money from countries like brazil china and india where as russia funds have the track to money support for you investors are betting that things are going to change and that is a hopeful lead indicator but we still need to see a pickup in foreign direct investment and frankly we really don't expect to see that at laughter the election i think the second half two thousand and twelve is a more realistic target in two thousand and eleven and maybe doubt until two thousand and thirteen. time out so you can look at the markets final hours of trading in the united states and the markets there are mixed with the dow up the nasdaq down just a caterpillar is up one point eight percent boeing is one point six percent higher in russia in a sea friday session point one seven percent lower with electricity shares the biggest drag but overall the week has been positive gaining one point two percent

overall my six point eight percent nor net goal was one of the biggest losers yet again in friday's session down one point seven percent massive losing streak for the stock was down two point three percent on news of planned measures to slow the pace about just the rate increases and lukoil end of the session three quarters of a percent up on news of proposed changes in the way the russian oil industry is taxed. the annual russian business week in london that address the most pressing economic issues facing russia and the world our correspondent laura abbott has the details. russian business week's become an annual event here at the london school of economics a forum for russian and international business people to discuss the most pressing issues facing russia's investment climate this year the hot topics were the pros and cons of investing in russia and the development of moscow at the global financial center the feeling at the forum was that moscow isn't just aiming to be

a global financial power house but actively needs to become one they can serve all the surrounding countries mineral rich nations like kazakstan crave with markets run in rubles rather than having to borrow expensive foreign currency is to create its own commodity exchange without having to go through london's banks the gap between perception and reality had a big part to play in the discussion of the investment climate as a whole with speakers saying it's entirely possible to do business cleanly in russia providing as in any country you're careful and fully aware of who you are dealing with similar programs exist in russia as in other emerging markets for example tenets of accounting standards and different that is they said but market participants are positive and the sectors most attractive for foreign investment according to participants retail insurance and infrastructure. funding since we have the time let's go in for some analysis from mark rubenstein that i have seen metropole he believes investors also you advantage of the good start of the year in

russia we are seeing our flat market and this is pretty much the trend for the whole week. no watch momentum so the market is i think in a sort of a consolidation stage where he's looking for a new driver to grow and continue to believe there were in the bull markets but we've taken important here because number one we had a nice run since the beginning of the year number two there reporting where u.s. companies is behind us with strong reporting but anyway that's already priced in most of it number three the marker data that we're getting proving the point that years economies are accelerating global economies are accelerating but at this point and this is being taking already as a given in many ways. all right i'll be back in one hour some of one final updates of the week's business news the headlines are next with bill don't go away.

would be so much brighter if you knew about the song from still.

don't come. tumbling.

don't you. consider. human treatment.

with russian. space walk. the real thing. from neighboring countries disregarding tense relations between states. about one another update and fifteen minutes from now the meantime it's our culture show must go out and this week modern discovers how to make life more affordable here in the

russian capital known to be one of the most expensive cities in the world. hello and welcome to the program now moscow is famous for being one of the mess expensive cities in the world. and we see just how low we can find prices in the capital there are hundreds if not thousands of deals of sales and discounts to be found here. the fence is six. pounds. you don't have to be a. wife to enjoy shopping. still has several locations around the capital.