gartin that on both the region even turmoil it's hard to say just how fundamental the changes will be. these are revolts they're not revolutions yet people's mindsets are revolutionary they want change they're fed up with these are revolts until the structures in place change it won't be considered revolutions in order for democratic position to occur people need to elect their officials right now we're not seeing that we're seeing the status quo in egypt the military state can over nothing's changed it's a formal change because the more barak was a part of the military the military in hosni mubarak one of the united states and its allies are politically hedging their bets what they're doing right now is something that we should call creating a counter discourse counter discourse is when you have a party in governance and in opposition if you control both sides now i'm not saying that the protests aren't genuine the protests are absolutely genuine organic but the fact is that the united states is trying to put its own opposition figures

into position to see the wisemen in egypt which are unelected individuals billionaires people who were it part of the status quo part of the regime in fact who did nothing when mubarak was in power. the president of the arab lawyers association in britain said the protests across the region were ignited by a hatred of too much western involvement in domestic policy. certainly the unifying factor is that all of them have had enough of an awful dictatorship the governments that have all been so something to the west that this goes against the will of the people in that region generally speaking the interest of the national interest of the west is contradictory to the national interest of that region that of countries have a problem with israel they have a problem with the americans they have a problem with capitalism and this is going to this is a unifying factor. now though the u.s.

is showing its support for the revolts one many of the middle east expert believes the way of demonstrations could come back to haunt america. so we definitely do have the peoples of different countries of burien of the definitely of the rack of libya of yemen of egypt seated who really want to have change now the other aspect that i think that we have to be very careful about is that this will be and i think it is probably being either macro managed and controlled even and probably is going to be used to favor the interests of certain global power structures float the united states would like to see regime change in iran but at the same time they would like to see no regime change in bahrain and in egypt they probably knew that regime change was on the way because of the age of hosni mubarak and what iraq is another problem altogether so i think that we have a generalized situation which the united states is for the state department finding very difficult to control. further wiki leaks revelations are casting

a shadow on the image of unity that nato is struggling hard to protect instead of being an alliance of equals and turns out to be increasingly controlled by the u.s. with washington dictating both its stance and agenda and as r.t. is considering as are reports it even goes as far as america snooping on its own nato allies. cat among the pigeons whistle blower strikes again this time at the very heart of nato according to documents published by two european newspapers a u.s. mole was planted right in the office of the alliance's secretary-general several of the cables revealed by wiki leaks indicate america is trying to control nato from within reporting confidential information back to washington this point of view is supported by some of the documents allegedly sent by u.s. diplomat jeff rafter. when under spog rasmussen was looking for closer ties with

the collective security treaty organization made up of former soviet states the us was quick to veto the idea 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 us try to pressure its allies. as one of nato as 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 but they of course would prefer to build exclusive bilateral relationships the strong ties between two military organizations such as nato in the c.s.t. 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 night zero is a group dominated by the united states of america that in fact it's not an alliance

of tool in the sense of being sovereign states. it's a bogus alliance people in the street understand that washington is calling the shots so. left right left right in march so this is this is what is happening in reality the people know the da. humans published so far haven't exactly uncovered anything groundbreaking but if every member in nato is supposedly equal it has raised questions over whether the u.s. really trusts the alliance i don't catch renos arvo r.t. . here with our to you live from moscow plenty more ahead this hour for you including a look into three years of the concept of self declared independence from serbia but it's still not wrong breakaway region any closer to recognition by the majority of the one member states and instead it's a broader political leaders closer to prosecution of. paul's was the you asked

books washes defense budget critics say it's just a drop in the ocean for the world's biggest military spender find out more in just a few minutes. but first ties between moscow and the vatican saw a dramatic improvement this week when president met pope benedict sixteenth in rome the third discussed ways of resuming dialogue between the russian orthodox and catholic churches in the latest attempt to mend relations that were destroyed during soviet times it was over a year since moscow in the vatican restored full diplomatic ties earlier the president met prime minister silvio berlusconi in rome where they signed a multi-million dollar energy deal and launched twelve months of cultural exchanges as part of a year of russia in. the e.u. is launching an aid mission to help it of the deal with a wave of immigrants from north africa more than five thousand arrived there from tunisia alone during the past week and officials agree the situation out of control

it comes as your office multiculturalism debate intensifies with the leaders of major nations lining up to admit it's not working even so one outspoken critic from austria has gone on trial for speaking out against religious groups are just getting a grouch over reports. of a european citizen peacefully debating islam with a muslim is nothing unusual in a multicultural country like australia but it's a topic not always discussed in such gentle fashion i advise you not to burn the koran but your readers. might want to fly. with learning how to. know your enemy elizabeth supper teaching wall has been on trial in a vienna court on charges of making what is described as a hate speech against islam a left wing all strand magazine recorded and published

a speech at one of his seminars lending who are in court i have nothing against people who want to practice their faith. but i would like them to do this in the privacy of their own homes here ideas she says are nothing new and when europe's political elites express them they are not prosecuted for the same views multiculturalism has failed this is nothing new and my group and i have been saying this for years now all of a sudden. and others come out of hiding and agree with us i don't know why but elizabeth subject wolf opponents say she crossed the line here a speech is outraged not only the muslim community but also made. it's not a matter of free speech that i can spread hatred. about large groups of society now we have to respect individuals in our society and we have to ask them to integrate and we have to help them to integrate yet european leaders such as german

chancellor angela merkel french president nicolas sarkozy and british prime minister david cameron say mostly culturalism in europe isn't working there are huge muslim communities but frequently such as in all strata they leave in their own areas a physical sign of non integration there is this should sit in vienna is known as a little a system will people here speak their native language they prepare their national dishes and wear the clothes which they are used to and this is exactly what elizabeth subaverage wall found here a fellow like south taking a stance against self segregation at top pick which was once taboo is now at the top of the european political agenda with multiculturalism now open to multi criticism from some of the continent's most influential political leaders we've yet to see how their views might fully influence debate on the ground and the future

shape of europe exiting the church over our team from vienna. well danish writer and columnist. says it's the politicians lack of accent that's led to europe's immigration crisis it's the fault of the governments not facing the facts standing up to reality standing up to the social phenomena popping up throughout europe in sweden and denmark as well you can you can't blame a whole. group of people for not doing this or that but you can you can blame the politicians for not dealing with the problems not not turning them into subjects can be criticized and and be paid as we did we will out there too much multiculturalist doc mazin taboos to being represented in the public sphere and now we've gone gone even further to practice legislation against hate speech against a defamation and limiting the free speech and and the soul which is european we

have to start opening up to criticism and start forming a new policy. the united states is a country all by founded by immigrants but its cultural mix and diversity are often no matt when it comes to trying to bury racial hatred later today we report on how white supremacy mood still run deep within society here some of what to expect. are. we going to get. all. the rally will sell lots of beer will. they will wear uniforms that will damage. the black them everything but very little damning the white. they are the key to

our problem our own right. and anti-terrorist operation has been introduced in parts of russia southern republic of korea and follows a series of incidents this weekend police defused a car bomb containing the equivalent of seventy kilos of t.n.t. at the hotel in the ski resort of terror skoal a few hours earlier a cable tower at a nearby ski lift in was blown up although luckily no one was hurt before that two masked men opened fire on a tourist minibus further north killing three guards you have all faria is in the volatile north caucuses and police are looking for a connection with islamist terrorists operating in their reach him. kosovo has marked three years since it unilaterally unilaterally declared independence from serbia most u.n.

member states including russia don't recognize it as a separate nation although its sovereignty is backed by the u.s. and several dozen other countries the out of verse three was marred by a recent council of europe report alleging that kosovo's leaders including the current prime minister were involved in crimes during the war of one thousand nine hundred nine being cooed executions of abductions and organ trafficking claims which serbia wants the un security council to investigate marco gases from the british serbian alliance for peace says the u.s. and the e.u. didn't look into it earlier because their roles in what happened would have emerged . the key thing is we go back to those eleven years to when serbia was being bombed when people were being butchered on bridges in schools and hospitals and roa stations where people were being killed in the name of a supposedly good albanian leadership that needed protecting with its population those crimes that were committed a great service at that time were so huge that to admit that in fact the reality

was that the albanians that the u.s. was sponsoring at the time were indeed stealers women and slavers and villains in a variety of different kinds would be to the legitimize one's own propaganda operation so they couldn't go back from their original claims without admitting that they'd be lying all along particularly in one thousand nine hundred nine and that would have meant those who bombed serbia were culpable in criminal terms for that bombing and should answer before his national courts so of course it would be very difficult for them to say actually yes we are indeed wrong we were wrong we supported the wrong side and under that and that was the one step too far for them there seems to be nobody charged with the task of actually investigating technologies findings so it will require a brave brave security council and a committee a security council one that wants the truth to actually appear and i have my doubts whether that will appear out of the security council. the u.s. defense budget is going under the knife as the country seeks to slosh the national

debt from a staggering fourteen trillion dollars the proposed budget is almost forty billion dollars less than last time even now it still amounts to almost half of all global military spending and we told you that america's approach to spending on its armed forces can't last forever. the defense budget is it's actually higher now than it was at the peak level of spending during the cold war we're spending more on defense and they are spending during the war in vietnam as well and defense spending in the country has actually doubled since two thousand and one so really i think we need to do a better job of matching our resources and our priorities i think since two thousand and one in this country we've sort of gotten into the mindset of buy everything do everything in a sense we've decided that if we can spend enough money we can sort of in a way address every threat that's out there we can buy perfect security and that's

just not realistic actually secretary gates was testifying in front of the house armed services committee and he was asked about this very idea you know how much money do we really need to spend for all these security needs and he said listen you know there's no amount of money that you can spend that can actually take our risk down to zero and that's just it's an illusory concept so we need to do a better job as i said of matching our resources and our priorities and at this moment time with the difficult economic situation in the us we really just can't afford to increase the pentagon budget year after year as we have been doing over the last decade. coming up in a few minutes the threat of a bass saying. that's president sankoh once again strongly warns the country's opposition we have one latest mass a signal about the country's future. but find out how by saying he's sorry and just agreeing with the official version of events twenty years ago by now part one lithuanian. unique

mission replicating a return trip to mars reached an important milestone this week friday marked the middle of the eighteenth month long virtual journey when two crew members carried out a second walk on a mock martian surface the very russians to europeans and the chinese volunteer were taking part in mars five hundred simulated landing on the red planet three they've already spent eight months in a set of windows tubes their only outside contact are delayed conversations with mission control and e-mails to their families scientists are studying the psychological effect of a long deep space boy it's the third virtual walks that happen on tuesday and it's a nine month journey home we're now at this hour from the european space agency explains what they hope to learn. we have to assume no it's this is. from russia. from china doing their second most walk and you see

a similar to martian surface which is. no more than forty square meters and what you see you know the two were in the in their space suits which are produced close to what you would expect for your most of the martian mission and what the two were doing is. soil samples and preparing them to bring the some of those big is near the cord which of course would not be there well in the real mars in their core supplies to the to us to know it's. electricity and also if they're. and of course in the real martian mission that all would be in the big picture there to us an old scary and there are. they are doing very very well so. everybody was really surprised at the everything is going so well and it's thing one of the reasons for that it's that they have a really really interesting goal of simulating the first wark on the morris' and

what we can see you know is that the two are going to take a break in this special chairs because each of the space you would see is aboard thirty five killer gone and also if you would expect a real mission on earth we could expect that after ten or fifteen minutes astronauts would would have to take a small break but the major point here is that they're really all everybody of them is really focused on their toes and that's that's the main reason why this is so so real and so close to reality. where across that story online that our team dot com where there's always plenty of news blogs and analysis for you let's take you through some of what's there right now fasten your seat belts process developing an atomic power train which creates a capacitor farther and faster than ever before also. a very potter cast a spell over millions of pounds but it's this great israel that strong find out why

teenagers are flocking to this harry potter is resting place. the president of belarus is threatening the opposition with being quote passed in the head unless it stops destabilizing the country alexander lukashenko is warning comes just days after the first person involved in last year's mass protests in minsk was sentenced to four years in jail opposition activists took to the capital streets of polls closed in the country's presidential election in december over six hundred protesters were arrested and more than forty face trial including several presidential candidates the editor in chief of the magazine russia in global affairs told us that all both the opposition in belarus is weak it's still making

nervous. opposition belarus is not not serious enough to really challenge his rule and actually the election results we should force was falsified by you in the same case or fair and free election i'm afraid of the question can we not as much but he he would do it at the same time it's quite strange that he blames the position for being so much important but. why in this case side show huge repression saw it seems at the question because steele is quite nervous about any kind of. allowed activities in belarus so opposition is weak look at show he is nervous. but update now on some of today's world headlines two german journalists have been by iran after more than four months in custody now safely back in berlin iran accused them of acting against national security and legally entering the country if that was them to try

to months in prison but then reduce that to find the germans were arrested after interviewing the son of an iranian woman who was sentenced to death by stoning for adultery. and thousands have rallied in thailand's capital to remember those who died in violent anti-government protests there last spring the red shirt demonstrators are also demanding the release of their leaders who've been in prison since last may up to thirty thousand people took part in the rally which is the fourth this year the protesters and says thailand's current government is not government democratic saying it won the last election only with our new backing. a little way any a politician faces trial for questioning the official version of violence surrounding his country's past to independents he claims soviet troops were not responsible for killing demonstrators during clashes twenty years ago but his

opinions landed him in deep water bitter all over takes up the story. january nine hundred ninety one fourteen protest is dying out the clashes with saudi troops the incident sparked international support for the demonstrators cause an independent state ability waiting however one local politician now faces a possible jail sentence but disagree with the. goddess polanski this is a member of the build a 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 national security committee chair. so he wrote in his book and nobody denied that but from our representatives. where. other businesses. who lived in that area and still live pointed to. houses here.

people shooting and. fresh opinions on historical events are nothing unusual 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 have i may receive a fine up to two years in prison i think this is absent from terms of human rights and freedom of opinion absurd or not it's the law in the few wanita that was with. the lithuanian penal code provides for criminal responsibility for the public denial of genocide crimes against humanity or war crime rules people who believe

these crimes are more victims should be held responsible the nine hundred ninety one aggression against lithuania and its citizens falls under the definition of a war crime. as an elected official mr player is a mune from prosecution however he has waived this right and is prepared to stand trial local historians question play to get his 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 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 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 north or

a ts did make attempts to provoke the savior thora t'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 polanski when it comes to the events of january one thousand nine hundred however those same historians are unsure whether it's the role of the legal system to determine who can say what about the circumstances of the deaths of fourteen people here in vilnius peter all over r.t. lithuania. we're going to take a short break here on our team and i'll be back with the headlights.

would be soon much brighter if you know about sums from funds to freshen some.

meals for instance on t.v. dot com. the week's top stories on our c middle east is engulfed by violent protests first by on the west in egypt and tunisia but experts warn it's too early to talk of regime change of all militaries the main targets. wiki leaks feels a blow to nato as new cables reveal washington spies on its own allies to influence them. policy. also get you out of books washing hands by tin pot with consequent military spending still equaling almost half of the global total many see it just as a drop in the ocean. and touched down during the longest ever space

simulation experiment a mock mission to mars has now reached play. russia and the european union have joined forces to fight the massive flow of drugs from afghanistan as a top e.u. official visited moscow on monday for talks next we hear how the international effort is going so far with the u.n. man whose job it is to tackle the problem. i'm here talking to mr unifil to he's the head of the un office for drugs and crime russia has long been trying to get drug production included on the list of international security threats ms tippett also thank you very much for talking to us now the u.s. seems to have been hampering those efforts to get struck production on to this list of international threats why do you think that it's very think there's a method referred to refuse included everybody comes.