the darrius who has deemed a lie at told r.t. that although the region is in 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 consider 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 is taking over it 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 backs 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 an opposition if you control both sides now i'm not saying that the protests aren't genuine the protests are absolutely genuine and organic but the fact is that the united states is trying to put its own opposition

figures into position this includes 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. well 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 policies. certainly the unifying factor that 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 middle east expert believes the wave of demonstrations could come back to haunt america once so we definitely do have the peoples of different countries of bahrain of the round definitely of the rack of libya of yemen of egypt seated school really want to have change now the other aspect that i think 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 out of the cities 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. in other news further wiki leaks revelations are casting a shadow on the image of unity the nato is struggling hard to protect instead of being in our lines of equals who turns out to be increasingly controlled by the us with washington dictating both it stands and agenda and as our duty is considering those are reports it even goes as far as america's 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 rafiki. 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 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 but they of course would prefer to build exclusive bilateral relationships the strong ties between two military organizations such as nato and 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. is that a group dominated by the united states of america that in fact it's not an alliance

a 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 we're much so this is this is what is happening and in reality people know 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 at all. plenty more ahead for you this hour here on r.g.p. including a look into three years of kosovo self declared independence from serbia but it's still not brought breakaway region any closer to recognition by the majority of the u.n. member states instead it's brought kosovo as leaders to secure ship. and

as the u.s. looks to one should stop fence project critics say it's just some drop in the ocean for the world's biggest military spender find out more in just a few minutes. ties between moscow and the vatican saw a dramatic improvement this week when president medvedev met pope benedict the sixteenth in rome the two 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's just over a year since moscow when the vatican restored full different magic 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 italy. well the e.u. is launching an aid mission to help italy 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 is out of control it comes as europe's 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 choosing the democrat reports. of a european citizen peacefully debating islam with a muslim is nothing unusual in a multicultural country like little stream but it's a tall peak not always discussed in such gentle fashion but i do not to burn the koran about your. studying what is luck. with learning how to. know your enemy you elizabeths supper to travel has been on trial and 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 your ideas she says are nothing new and when europe's political elite 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 subjects 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 business districts in vienna is known as the little 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 sounds take. a stance against self segregation a 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 influence

debate on the ground and the future shape. exceeding of their children r t from vienna. well tennis writer and columnist and the politicians lack of action that led to europe's integration crisis it's the fall 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 out there too much multiculturalists to dog mazin top booze 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 so which is european we have to start opening up to criticism and start forming a new policy. the united states as a country all but founded by immigrants but its cultural mix and diversity are often no match when it comes to trying to bury racial hatred later today we report on how white supremacy mood still within society here some of what to expect. right. where you are. but very little damming the way.

they are the key to our problem are already. and antiterrorist operation has been introduced in parts of russia's southern republic of korea it follows a series of incidents this weekend police to fuse to a car bomb containing the equivalent of seventy kilos of t.n.t. at a hotel in the ski resort of terrorists quote a few hours earlier a cable tower at a nearby ski lift was blown up although luckily no one was hurt before that two masked men opened fire on a tourist minibus further north killing three of all caria is in the volatile north caucasus and police are looking for a connection with islamist terrorists operating in the region. kosovo has marked three years since it unilaterally declare 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 anniversary 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 one nine hundred ninety nine war they include executions 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 e.u. do look into it earlier because their roles and what happened would have emerged. the key thing is to 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 was so huge that to admit that in fact the reality was

that the albanians that the us was sponsoring at the time were indeed all steelers and slavers and villains in a variety of different kinds would be to delegitimize one's own propaganda operations 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 that those who bombed serbia were culpable in criminal terms for that bombing and should answer before an international court 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 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 the security council and the commission 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 us france budget is going under the knife as the

country seeks to slash the national debt from a staggering fourteen trillion dollars the proposed budget is almost four billion dollars last the last time even now it's still amounts to almost half of all global military spending defense analysts laura calmly told us 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 than they are spending during the war in vietnam as well and defense spending in the country is 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 testify 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 money money that you can spend that can actually take our risk down to zero 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. here with our t.v. live from moscow coming up in a few minutes the threat of a balancing in belo road as president once again strongly warns the country's opposition we ask what your latest message signals about the country's future also . nobody denies that but from the start over representatives of the libyan oil for its use where should you go into withdrawal revisiting history is

putting a lithuanian politician under the threat of imprisonment the government accuses him of genocide did not help. the 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 three russians two europeans and i chinese volunteer who were taking part in mars five hundred simulated landing on the red planet last week they've already spent eight months in a set of windows to their only outside contact are delayed conversations with mission control and e-mails to their family scientists are studying the flight a logical of fact a long deep space voyage the third virtual walks that happened on tuesday and it's a nine month journey home when a pushout from the european space agency explains what they hope to learn. if we

have to assume no it's this is. from russia and. china doing their second most walk and you see a similar to the martian surface which is no more than forty square meters and what we see you know the two when the there is space suits which are produced close to what you would expect for your most emotion mission and what the two are doing is soil samples and preparing them to bring the symbols because it is near the cord which of course would. not be there on the real mars and there. are supplies to the to us to know it's. electricity and also with air and of course in the real martian moon mars mission that all would be in the big pick or two arsenal to carry on there or. they are doing very very well so. everybody was really surprised at the everything is going so bell and a thing one of the reasons for that it's that they have

a really very interesting goal of simulating the first wark on the morris' and what we can see now is that the two are going to take a break in these special chairs because each of the space you would see is a board thirty five killer gun 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 at 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. we are cross that story online at r.t. dot com there's always plenty of news blogs and alice that's for you let's take you through some of what's there right now in your seat belt process developing in a common power train which could take passengers farther and faster than ever

before also. harry potter cast the spell over millions of fans but if this craving is real that strong crowds find out why teenagers are wanting to this harry potter's resting place. the president of velo roosts is threatening the opposition with being quote bashed 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 thousands of 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 me question nervous. opposition biller us is not not not serious enough to really challenge his rule and actually the election results we should force was falsified by you in the m.p.'s or third in free election i'm afraid of the question can we not as much but he would do it 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. norm allowed to activities in belarus so oprah's issues we look at show his nose. let's take a brief look now at some of today's world headlines two german journalists leased by you wrong after more than four months in custody they're now safely back in

berlin iran accused them of acting against national security and illegally entering the country it sounds more than twenty months in prison but then reduced that defines the germans were arrested after interviewing the son of an iranian woman who was sentenced to death by stoning for adultery. 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 bird says there's insists thailand's current government is non-democratic saying it won the last election only with army backing. a little when ian politician faces trial for questioning the official version of violence surrounding his country's path to independence 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 after clashes with saudi troops the incident sparked international support for the demonstrators cause an independent state of lithuania however one local politician now faces a possible jail sentence that disagree with the fish operation of events this polanski this is a member of the vilna city council and says soviet soldiers were 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 libyan authorities

where shooting down into the crowd. and other businesses for i know who lived in that area and still live pointed to bell's houses here on the roofs off which houses better people for the shooting and they saw them. fresh opinions on historical events and 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 i may receive a fine 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 in the few ania that also is what we call boards of our part the lithuanian penal code provides for criminal responsibility for the public denial of genocide crimes against humanity

or war crime rules people who believe so these crimes are more victims should be held responsible than ninety nine he want to go. nation against lithuania and its citizens falls under the definition of a war crime you get as an elected official mr play at this is a mune from prosecution however he has waived this right and is prepared to stand trial local historians question put to use the 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 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 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 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. a recap of our headlines of the week's top stories is coming your way after this short break.

is he used. to.

watching our to you live from moscow we're taking a look back at the week's top stories this sunday the middle east is engulfed by violent protests spurred by an arrest in egypt and tunisia but experts warn it's too early to talk of regime change while militaries remain in charge and. wiki leaks deals a blow to nato as new cables reveal washington spies on its own allies to influence a blocks of policies. also the. defense budget with postcard military spending still equaling almost. when you see it as just a. touchdown during. a

simulation experimental mission to mars has now reached halfway. up next for you our special report about the damage oil corporations are doing to the amazon rainforest and the indigenous tribes living there.