people killed and wounded middle east expert mahdi dari a flat theme role i am told r.t. that although the region is in turmoil it's hard to say whether it will see any fundamental changes. these are revolts and not revolutions yet people's mindsets or revolutionary they want change they're fed up with these or revolts until the structures in place change it won't be consider revolutions in order for a 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 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 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. in the countries experiencing on rast are dancing to the tune out the west rather than listening to their people so says the president of the u.k. arab boyer's association certainly the unifying factor is that all of them have had enough of enough of 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. you know east x. agency believes the u.s. is trying to use the un rest in the region in its own interest but could have difficulty controlling it once so we definitely do have the peoples of different countries of burien of the round definitely of the rack of libya of yemen of egypt seated who 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 micromanaged and control even and probably is going to be used to favor the interests of certain global power structures low turnout eleven 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 has for the state department finding very difficult to control. well with protests across the middle east rampant the e.u. is launching a mission to help italy deal with the wave of immigrants from north africa more than five thousand people poured in from tunisia alone during the past week and officials agree the situation is troll the wave of migrants comes just as europe is seeing a vicious debate over multiculturalism of the leaders of major nations admit it's not working despite the current mood however one outspoken critic from austria has gone on trial for speaking out against the right over there just groups artistic i think that. 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 and i advise you not to burn

the koran about your readers. might studying what islam so we learn 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 landing here 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 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 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 you know 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 sure to indiana is known as the little people here speak their native language they prepare their national dishes and where the clothes which they are used to and this is exactly what hell is about

subaverage wall found here a fellow like sounds taking a stance against self segregation at top 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. danish writer and columnist. politicians lack of action that led to europe's immigration crisis. it's the fault of the government's not really 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

that can be criticized and and deep it is that we've allowed that too much multiculturalists to doc was in top who used 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 to criticism and start forming a new policy. and the united states known as the world's biggest cultural melting pot seems not always to achieve a good mix either later today we report on how white supremacy still runs deep within society here some of what to expect.

we're going to. put it back. we'll have a rally we'll sell lots of beer will. they will wear uniforms that will damage is the black man everything but very little damming the white. and they are the key to our problem our own right. in other news this week new wiki leaks revelations appear to show washington attempting to pressure nato a diplomatic cable released by the whistleblower says the u.s. went as far as being on the alliance as top official or discovering us all reports on the allegations. cat among the pigeons whistleblower strikes again this time at the very heart of nato according to documents published by two european newspapers

a us 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 raft. went 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 they of course

would prefer to build exclusive bilateral relationships 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 night zero is a group dominated by the united states of america that in fact it's not in the law institute all 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 and we march so this is this is what is happening and in reality that is what people no documents 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 catherine as our r.t. . u.s.

defense budget is going under the knife as the country seeks to slash national debt from a staggering fourteen trillion dollars the proposed version will see seventy a billion dollar cots in defense funding over ten years that's significantly less than comparison with a four hundred billion sloshes in discretionary spending which includes education food safety and environmental protection even with the upcoming costs washington will still account for almost half of the world's military expenses from finalist laurie conley laura conley i should say told us that the u.s. love of defense can't last forever. the defense budget is is 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 and 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 u.s. we really just can't afford to increase the pentagon budget year after year as we have been doing over the last decade. kosovo has marked three years of self proclaimed independence from serbia the region's unilateral move was backed by the

u.s. and seventy five other countries most un member states including russia have not recognized it as a separate nation the anniversary was marred by a recent council of europe report document claims kosovo as leaders including the current prime minister were responsible for serious crimes during the war in one thousand nine hundred nine these include executions abductions and organ trafficking claims which serbia wants the un to investigate but peace campaigner marco gas it says the u.s. and e.u. don't want their roles in the balkans conflict to emerge. 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 our 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 us was sponsoring at the time were indeed all steelers and slavers and villains in a variety of different kinds would be to the legitimize 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 the 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. watching r.t. live from moscow coming up in the program recipe for

a stable country facing opposition ahead well that's how the president of bell ruth has promised to deal with just stay with us for some analysis. and our lithuanian politicians get in trouble for doubting history it's written in court saying something that soldiers didn't know civilians in his country twenty years. unique mission imitating a return trip to mars reached an important milestone this week friday marked the equator of the eighteen month long virtual. journey two crew members carried out a second walk on the mock martian surface three russians two europeans and taiwanese volunteer who are taking part in mars five hundred simulated landing on the red planet they've already spent eight months in a set of windows to sit with time lags conversations with mission control and e-mails to their family their only outside contact scientists are studying the

psychological effects of such a long journey the third virtual walk should happen on tuesday and it will be followed by a nine month journey home. from the european space agency explains what the team hopes to learn. we have to assume no it's. oleksandr 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 when 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 collecting soil samples and preparing them to bring the samples back home if the cord which of course would not be there or on the real mars and their core supplies the other two astronauts. with electricity and also with air and of course in

a real martian mission that all would be in the big pick the two astronauts carry on they are on the break they are doing very well so. everybody was really surprised that everything is going so well everything one of the reasons for that is that they have this really very interesting goal of simulating the first walk on the marise and what we can see now is that the two are going to take a break in this special chairs because each of the space you would see is a board thirty five kilogram and also if you would expect a real mission on mars we could expect that after ten or fifteen minutes astronauts would they 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. r.t.

dot com is where you can check out all our stories blogs and analysis plus much more whenever you like here's what's lined up for you at are two dot com right now in your seat belt russia is developing an atomic power train which could take passengers further and faster than ever before. and also harry potter's magic has cost the spell on the millions of rounds of calls to the world but now there's a granny visit drawing a problem find out why people are flocking to the young magician is resting place in israel. from. police in russia southern republic of korea have to fuse a massive car bomb at a hotel in a ski resort and then to terror operation has been launched in parts of the republic police suspected connection with islamist terrorist operating in the

region earlier a cable tower at a local ski lift was blown up and a minibus carrying taurus was fired at by masked men three people were killed in the bokhari allies in russian's involved teil north caucasus region. the president of bella rue says opposition will be quote fast on the head unless it stops destabilizing the country alexander the gas tank of warning comes just days after the first person involved in last year's mass protests in minsk was sentenced to four years behind bars thousands of opposition activists took to the capital streets as polls closed in december presidential election over six hundred protesters were arrested and more than forty now face trial including several presidential candidates the editor in chief of the magazine russia in global affairs told us that although the opposition in belarus is weak it's still making lucas sankoh nervous. opposition bill or. not serious enough to

really challenge his rule and actually the election results we should force was falsified by you in the fair and free election i'm afraid of the question could you not as much but he 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 cheer huge repression saw it seems that lukashenko steele is quite nervous about any kind of. allowed activities in belarus opposition is weak look i showed he is nervous. a look now at some other major headlines from around the world over sixty four people killed in afghanistan as a result of a joint operation between the country's security forces and nato led foreign troops in the past week local officials say the victims were mostly civilians who died in

air raids with women and children making up almost half of the casualties only thirteen of the dead were identified as militants nato has officially confirmed its troops were involved in the operation but deny civilian killings. seventeen people have been gloom did in two successive attacks by suspected muslim insurgents in the south of thailand the first took place in a karaoke restaurant which was great with gunfire half an hour later a car bomb was detonated nearby last week another bomb wounded eighteen people and set buildings on fire in the neighboring province almost four thousand people have died in searching through related violence in the country in the last seven years. the ugandan president is to remain in power for a fourth term after the electoral commission confirmed that he won sixty eight percent of the vote in the country's recent election you know remove seven the main competitor and former allies only twenty six percent and outcome which is being

rejected by the opposition while the election was largely peaceful the president vowed to lock up any protesters attempting gyptian style demonstration. lithuanian 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 some deep water bitter all over takes up the story. january nine hundred ninety one. protest is done with so few troops the incident sparked international support for the demo. straight is cause an independent state of lithuania however one local politician now faces a possible jail sentence that disagree with the official version of events and the goddess polanski this is a member of the vilna city council and says soviet soldiers would responsible

basing my opinion on the witness list 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 oil for a case where shooting down into the crowd and other businesses who i know who lived in that area and still live pointed to various houses here on the roofs of british houses there were people who were shooting and they solve them. fresh opinions on historical events are nothing unusual so based on newly discovered evidence others merely conspiracy theories what's different is that mr polanski is 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 lithuania that was with. the lithuanian penal code provides for criminal responsibility for the public denial of genocide crimes against humanity or war crimes people who belittle these crimes or mock victims should be held responsible the nine hundred ninety one aggression against lithuania and its citizens falls under the definition of a war crime. as an elected official miss the player is a mune from prosecution however he has waived this right and is prepared to stand trial local historians question plates cases 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 save your thirty'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's says he will appeal to the european court of human rights an appeal he's convinced would be carried out from a jail cell history may not agree with the opinion of mr 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 of a r.t. lithuania. recap of the week's top stories is coming your way after the break.

for the. we've got. the biggest issues get

a human voice face to face with the news makers. we're covering the main stories of the week here in our team this sunday here are the top stories middle eastern states are ravaged by antigovernment protests by the uprisings in tunisia and egypt at least two hundred wives are reportedly killed by the military in the air. and the european union scrambles to help italy with waves of north african immigrants as politicians and experts sound out on whether multiculturalism is viable for europe. pulling the strings wiki leaks has revealed the u.s. has been spying on top nato officials and using pressure to distance the alliance

from russia. plus this week a man set foot on mars twice and though it was just a mock up trip it's a unique virtual journey will bring a real mission to the red planet a step closer. up next here in our team we examine the impact of oil corporations on the amazon rain forest and on indigenous tribes that live there. why do you believe the locals were affected by cancer whether it. was. hygiene conditions are terrible actually all the drinking water in eastern ecuador is. we have a mehlis results that shows the water contains excrement residues meaning that it comes from the native stepha cations the.