if you want. to. call. the. international divisions over serious nations try to end the bloody crackdown on anti-government protests as russia insists intervention will only lead to more violence. washington support for opposition movements in the middle east and north africa could be backfiring on its biggest ally israel for its actually pushed in radical islamists. the. final flight for russian pilots as an american court finds him guilty of drug trafficking. compulsory to understand the treatment russia cracked down on trucks with new measures aimed at war stick it

still keep the habit i'll have all the details of these things just to people. and in business this hour of shortages in russia may mean suspension top oil product exports join me for this story and more in around twenty minutes time. international news live from our studios here in central moscow this is r.t. just past nine pm in the russian capital russia has blocked un plans to condemn syria's brutal crackdown on regime protesters saying there are no grounds for international interference u.s. and european nations of call for strong measures if the massacres rejects appeals to end the violence syria's leader faces international criticism for using troops and tanks to put down the unrest that's already trained. hundreds of lives however

moscow bodies foreign interference could do was good they can protest as another country's relied on foreign support but u.s. efforts to push them even toward democracy may actually be feeling a rise in extremist movements affecting regions only not arab state israel. has more on there from tel aviv. these gunmen mean business and they're upping the stakes just that little bit higher. gyptian regime like the zionist enemy trying to stop us fighters and girls are and we always got the weapons we needed to fight the zionist enemy. and now they are getting more than they could ever hopeful before me gyptian president hosni mubarak's men gone the borders couldn't be easier to get through today the goodwins. who worlds all swaddled. who. have much more freedom to do whatever they like. and they're doing it smuggling weapons into gaza the result two attacks in three months

on a natural gas pipeline that supplies a quarter of israel's electricity which is why is the u.s. claims it's bringing a new tomorrow to egypt most israelis would rather remember yesteryear the eagerness of the united states to topple before major from president hosni mubarak and bring about regime change and i want to meet most harmed its closest ally in the region israel the u.s. says it wants to establish democracy in the region but instead of democracy it's a very real possibility that radical islamic could come to power the u.s. strongly supported the opposition in libya despite al qaeda connections among its ranks now it's apparently governessing support against syrian president bashar assad with the wiki leaks website claiming that washington has been funding some anti-government factions what is afraid that if he goes away what's the brotherhood can take syria so instead of in freedom would you. we're going to we're.

swapping one dictator for what could be worse if and when radicals come to power where they're likely to direct the arms at israel people will be very conscious of the crap that syria is not and the fact that if you do decide to intervene in syria you will have knock on effects across the region in iraq in lebanon to israel palestine what if when you throw it israel might face from an even more hostile arab world emerging from the president's stability some experts believe the security of the jewish state is not under any grave threat israel has never been an unsafe place and one of the greatest lies and mother and father of all lies as it relates to the israeli palestinian conflict is israel's been in danger of annihilation i detail in the three volumes of my book it is a complete lorry israel's existence is never ever green in danger any combination of arab military force and that is unlikely to change in any

foreseeable future. the fighters on the ground are not giving up hope and they are minnes warning is that is worse to come. and the time of defeat and retreat is over now it's time for the israeli people and the israeli enemy to. israel is keeping quiet amid the current chaos in the middle east and north africa but behind closed doors not be plenty of disquiet here about how much america's desire to make new friends in the arab world is fueling serious instability policy r.t. television. r.t. caught up with veteran middle east reporter alan heard for his insight on events in the arab world and that will bring you his full interview in just over an hour from now in the meantime here's a brief preview. i'm sorry we were not able to bring that to you but in the meantime william engdahl author of a century of war anglo-american oil politics and the new world order says

washington could compromise its special relationship with israel in search of control over the oil rich region but i think the syrian unrest the events in egypt since the end of last year all of this is very destabilizing factor for tell of need for israel and i think there is increasing question among leading figures in israel whether the special relationship with washington is something that is being. dramatically reduced in priority to have a muslim brotherhood as a as a new regime combined with the similar thing in egypt adds an element which i think some people in washington are mad enough to want to play with an element of the destabilization that will sweep from morocco all the way to afghanistan and pakistan and throughout the islamic world in order to create this. complete up people in the region number one to control the oil resources that flow both to

trying it and also to western europe germany italy and other countries and number two to take one of the wealthiest regions in the world the center of their much of their known oil wealth and bring that ultimately under the hands of privatized western companies mainly british and american oil multinational sort of records as men and girls and stick cheney made it clear that no one in a speech in london in one thousand nine nine hundred. we mingle talk to be learned here an article in just a few hours from now barack obama is expected to announce big changes to his national security team he said to be preparing to bring in a new defense secretary head of the cia commander in afghanistan and a new set of kabul retired u.s. army colonel a mix diplomat and right says that washington is still stuck in a bush era military mentality it's the recycling of everyone who's been involved in really ten years of u.s. wars they have obama administration is just continuing the your strategy the bush

administration and in fact obama has increased the ruhr in afghanistan dramatically now over fifty five percent of the american budget is related to military expenditure a cent yet we see schools that are laying are tens of thousands of teachers we have a health care system that's going down the tubes and yet we spend fifty five percent of our budget on war we certainly need some new ideas some new initiatives and this in the us war that the united states is involved in and just recycling the same or people switching jobs with them is not the way that you ensure the national security of the united states in my opinion. was that i had three of us here in our t. the changing face of india they have the cash and they want to splash and you can i think big spenders emerging with an appetite for all things global. story sort of

come first the u.s. jury has found a russian pilot guilty of drug trafficking constantine yushchenko who was brought to america from liberia last year is accused of moving drugs around the world and trying to bribe senior liberian officials with let's cross live to new york for the details on this. as does a chicken is joining us from our new york studio and start there bring us up to date then with the details of this trial. well below the russian pilot's constant go in his forty's has been awaiting trial here in new york for as much as ten months the hearings lasted four weeks until the jury earlier this morning announced that. to be guilty he has been he was he's charged and accused now found guilty of conspiring to transport and smuggle drugs from south america to the united states from liberia and venezuela mostly liberia is where he was arrested

now it's important that the united states really this has been this case has been causing a lot of questions whether it is ok that the fact that the intent of this man is being considered criminal he is facing from a twenty five to a life sentence behind bars now earlier today we have to note of course that the other men that were accused or charged along with your shadow are three african men one of them was also found guilty along with the russian pilots the two other men were found not guilty now we're expecting the final sentencing to take place within the next three months the judge had said that this will most likely come on july twenty eighth it's important to note that of course they mean proof that the prosecutors were providing in this case where audio and videotapes pick depicting conversations of constant senior shimko with united states special services that really organized the this plan of capturing your call in liberia and were

pretending to be drug lords in order to capture this man and the lawyers of course of your shango this entire time have been saying that this case has been a provocation and that they have been calling for the dismissal of this case for the longest time and of course that did not occur yes i mean it was more about the circumstances surrounding his actual arrest that there was some more controversial when they. absolutely bill it was it was pretty interesting the way that whole scenario was conducted by united states official as we mentioned earlier constant go along with these three other men from africa was captured in may last year and scooped up by u.s. special services and brought on to united states territory and for an entire month his whereabouts were not known to himself even his family and brush and officials were not notified about the fact that a russian citizen was brought to u.s. soil as leaders is a month later june second u.s. officials did announce that they have constant on their territory and did apologize

to the russian foreign ministry that said that it's not notified russia about this arrest was a breach of international law the excuse of the state department back then was that they passed the wrong fax number button and ended up sending a fax to romania instead of russia certainly this whole scenario by the united states was taken with a bit of humor whereas russian officials were of course disappointed that this was a scoop up of a russian citizen brought to the u.s. and failing to even let russian officials back in moscow no but this was going on but the latest now is that we're going to be waiting for the final sentencing of your. who could be getting up to a life sentence behind bars being sort of tricked by u.s. officials pretending to be drug lords because as we know all your phone calls lawyers have been seeing that the man did not even have equipment to be able to transport drugs to the united states and has never even set foot on u.s. territory and this does it thanks very much indeed for that update and started

chatting online for most of us there in u. . in russia will soon face a much tougher punishment for their habits on the proposed new law clubs bars and cafes will also be held responsible for allowing drug use on their premises the measures of designed to deal with an epidemic. across the country and the has the details present in each unit that it has ordered to toughen up the punishments given so regular users of non-medical not accorded some psychotropic drugs as of now these people can only be charged up to two hundred dollars and arrested and held up to fifteen days the tougher punishment will also be imposed against those who distribute drugs and in particular those who attract the under age also the owners of nightclubs and other insane uses kline's use drugs in these venues will show responsibility now the good though has shifted from just punishing drug

addicts to preventing people from becoming users need to get it suggests the false with shipments for people convicted of minor drug related crimes that the main or alternative punishment would at the governments of those states and not the current that's the way to use the streets causing the school is closed and each of. those two strikes in russia has to submit to its i love thousands of years of these circumstances the president believes that all school children across the country should. as ortiz grow their audience reports this initiative as ways that heated debate. this from a school student is taking a drug there voluntarily but there for russian president dmitry medvedev has his way hundreds of thousands of students and even school children as young as thirteen all become false early tests this week when you see it and you feel a lot of parents are saying a compulsory drug testing is unethical but i think what's behind there a lot in is an unwillingness to face the problem which prevents the children from

receiving proper treatment our country has not dealt with this problem compulsory drug testing and education establishment has already been piloted in several russian regional although so far only voluntary schemes put under age have been improved country wide field employed by an influx of drugs from a garrulous there it's estimated there are over three million regular illegal drug users in russia most of them under twenty five just by british and human rights groups fearing this thing with eyes ation of young children by association with drugs officials insist that they must start at school but if. we want to catch people not when they are drug addicts they're younger and i've just tried drugs to ascertain whether there might be a potential risk for developing an addiction. initiative has raised questions of not just ethics perfectible us there's voluntary rehabilitation so that in moscow there's skepticism about the tests even if you don't think it would have changed

anything for me when i was in school i wanted to take drugs at the time so we just did towards the end of school i wasn't even hiding my drug use that much. more than the us being i am categorically against these tests i remember my own reaction to them test will provoke a user written him. even less also some will cheat and that will give them a sense of invincibility. psychologist but the simple say to propose actually don't go far enough. this measure will just give us the statistics of who takes drugs not the solution but they're going to kick out all those who fail we will those students go what are they going to do to treat them. at the moment there are only one hundred sixty state sponsored drug rehabilitation clinics in the whole of russia one for every million of the population hundreds of new ones would have to be built thousands more addiction specialists trained simply to cope with upsurge

of patients identified by the compulsory for these initiatives called the headlines but now the government has to prove that beyond them it has a cogent program that will stop people from trying drugs at the rage and this is something that governments both here and abroad have tried and failed to do before you go. see moscow. russian security forces have killed six militants in three separate operations in the country's republic of dagestan one was killed in a remote region of the country on thursday and two others in the republic's capital . one of the militants was the leader of a local terrorist cell another counterterrorist we began elsewhere in pakistan on wednesday resulted in the deaths of three minutes and no officers of civilians were wounded in the operations security forces have recently stepped up their assault on terrorists in russia's caucuses region dozens of al qaeda linked militants have been killed there over the past weeks. ok. let's update you now on

some other international news making headlines this hour a massive explosion in morocco has left at least fourteen people there was an act of terrorism according to officials around twenty other people were injured including two russian nationals investigators say it's still too soon to say who is responsible for the blast was it a cafe america in the main square which is a tourist hot spot. number killed by storm sweeping across the southern states of the u.s. has exceeded two hundred catastrophic damage in several towns in alabama where most of the victims were dozens of roads are impassable hundreds of homes are destroyed and power lines and a state of emergency has been declared in alabama arkansas ten seen the number of dead could rise with more victims thought to be trapped under the rubble. these five people killed eleven thousand injured in the pakistani city of karachi when a roadside bomb hit a bus carrying navy personnel is the third such attack in the last few days with

two navy buses targeted on choose day it wasn't immediately clear who was behind this latest attack but the taliban claimed the two only ones and security experts say he will be seen as a soft target less effective protection and this could be part of a new militant strategy. the spending power of the huge indian population is literally shifting the center of global influence the emerging middle class formed by the economic boom has developed an appetite for the finer things in life and that's opened the door for a wave of entrepreneurs and all of these pricks reader as more on the story. tell you all is living the dream age of twenty eight the former investment banker is now running a restaurant and bar in the heart of south delhi then years ago if i were to take me up at it from my father would have to. if i was to do the find some opportunity you can go to the caribbean. but in the past ten years india has experienced

enormous change and with it came a new set of hopes for the world's youngest population the market is huge and the opportunity to huge. ordinances and spend money tales far is located inside this small one of around six hundred magnum malls that have sprung up in india within the past decade. the desire to get that good. and there's a lot of money. so combined could design. is going to be a big. city indians can get just about any international brand from hong kong to the u.s. to the u.k. it's access that is change the mentality of many to well before ten years people thinking they're already gone so it would be. says here is the group is the globalization is there so people are thinking in

a very different manner india's economy is booming twenty five years ago ninety percent of the population lived on lot than a dollar a day by twenty twenty five forty percent of the population there will be classified as middle class and with a growing income india think a new culture of consumerism and brands from around the world are ready to cash in on it india is a huge country with one point two million population and so even if everybody spends so it's a huge sum but despite the success most indians are aware that the country still has a long way to go and while things are moving in a new direction and there is a large portion of the population who is at risk of being left behind in that respect is widening there because the rich are rich class is getting richer and up workloads are getting poorer but largely middle class indians and especially the young working demographic try to focus on the positive and watch with pride as

their country comes of b. and is able to achieve a global status they always believed was possible it's the woodpecker for us i mean earlier western and we've used to think it is a burden but now it is even the area lazing that the more the people the more the purchasing power the more the mining the more the economic guns power that is difficult for the world to ignore preassure either r.t. new delhi india. and of course head to our web site r.t. dot com for more. stories were on life either twenty four hours a day here's a taste of what you'll find at the moment i can control the universe to see if the russian mathematician rejected the one billion dollar ward believes media shy genius your battlement finally gave an interview and get the details on that in our three com. and some wonderful news for all fans of soviet movies russia's largest cinema studio most films as north just own you tube channel and you can now watch one of its films with english subtitles of. course and central moscow is full of

tanks and other military machines but no need for war here as it's all for the victory day parade pictures coming up very soon check out the footage of the preparations for the main event in red square which is being held on may the ninth for more on that and other stories and featured logon to our team dot com. well i'll be back with a recap of our top stories shortly but first katrina will bring you the latest business update that's after this short break stay with us live here in moscow.

hi there and welcome to the business update this hour russia is suspending the export of petrochemicals in all its attack on the fuel shortage on the domestic market several regions have suffered from a lack of petrol in recent days alexander from gazprom bank explains what's happening in the markets. the problem is that the government has applied the new tax regime for export of. oil products so probably now for some oil companies it is more profitable to export newspaper or diesel outside russia to russia rather than the sell it to domestic retail stations also in force for at least year expertise the crude oil was provided to very attractive that begs for

the group to export so basically oil companies also prefer to export crude rather than refining that russian so together with minor regional e.g. stakes problems it turns into some regional deficits if you will in some russian rejects the russian government is to ease the tax paid for petrochemical produces an order to ensure better domestic fuel supply that's not the claims of the current prices don't cover reduces costs they had a russian oil major liquid have known that fuel prices could rise by up to seven percent. and we've. got we were preparing for a possible fuel supply disruptions this summer of course. now we are already saving fuel to supply our customers at peak time during the whole the period but the current price on the russian market does not reflect the company's spending on petrol and diesel production and their delivery to customers all the tariffs for

natural monopolies are indexed that's why we believe the prices may grow but not significantly we have a number of restricted factors a place we are discussing the issue with the government five seven percent would be a deterrent of course if the government believes that the excise tax which it had introduced on the first of january and the one you for your gold has extended its run on the back of a declining dollar away by the for its decision to continue to help shore up the u.s. economy gold is gathering pace and is at one thousand five hundred thirty five and twenty eight dollars sorry and fifty five cents the silver is up to forty eight dollars and thirty two cents this hour meanwhile hong kong is launching a new trading in gold futures i mean to catch a rising investor interest in this so. let's take a look at the markets the dow has brushed off opening declines and is now trading up almost a third of a percent about them as there has slipped into negative territory at point three one percent down at the moment that saw news of u.s.

economic growth and slowed in the first quarter from an annualized rate of one point eight percent compared with three point three percent in the previous fall that analysts claim the growth has been hampered by high energy prices which continue to weaken consumer spending. in europe the markets ended the session in the black taking inspiration from a rally across the atlantic as the fed pledged to keep the interest rates we love among the market movers with what your bank which carried over four percent on the back of strong quarterly results. and here in moscow the markets finished their sessions in positive territory as he has gained almost point six of a percent and in my six points. you think the same. about a second look at something next move is on the my six most energy may i just wish trading in the black press is not for a producer rosneft finished almost two percent high on all the missile age higher ups reported three fold increase in net profit last year and v.t. be back dropped almost two percent to one point eight six. this part recent gains

on high oil prices john when celebrities and women's asset management believes russia's stock markets still have a way to go but if you strip out the u.s. dollar element of the arts yes there just is up for a half percent year to date i can see that because the my six in real terms is is up approximately and my my no notes are somewhere but i think that my six month to date is actually down about four percent so it's not like we're in any kind of a runaway market you can actually make the case that with persistently high demand for russian exports you commodities oil gas copper timber. iron ore all time high prices and medical thermal you could actually say that surprising that russia hasn't done better but it has done better because again we're going back to just macro picture which i think it's much more important. well that's the latest business news this hour we'll have more for you and just around fifteen minutes time see the.

news today.