if.

down to business is strong energy ties between russia and china are at the center of a major financial forum in st petersburg and how to push the world economy forward . moscow and beijing two of the world's largest emerging economies come together and are expected to be the big players at this year's economic forum in st petersburg join me and you see now why for more in just a moment. wall hostility the u.s. congress threatens to block washington's campaign in libya it's not been in full swing for ninety days without no make or approval. thousands of palestinians are left scraping for a living as israel with holds money owed to the government fears it could be used

to fund terror attacks. world news and much more twenty four hours a day you're watching r.t. the supply of energy will remain the very center of russian chinese relations was the message from president to me to madrid it also talks with china's hu jintao in moscow the two leaders have now moved to st petersburg for the city's international economic forum the. way it's calling the three seasons brainstorming event and joins us now and the president did a visit in the form in just a few minutes time though there are many issues to discuss more to be the priority . of this of course is a venue that world leaders and business executives and n.g.o.s can get together and

really. to discuss the issues i have to say just from what i've seen so far it's really done in a very informal manner so they really get to talk and it's very open and transparent and literally hundreds of people can watch these discussions openly this year it's expected that russia and china are going to be the big players like you said president medvedev expected very shortly to begin the opening speech and following him will be his chinese counterpart hu jintao we'll be bringing you that live of course here in r.t. but we are expecting to hear some very common themes from both russia and china when it comes to president it's expected that we will hear more about of course his trademark modernization plan for russia and really for the world especially for emerging economies like china brazil south africa and india a lot of big c.e.o.'s here from silicon valley like eric schmidt from google and they're getting together with russia skolkovo group which of course is the plan to build a silicon valley just outside moscow that's something that's very important to president

madrid to and he feels like countries like china and like i said the other bric countries can benefit from that so i think that's a theme that we're going to hear very much at least in the first day at this forum . to speak to the guests agreement between the russian chinese perhaps the most importantly does look to see who do you think. we've heard from gas from said that the deal of course like you said will not be signed at this forum but they're very confident that it will be signed by the end of the year and he mentioned that this is of course a difficult contract it's going to bring vast amounts of gas to china whose needs are very are enormous the world's largest needs really for power as it rapidly develops and russia basically is the only country that can guarantee stability when it comes to that so the head of gazprom very confident that it will go through but mentioning that that very last step they've done so much work together over the years to plan with the very last part of sealing the deal is always difficult but both sides confident like i said that that will happen. and in terms of the economy

really when you look at russia and china they're quite unprecedented in the sense that other countries in europe in the united states are struggling with cutbacks with budgets trying to get their act together when it comes to the dollar and the euro and russia and china have already in their pre-crisis levels or rather broken their pre-crisis levels so while those countries are struggling they're watching russia and china develop strongly about of course brings the two countries very much close together with both sides saying they consider each other very very important partners. in the petersburg international forum i thank you indeed for that from there and of course we will have live pictures the speech will present and get it as soon as we get it here on. the u.s. president is under fire from congress over the military campaign in libya which is continuing despite not having the approval of lawmakers barack obama has rejected

accusations that those being broken arguing that america is only playing a supporting role through nato which makes it legal he's going to church again as. u.s. lawmakers are saying that president obama has to either stop waging war in libya or ask for congressional approval the lawmakers claim that the military action will violate the nine hundred seventy three war powers resolution if it does not and by friday and they mean this friday ninety days after the intervention began under the u.s. constitution to wage a long term war the president needs to get authorization from congress and only say the obama administration will certainly find a way to get around the requirement by referring to his rights as commander in chief as well as certain legal speak you know to stay the administration has refused to say war when it comes to their actions in libya they call it kinetic military action as a result of that kinetic military action civilians are bombed their bread. a group

of international observers is now in tripoli including a former u.s. congresswoman cynthia mckinney we spoke with her a few days ago she said they've heard and they counted eighty nine blasts in just one day those are civilian neighborhoods eighty nine bombs dropped in just one day there is a lot of concern that the voices of those who are caught up in that war in tripoli go unnoticed in the international community but here in the u.s. it seems the voices of the majority of americans those who oppose the u.s. military involvement in libya also go unnoticed by the white house the administration continues to stress the cost that they pursuing the b a but some analysts say the administration also seems to be in denial when it comes to the will of their own people regarding the issue as well as constitutional procedures legal experts say there is not much congressman can do to force the president to comply at least with the u.s. constitution because there are ways to get around ways the obama administration seems to be using extensively most congressmen now criticize president obama for as

they say ignoring congress but top of the hill observers say it's mostly the little things that the lawmakers are playing to score points by snubbing the president come the day to actually vote the majority of them will vote for more military spending as they always do but there is a small bipartisan group of congressmen ten people in it who went further than verbal rebuke send they sued president obama on the grounds that he's violating the constitution but everybody here knows that the lawsuit is certain to be dismissed on procedural grounds because the u.s. supreme court has determined that members of congress do not have standing to file such suits and this is where it hits a dead end that it makes many wonder whether or not u.s. lawmakers actually have the capacity to effectively represent the people. well washington's credibility in the future of the nato campaign could be fatally damaged if congress forced barak obama to abandon operations or thought david swan

song says the problem is that there's a political confusion every exactly what's happening in the. white house doesn't make the arguments that many of its supporters make that the war powers act does not apply much less the constitution because this is neither a war nor hostilities this is something else this is a military operation that doesn't rise to the level of hostilities which is absolutely absurd the war powers act was written in one thousand nine hundred seventy three very intentionally and clearly to encompass all military engagement superfluity imminent threats of us still of these are recent dennis percentage was debating a former lawyer from the reagan white house who was defending obama and he asked this guy twice never got an answer if there were two thousand missions over the united states by a foreign nation and many of them were dropping bombs would that be war would that the hostilities he could have gotten congress to authorize war in libya it would

have been quite easily done he could have done it in the sixty day gap after he started the war he chose not to presidents want and this president is no exception the power to make wars on their own. a u.s. judge has a cold the case against alleged russian done on a victim boot unconvincing and the prosecution's accusations thin but after consulting defense and prosecution lawyers the manhattan federal judge said she didn't see much evidence against boot he's currently awaiting trial in new york prison facing charges of smuggling arms to colombian rebels accusations he denies who was arrested in a two thousand and eight american sting operation thailand and later extradited to the u.s. . america's top military commander says the kind is new leader will be found and killed just like osama bin laden the new top man i'm in aus and what i mean has been second in command since the territory post founded in the late eighty's but

terrorism expert phil reese says that no matter who's in charge of art either washington will still use the proceeds of terror threat as an excuse for military action a month where he was the main fear efficient osama bin laden thought in broad strokes it was a month of glory was involved in the nitty gritty and some people even said he was the brains behind the movement so in that sense they'll be a continuum i think the west was. was wrong footed by what was going on in the middle east and i think they're very keen to have a foothold there now certainly al qaeda in the arabian peninsula is one of the most active ideological groups there but the yemeni president ali abdullah saleh who was injured recently used al qaeda as an excuse to get funds from the united states and then he used those funds against another group in a local dispute and in the same way that i think that the united states can attack drone attacks in certain areas and claim that foreign we're going to al qaeda so our influence there shouldn't be questioned so i think we should be slightly

cynical about those claims. israel claims it's fighting its own world terror by refusing to hand over tax and customs fees collected on behalf of the palestinian autonomy it's a month to pay wages israel says it could be used to fund the tax policy reports with us now to enter a unity government alongside that are palestinians are even less likely to see their money. i look we are gods the palestinian ministry of finance his job is to check everything that comes into this building but he has no control over what goes out least of all his salary which is paid by the ministry and sometimes comes a long overdue powder my salary comes later it's like my life starts i simply cannot do anything i have a wife and four children to feed and when i don't get paid on time it makes lots of problems for me and my family. i want to keep the ministry get its money from the israeli government it comes in the form of customs and tax treaty said television

been collecting on goods arriving at israeli ports and destined for palestinians the arrangements in one thousand nine hundred three is part of the oslo accord giving television control of the international borders between israel and the palestinian territories with the money transferred each month to the palestinian ministry of finance which uses it to pay wages except now we're talking about three hundred four million dollars this ministry paves can be five hundred fifty pounds and. ask everyone to remember tell you they were afraid the situation could sell. palestinians fear that tel of of could again choose to withhold tax money like it did last month israelis argue they have every right to do so if they suspect the money could be used for buying weapons. to the hamas terrorist paid for same bank account so i don't want to find these terrorist. palestinians insist the money's for ordinary working as it is. sore because

it's. punishment but on the other hand it's a punishment it's a collective punishment that would mainly weaken the moderate elements within the palestinian society and play to the hand of the extremists the relationship between hamas and fattah is a turbulent one but both groups are trying hard to work together ahead of september's planned declaration of statehood no doubt israel will be working even harder to thwart them should it feel its interests are threatened police here are t. minor. well for more stories on life in the palestinian autonomy yeah you can go to altie dot com where we have more nice or it is always available for you online here's a quick look right now of what's in the book case a cuban born cia agent linked to multiple bombings he's handed the cheat u.s. city of miami and his father his countrymen serve sentences for unimproved crimes. and flash mobs become

a way for better russians to voice their discontent with government policy they face repressions for their peaceful actions and you can find out more call. on some other stories now from around the world the sound of syrian security forces have expanded their assault to the northwest of the country deploying tanks around several towns he's forced more people to flee raising the estimated number of refugees to almost ninety thousand u.n. secretary general ban ki moon has urged president assad to stop killing people and engage in dialogue activists say fourteen hundred have died since the government protests began in march. the greek prime minister is preparing to name a new government to push through austerity measures are crucial because if you. want cuts in order to secure these who are sucking on a plane without. a mask with chronic protests of the homes.

released court papers show that dominique strauss kahn told police he had diplomatic community after he was detained that j.f.k. airport the former head of the international monetary fund was arrested on suspicion of sexually assaulting a hotel maid last night. who denies it are gay sions has been released on bail he faces up to twenty years in prison if convicted. a huge loss to iraq to the israeli city of me early hours on friday evening for the remainder of the police initially suspected a terror attack but explosion is now thought to the result of a gas leak in the residential building rescue workers say it was very cool that anyone managed to get out of the rubble alive. now work on the frozen continent of antarctica has always been

a male dominated environment which means that when a woman arrives to ply her trade is still something of a novelty so. track down an intrepid film director to ask her to the ends of the earth. as a filmmaker olga stefano the likes of the penguins and seals but for her and arctica is about something much greater still that i had the flu. even though it seems like this is a naked land make it's. nothing special sound like an a snow but what happens inside of you when you are here for the whole year and are removed from all other external factors is a pair of valuable experience up that of staying through an antarctic winter is serious business and so every member of a winter team has a specific purpose and they rely on each other to make it through old is one of only a few women to have ever been allowed to be a part of this experience. and the same was

a big bonus for us as the first storm such an intelligent young woman in such high professional objectives has been on the one to theme which is definitely the existence. of the us and difficulties and attractive girls with fifteen men. so it wasn't difficult to manage them all has experience in wintering of building a house and gave her a true rare opportunity to experience and document life here in antarctica now she's working to expand on her project and find an audience for her work. that make up at the minute plan hour and putting the finishing touches to the second part out film the first one is already finished it's called weathering the wind or the second part probably because this series ended and it will feature the antarctic summer as it brought. in to debut her documentary olcott invited some special guests the same antarctic winter team who are the subject of her film the fact that mitch are slightly nervous you know she watches i love and respect them they're

close and dear to me and they have such huge battleground knowledge they know people in the field they know the winter season firsthand but they have been through this themselves. as for the thoughts of the. those who have seen the film. makes a big impression and there may be some. professionals like reasons by a couple of members of. the show that the way to show that the way she saw if you have a secular. but unique look into a world that is inaccessible to most in antarctica sean thomas. yes the wells coldest continent shown tell us discovered many unusual stories and came out with some spectacular footage and you can follow his blog dot com. more than a month. in one of the most extreme environments on the planet this is antarctica

and people have to be aware that they're far away from civilization. discovers front makes antarctica so special and attractive for many wildlife in antarctica. and the. expedition to the bottom of the earth. and i mean tab across seven business desk with katrina stating this. how would a very warm welcome to the business but. i'm trying to help and we start with one of the most important russian economic events of the year the st petersburg

international economic forum. well i believe that we are actually going direct live to the former right now to. to hear from the old. diminishment biddeford modern day mr chairman of the people's republic of china hu jintao the esteemed guests ladies and gentlemen i am very happy to welcome you at the economic forum in st petersburg for us it is a great privilege today the motto of all four on is emerging leaders with the news . last year we discussed lessons learned from the crisis today as members of the

global elite discuss new opportunities for growth and we see is that leaders of this new growth emerging economies according to the i.m.f. . the pace of growth of emerging countries are going to be two point five times higher than the pace of growth in developed countries for the ten years to come ten years ago the share of emerging markets amounted to about twenty percent of the global g.d.p. while in five years we expect that this share will exceed forty percent the world is confronted with the following question what kind of growth. in the changing world will be played by traditional groups sent to such as developed economies today we see that the mood amongst investors and political leaders is changing for the better together with economic indicators however the crisis of two years back is still high on the agenda. for the governments and businessmen this is not by

chance. because in spite of the growth of global economy and investment we remember that the last crisis. well that existed live from russia's economic forum and sent petersburg and that was speaking from russia's economic development minister and we will take you back live to some petersburg again when president medvedev takes to the stage. the city of st petersburg has always been called russia's window to europe but with the economic forum underway it's become a window to the whole world. all eyes are on russia's cooperation with china now its largest trading partner the two sides are discussing a landmark gas deal that will enable russia to deliver almost seventy billion cubic meters of gas to beijing within thirty years the price though is still a sticking point but dore gold which still believes a deal could soon be struck this week. because some progress in the consultation

selves last couple of weeks. so we'll see today whether the threat was afoot sufficient to get even for the u.s. they. took on this bilateral. consultations so i guess the issue was. called let's let's call it that because it is oversold. russia's major financial corp sistema is set for energetic expansion the company is planning to spend five billion dollars to buy businesses ranging from agriculture to chemicals the c.e.o. of system in macau shumlin outlines the cornerstones of their strategy i would special strategy is very simple we have to return the cost of equities the course whatever to which in our case about fifteen percent so that's the kind of returns we are expecting and we we have to do whatever it takes in terms of for investing in projects and davis to get existing assets to deliver this kind of return to our

two key markets our russia is a primary market for ninety percent of our best is concentrated and also you know which is because what the market is to do those are the markets we are going to be looking out for two hours of both expand on the existing businesses that we operated and also new projects. alcoa the top aluminum producer sees a big future for the metal with an average growth rate of six point five percent annually the company wants russia to take a big part in that development and the vice president says they're trying to make that happen. we have a strong business in russia has been here since two thousand and five to seven hundred fifty million dollars in the market you see we see growth in this market so we're we're going to we're going to focus on marshall and what we're trying to do in russia is increase productivity just make sure that you know both our plants reach a level of productivity that is consistent while we were seeing a wound you know growing when the band growing we look at

a market like china. fifteen percent in two thousand and eleven seeing a market like russia you see the man growing probably eleven or twelve percent this year so it's double digit growth illumined is a lot of substitution going on copper wire you change into movement and there's a lot of lightweight vehicles trucks and cars where you have to meet new emission gas standards and so a lot of people are shifting to women and. now let's have a look at how the markets are performing oil prices are continuing to drop this again after the major losses of two days ago the uncertainty on the commodities market is a reflection of the investors' fears that greece's debt troubles are far from over . asian markets have closed in the red friday with energy companies also hit by we get crude oil prices japan's index corp is down two point nine percent and banks are also among the main losers in hong kong but the agricultural bank of china down

one is one point seven percent rather. back to our top story now two of the world's emerging economic giants russia and china are the main players at the international economic forum taking place right now in some petersburg we can take you there live right now to listen to a keynote speech from the president make it fit if you good afternoon dear friends . i would also like to greet you just now the st petersburg economic forum subarus little girl. particular words or gratitude i would like to address to my colleagues the leaders of the countries who came to this beautiful city. well today. based on some understand the reasons i'm going to be i merely talk about russia about the people that have changes which russia was able to attain them back in the kind of economy. yet on which our. i see this country in several years and what is necessary to do what. i am going to

talk about it at the elysian for the development of the country which will come true thanks to the common efforts undertaken by the whole of the russian society and what. kinds of projects can come true if they are not required by the whole society but i. checked must be implemented. who will come into which office in this country within the next few years which i am accountable for that personally as that is going to the country and my colleagues together with we are implementing the program of modernization and. i shall start from one already has been done during the system so the new russian state as well as during the recent period. the. new russia celebrates its twenty fifth anniversary. after the collapse of the soviet union and its centrally planned

economy in this country has undertaken enormous progress in its development share of private sector during those days was close to zero right now it amounts to more than sixty percent of the government debt and i should remind the figures during those periods exceeded and you. are right now it went down almost to ten percent of the g.d.p. keep it in let's say hyperinflation which then. was taking on enormous proportions. change softening to more. real consumption by the russian. during a very short historical period in russia instituted reforms that very few can compare in terms of the scale from the governor prices we came to a standard market pricing mechanism from strict control with a currency.