all.

on our t.v. out burns on the fire protesters march on the greek parliament in a violent display against deep security cuts which have to be approved to secure an e.u. bailout also. a problem of. prosecutors in the hague call of libyans to turn over colonel gadhafi for allegedly killing civilians were reported from the coastal city of brega recently razed to the ground by nato bombs. the international monetary fund chooses french finance minister christine lagarde as its a new chief well she was backed by europe the u.s. russia and china making her the clear favorite. just after midnight here in moscow you're watching r t thanks for joining us now to

our top story violent clashes serve broken out in greece during massive nationwide strikes hundreds of thousands of workers are protesting ahead of a parliamentary vote on a harsh set of tax hikes and spending cuts riot police have detained eighteen people so far and four policemen have been hospitalized with injuries twenty eight billion euros worth of cuts are needed before the e.u. agrees to hand greece another cash bailout let's consider the country's last resort to avoid becoming the first eurozone nation to default but both the cuts and the high interest bailout are deeply unpopular illustrated by the fact that police have once again clashed with protesters and fired tear gas during the mass march on parliament. well earlier i spoke to for national journalist didn't she call for says an incompetent government has left people with no way out so. it's gotten pretty bad and i wouldn't say that all these protesters represent

anywhere near the population they're much worse than they were on the fifteenth of june and as far as i've seen they're much worse than anything we've seen before the police got truly violent they tear gas all the people in the in the blood this dark one of those in the incarceration square even people that are in there in the private sector who don't stand to lose specifically have started measures they're not a fan of these these measures because it's not just about cutting the public sector it's also about privatizing liquidating the the nation liquidating the national assets selling off. public companies at liquidation prices and and collateralize ing national assets national resources so of course i'm not going to stand for it there's it doesn't offer any one of the kind of future here ok well if they're not going to accept it then the government seems to be keen on still pushing for getting a bailout what's the deciding factor here where is the tipping towards at this point. unfortunately the government isn't giving anyone any real options and that's the problem the

a certain measure unpopular widely unpopular amongst everyone in this in this country but at the same time they're not giving us any real solution they're just giving you have our v.p. who came out yesterday when he was the spoke and he said. we have a default the return of the drachma would be chaos we have tanks in the street and he may be he may be right but that's only because this government isn't providing a real solution so the way i see it as it stands right now default is an inevitable option and i think i think that people are fed up with you here in general that's the major the major feeling and they want a return to something some sort of national economy where they can implement a policy that benefits them because right now they understand they're under financial occupation which is what this is and they're not going to be able to get out of it as long as the e.u. the you see the and the troika are working together to bankrupt this country. rest on the streets of the capital lawmakers in the group's parliament are debating a sturdy cuts the e.u. has repeated its wanting and that there is no plan b.

for athens the vote itself is scheduled for wednesday that. deno a columnist for now this newspaper believes the bailout package is a catastrophic solution backed only by a desperate leadership. george papandreou has lost legitimacy in the greys and as a prime minister here is a dead man walking at the moment from the european union is tremendous. talk about blackmail i guess the greek government because they say that i'm listening to you for this outrageous below the moral enough and there will be no more. greece who will be left before. this is a bluff from european union because if we greece goes before then it will have a domino effect or i guess the euro that will be a disaster for european union at large but unfortunately our government has not the

narrow golden globe and this is the difficult part of the story because you see the memorandums and there was there in the package is the result is the. golden eggs of development and this is unsustainable. well the struggle in athens to keep the euro alive has some nations who have long wanted to join the e.u. asking a new question is it even worth it artie's tom barton reports. let your kid turkey is in asia minor not in europe turkey's place is not inside the european union turkey started seeking integration with europe in the one nine hundred fifty s. and was made me you can do that in one nine hundred ninety nine but since then france and germany have remained opposed continually stalling negotiations turkey. and the european union have actually stalled the.

relationship for such a long time now that the turkish public is tired of it the main reason turks think the europeans don't want them immigration first well they come and steal our jobs like the polish plumber did. and second well they threaten us culturally but others see the real fair in paris and berlin as a loss of political power this sort of french german condominium is already on the challenge but with the inclusion of turkey in the european union it would be totally impossible to sustain now embroiled in economic crisis the e.u. isn't as strong as it once seemed turks are starting to view the delays in joining less with frustration and more with relief frankly given. the state of the european

union right now is the inability of taking decisions the. fragile situation the rising racism and islamophobia in many countries. it's it's becoming less and less attractive turkey is no longer waiting for europe to change its mind instead many speak of the axis of turkish interest shifting from west to east it's pursued a no problems policy neighbors in recent years that's yielded impressive results boosting trade and making turkey a leader in regional diplomacy if we want to. combine our. power with others i think we should look at. the bosphorus behind me has long been seen as a bridge between east and west but with turkey increasingly pushed away by europe over here and pull towards the middle east in asia over here turks no longer see

all their hopes by looking west tamasin r.t. istanbul turkey. libya says that the international criminal court is just a cover for nato attempts to kill colonel gaddafi and refuses to recognize its legitimacy all this came in response to the issuing of arrest warrants for gadhafi and two of his confidants including his eldest son by the hague tribunal the chief i.c.c. prosecutor has admitted that nato forces have no mandate to arrest gadhafi had called on his inner circle to assist however many in libya believe nato leaders should also be hell to look out for their actions. the road from the capital tripoli to brag is lined with the aftermath of war towns abandoned as the population fled the bombardment. this is what's left of the civilian airport in the siege of. home to one of the country's key oil refineries the last plane took off

from this runway just hours before it was hate. to say so it's only hitting the targets of military value well call say these telecommunications towers so. stop it . has been destroyed in a time now this is a saying they've been two strikes and they've also accidentally burned two cars and killed two civilians since then there is no t.v. in this area and as we can see phone light has also been disrupted. there is no water and no electricity what used to be heaven this man says has become hell what was home now susan familiare. i have nine children and i send them all to my relatives abroad i don't want them to see their mother who is in such a condition. from the small poor not far from drug gas used to flow to europe. we used to produce fuel to send it to them and now see they destroy it all this is

terrible and ridiculous at the same time. the closer you get to the front line the more you feel it you can hear the war and you can even read it on nature's leaflets jobs just before the bombs arrive. this runs has as you can see the reason sign here in arabic nato is here leave it here in force and i'll fly zone over the country to protect civilians on the other side there is another sign also in arabic saying that nato can attack any place at any time. any time happened three times over several hours while we were humane. regulator's major point is where the front line was dividing the country into two parts into to swear one side is going to fight one flashpoint within the rebels and gadhafi forces it's a very important point to take location in a firm hand on this town would mean taking control over the country's economy. all

facilities seem to be a rare target that nato bombs never land on while it looks like the civilian population can hardly skate. they were like my family not just going to the shop to buy some foods and this happened six of them died i couldn't believe it and this used to be a restaurant company staff where friends gathered after work we were eating with my colleagues then there was a boom we knew what that was we run we try to help those who are strapped down the helicopters came too and still to shoot us as if they didn't want us to save our friends from one street to another the stories are repeated really can serve our problem. every madam every day every day bombing a big killed our civilians. from this country this is from libya well those voices

become more and more frequent is the sound of exploding bombs and warplanes the drums in. tripoli. nato operation in libya has outraged critics who claim it's the alliance which should be held accountable for war crimes mohamed her son a former ethiopian diplomat and middle east expert who's been in libya on a fact finding mission into the war says the majority of libyans soon nato's intervention as an attempt to divide the country. the libyan people are supposed to do what kind of government they want and what kind of leadership they want but the purpose here is that it is not the libyan people who are deciding i have been as a fact finding mission to libya and i have a student leave here for four days and i have spoke with different sector of the libyan society i talked to today university students i talked to different social

organisers use the libya majority of of the libyan people including the two hundred tribal chiefs into the serving teams or weirs have signed the pact with the government saying that this is an external invasion the purpose of it is that it is to. our country divide and mix of libya a similar position of libya the uni polar war is in the process of collapsing this is a panic panic in a sense that outdated system who is trying to manipulate and to dictate their own on the others. and for more stories from r.t. you can always log on to our website that's our dot com and there you can read about the american at tea party's presidential candidate who got egg on her face after mixing up a famous cowboy with a mass murderer and rapist. also russian scientists predict and they'll

find alien civilizations within a twenty years or find out why they're so determined to seek out eighty and all these at r.t. dot com. the international monetary fund has picked a french finance minister christine lagarde as its new boss or she was backed by europe the u.s. russia and china making her the clear favorite or washington correspondent. has more. the tradition of having a european in the position of the head of the world's top lender. remains intact at times of debt crisis for europe having their own chairing the international monetary fund could be as important as the effort although mr guard has stressed that her decisions will not be biased for example as i do staying carstens from mexico as well as the french finance minister is main competitor for the job said that the appointment could add on to the perception of the i.m.f. as a biased open ization he pointed out that there could be

a conflict of interest with europe now becoming the main borer of the organisation and at the same time dominating these to do should the mexican convey contender for the office also said that he knew he lost to miss le gardeur even before he announced his candidacy he said it was like starting a soccer game with five zero score emerging economies that contributed most of the world's economic growth in recent years have repeatedly criticized the convention that they had of the i.m.f. has to be from europe and supported by the united states and the convention that back to the founding of the i.m.f. at the end of world war two today the emerging economies are vastly under represented at the organization with the u.s. and europe holding a lion's share of the vote as well as veto power many analysts say the i.m.f. bias is had negative effect on the world economy they say if you look back at the rescue packages that they handed to different nations it's clear that they acted in

the interest of the creditors rather than of the borrowers they were supposed to help it has to do with the policies that the i.m.f. forces onto the borrowing nations in exchange for the loan policies that are often over restrictive and not necessarily in the borrower's national interest latin america is one example when the i.m.f. loans and policies that they came with that further aggravate the situation but they are along with lending money the i.m.f. . has the function of monitoring global economic processes and crisis prevention and here is the credibility of the organization has been shattered by the financial crisis. of the advanced economies while you know which of the i.m.f. has really failed failed to address for example they completely missed the recent financial crisis in the us that had even a huge repertoire sions around the globe and on the question why one expert here told me why would they want to go against their friends on wall street anyway the

u.s. and europe found christine lagarde best for the job soviet several emerging economies by the way including china analysts say she faces a difficult pass to either stand out as an independent manager or even further cement perception that the i.m.f. is an organization that exists only for the benefit of the creditors. well for more now on the i.m.f. the new boss we're joined by stephen the lead man who's a radio host and an independent blogger in chicago thanks very much for joining us on r.t. now christine legarde takes over the i.m.f. in a turbulent financial time to say the least do you think she has what it takes to deal with the current financial turmoil. oh she really. scully i mean what is in that i'll call christine legarde which she is number one washington who controls the i have a else i just wrote an article on your occupation of greece well because the i.m.f.

is intimately and all it was going on in greece and other countries that if they want to get debt entrapped. economist michael refers to were the high and we have put the i.m.f. does replacing economic democracy put financial all of europe the other way to describe it is a bait is there is something the actual. or baker occupation that's what you're all max keiser calls it banker occupation in my article in greece was called your occupation of greece that's what it is. america decided it's here because america controls the us they want to look at her resume stroh's calm when it was not because of any possible sexual transgressions whether he did there or not i have no idea what he did was commit some political inscriptions when i

say that china will will catch american economic growth in two thousand and sixteen based on the purchase price basket of goods misalignment just just going back to what you were saying you think that the u.s. had put the guard into position but that it did has the tape to give its backing even after europe russia and china's votes. had given their a vote for lagarde so why do you think the us was sitting on the fence if you think that they had actually put her in place well there's a difference between sitting on the fence publicly and privately privately they chose look at weeks ago we said oh i knew she was going to get it her name it i don't know what she. is i know what her rate is she is an extreme neo liberal practitioner what does that mean it means entrapping countries and for same or caress of policies on the deregulation privatizing state industries

mass layoffs wage and benefit freezes or cuts social benefits destruction it goes on and on and on. and selling author stayed and prices in assets on the cheap to both use a circulating around greece right now they are heya they are choosing the crown jewels of reese to buy this goes on in country after country really does a country block iceland bought iceland had two referenda and they declined to go along with this iceland is a small country. in england when iceland did it the first time referred to what they were doing is financial terrorism because they want their own sovereignty greece will hold into what's one tomorrow i think one of wednesday and they'll probably surrender to be i.m.f. until it god when she takes over and they will strip the country clean talk about raping and pillaging that's what the i am have to hear operates like

a global loan shark it makes mafia loansharks on a local basis dear we look like pickpockets like comparison the i.m.f. is matchless and with god was chosen she was because he's finance minister she's an extremist she will fill a job well and she will kill wage countries strip mining them of their wealth and their assets impoverishing the people and america will applaud this right well that's all the time we've got for mr stephen let me thank you so much for thoughts there radio hosts at an independent blogger and chicago thank you. now booming opium production in afghanistan is due to high international demand and years of war and destruction so says the afghan minister and an interview coming your way in a few moments. we

would like to start of course with the statistics of the week there production of poppies that. get us that is always being. at the point of the blame for that community that afghanistan is products at producing a huge amount of drugs and exporting it. to the word but can you just from your point of view what do you think i mean how to tackle these problems

there's no doubt that the area of plantation song with narcotic crops has increased since military hostilities started in afghanistan i believe that the war was the root cause that forced afghan people to turn to poppy growing this is the source of most problems afghanistan faces today the afghan government has pledged to put an end to all be in production in the country if we study the history of drug production how it spread in afghanistan and what degree it has reached you we learned that about two hundred fifteen hectares of farmland contain poppy crops but thanks to the efforts of the democratic afghan government which i consider to be quite successful we've managed to cut out area two hundred thirty hector's this year the government intends to further reduce the earlier song with poppies so as to fully meet its commitment to destroy poppy cultivation but we will be unable to solve this problem once and for all on our own we will need people support in other words we should not be focused only on the question of poppy cultivation it's an

international problem and not just the problem of growing poppies in afghanistan for example we realize the poppies are could've aided in afghanistan but then the question arises in what way about thirteen hundred tons of chemical substances necessary for processing opium and to her own illegally get into afghanistan vilar country is another example is that the world consumes ninety five percent of afghan produced opium by contraband while opium consumption in afghanistan accounts for just five percent this proves that not only afghanistan but the whole world should declare war on these narcotic substances. over the past six years the afghan government has managed to reduce areas of poppy crops to forty three percent in doing that we almost stopped sowing poppies and seven afghan provinces more than twenty other provinces are fighting to destroy them i would also add that we've worked out a plan to put an end to sowing poppies in several provinces this year as part of

efforts to implement this plan we intend to further reduce areas of poppy fields it doesn't mean that we don't have difficulty as afghanistan doesn't have enough ability to treat drug addicts we can help only one percent of all drug related patients the total profits from the drugs trade amount to about sixty five billion dollars a year all of them go to the international drugs mafia local drug smugglers barely get three percent from but some in view of the expenses for poppy cultivation in afghanistan we see the properties from this trade are miserable the international drug mafia gets the bulk of the profits. there is one concept that connects somehow the presence of international forces in afghanistan with the drug trade. there is a talk that there is a possible that all of the interest at all got to start with the exterior. do you think after the withdrawal the situations of drug fighting what it will.

if we look at these things objectively will see that the situation after the war has improved however the afghans don't feel a great deal of prepared to work has to be done it's necessary to train the afghan police and army to fight drug trafficking now that we are going to the post war period but i assume that everything we can do in this area brings positive results every day i can claim that in recent years the anti drugs ministry has achieved concrete positive results we've detained money drug traffickers this year money more than in previous years the professional training of afghan police and army personnel has also improved if things continue this way i'm sure that by twenty fourteen we will be able to control the entire territory of afghanistan foreign aid has turned out to be pernicious for money afghans a considerable part of the country's infrastructure has been destroyed it should be other than a sharp change in the specialization of agriculture's closely linked to foreign

factors perhaps you can see it for yourself that drugs production flourished in the period of the most intensive military hostilities which led to serious disruption and security as well as law and order as a result the illegal sowing of poppy crops increased that's why we count on the cooperation of the world community in the struggle against this evil and we won't lay the blame solely on afghans the afghans are people who want to live in compliance with the law but today they want to use the benefits of peace in the first place we are now facing the most terrible consequences of the war against terror we witnessed the destruction of all some of bin laden that took place near a military base in pakistan all this should be subject to a more profound analysis such issues. shouldn't be tackled superficially. a couple of months back there was a joint operation between the russian forces of cortex and the americans and of the

forces of fighting do you think such operations could be multiple. could be more in future as a joint operations especially from the russian forces. at this moment we're trying to strengthen our law enforcement primarily the afghan police which is predominantly in charge of destroying poppy crops as i said earlier i assume that we've made great progress in this field but more importantly we exchange reconnaissance information we discussed this question with russia and are ready to build up cooperation with moscow in this field jointly we worked out several mechanisms and are applying them and cheering special information this information could help us catch smugglers in and outside afghanistan in this we rely on help from countries which have experience in this field and your excellency thank you very much for being with us from russia today and we wish afghanistan the prosperity and peace.