in the. night of violence in these recent shaken off the protests so big governments agreements to higher taxes and yet more job cuts to pull the country out of its debts home. similar problems for the u.k. where around three quarters of a million teachers and civil servants are staging a mass protest to prevent their pensions mean slashed. retiring u.s. secretary of defense robert gates leaves three wars to deal with for his successor and the question of whether the incoming cia chief will turn the pentagon's course around. and our top story business gas from announces it would please dividends and

made both investments so record levels join me for more on this business bulletin in about twenty minutes from now. international news and comment twenty four hours a day this is r.t. greece is picking up the pieces from the latest spot of civil unrest thousands of angry protesters flooded the streets so after parliament gave the green light to tough cuts in order to secure a further financial lifeline from the e.u. we're joined by financial journalist. we hope. can you actually hear us mr kofi in this are you there at the moment i can hear yes that's fantastic let me just ask you what's the atmosphere like in the greek capital a day after these

massive prosperity measures were agreed upon. at this very moment it's very quiet. for protesters are supposed to come back later in the afternoon as late as six o'clock as uprising really because of all the protests yesterday have found they got people pretty tired and they probably need a bit of a break but you can still. smell the chemicals that were sprayed when i walked at the hotel my eyes started to tear up again and they haven't dropped anything since last night so it's really just residue and things that are coming out. and in fact one of the things that is circulating here today is a video that shows police not just police brutality yesterday but there's a lot of that but also police working with provocateurs agent provocateurs with the escorted into a safe location and they were communicating with and relaying information from so i guess what you're getting a lot right now is people are taking a break they're assessing the environment they're assessing the situation there's a report that the head of the pharmaceutical national karma soup association here

in greece is going to be filing a lawsuit along with other people against the government for use of illegal substances because these weren't just it was just here gas there were other chemicals and including us fixating agents and that's why you see a lot of people here i saw them myself yesterday and a lot of people other people saw them passing out not being able to breathe people inside the metro station not being able to breathe a lot before the hospital for that reason so. that's really what's going on here right now people are reading the news they're watching videos and a lot of them are in their homes they haven't yet collected back in the square it's interesting you say that. they increase there now it's. not i didn't mean i didn't mean that they would be giving up i just mean that it's understandable imaginable that they would needed a physical break because it was physically exhausting yesterday there were as i made this point last night there was no lol really in the violence yesterday there was no real break normally you get a kind of a break as a sun begins to set and people begin to collect themselves for a kind of renewed. amount of protesting at night but you didn't see that yesterday

and i just think. you know i would just be commenting i think that it's understandable imaginable that people needed some sort of physical break to recuperate after protests of the great unions are sounding the alarm radio cuts falling on to the most bungle members of society many of whom have been protesting do you think these austerity measures could been better thought out or is it just too late anyway. of course they could have a better thought out of course absolutely i don't know if it's too late. really depends on this government but i think that people here pretty much given up on the three hundred members of parliament that reside in the in the part of the building across the street from the constitution square i think the only real option for them right now is for the protesters and for the greek people is if some sort of political option or movement develops out of the society out of the ranks of ordinary people who are intelligent or cable company university to have some idea of what the country needs i think that's the only real hope the only real

option for averting fault in a reckless return to the drachma well many of those people you talk about this say that the measure is there to save the banks and the single currency what people in greece make of that. but i mean it's very accurate and they certainly they certainly agree with that in fact the banks are kind of eating their own vomit and regurgitating it and eating it again they're not really working to solve the problem in a meaningful way to can can can provide a lasting solution that's what the e.u. for example would be trying to do they try to that's where you hear a lot of people talking about the euro bond and a fiscal treasury for the european union i don't know how realistic that is at this point in time i don't know if german taxpayers or french taxpayers are willing to do that but that's kind of that's kind of the structural solution but the banks there really quarter to quarter bonus the bonus that's the mentality it's a profit seeking enterprise and that's the power dynamic that operates in these negotiations so you can't really expect them to do anything other than look out for

their own balance sheet even this latest proposal is about rolling over debt but it's really about rolling it over so that they can be battle free compliant in case of capital. liquidity capital issues so. yeah i don't i don't i don't really i'm sorry. but i put as your question i think you did yes in detail to thank you very much indeed that leave it there in fact to be treated. as it is thank you for that joins had none. well you can share your views on what's awaiting the greeks and now that parliament has agreed to these new cards so for most people even a should not give up their fight and should be pushing for early elections however many of those who got in touch with this thing worse austerity is yet to come bankruptcy stoma cards some even believe greeks should abandon ship and emigrate. to tell us what you think is to say to r.t. . but it's not only greece that seeing massive

civil unrest in the u.k. around three quarters of a million public sector workers are sets of protest against government plans to change their pensions and freeze pay many schools will be closed and transport is likely to be severely affected as workers embark on a one day strike onesies lower emmett's in this into the voices of frustration. down tools are with industrial action and all some of discontent starts here as the u.k. braces for a wave of strikes not seen for decades this time it's three quarters of a million public sector workers walking out unhappy with a plan to reform of their pensions which they stable see them paying a lot more and getting a lot less we don't think they should if i still got some of pensions we think a from deserves to have security right on it's let's talk about withdrawing from the pension scheme because they can't afford to pay the mortgage at the same time as paying for the connections and people are really angry that time and bankers are

making that call bonuses yeah ok we're being asked to take a pension in our conditions to pay more for our pension it's reality is we've got to for the rest we're just using these people do a huge variety of key work from teachers and lecturers to air traffic controllers and coast guards unisons the u.k.'s biggest public sector trade union deputy chief paul babbly says his one point three million members are ready for a prolonged industrial action and we're almost at war footing we've got thirty million pain set aside and we've got a strategy work but i must strangers that's not what we want to do we want to talk to the government and negotiate a sensible package and not the ridiculous package of the approach of the moment that package involves raising the retirement age from sixty to sixty six raising pension contributions by workers and having payouts based on average career

earnings rather than final fowler the unions admit public support is fundamental to having a successful strike option the government is very unlikely to change its mind about reforms if the public at large doesn't back the unions but that's by no means assured public sector workers who already get very generous pensions in the. the cost of those pensions is very much of a cop it turns the burden falls on to the next generation it really is absolutely essential that public sector pensions are reformed and even after they are reforms public sector workers will get far better pensions and less private sector workers the unions want to apply enough pressure to force the government to change its mind and it's no stranger to u. turns it was hell bent on reforming the health service too until it decided to take longer to think about it causing friction in the coalition the government's doing this to reduce the current fifty billion dollars pension bill but it may be cutting

off its nose to spite its faced the life issue here according to the u.k. pension fund you can bet it didn't bother me if public sector workers no don't think that pensions what while they may not help you think that that was a widespread withdrawal pepsi would collapse and that would leave u.k.p. else the very shores of investment just what it means that more than ever the unions will be threatening that it is the government list next door and it's hot seat. of the scale of the walkouts in the u.k. hasn't been seen for decades later we hear from a british trade union leader so walk up and says if the government fails to take notice this time people will return to protest and even greater numbers. having three quarters of a million people from four different unions on strike is something that happens hasn't happened in this country for decades it's the start not the finish where our message to the government is if they try to ignore will come back in the autumn we

may well see millions of people on strike so the idea is to build pressure so the government realise that working people the length and breadth of the u.k. are not just going to let them get away with what they're doing and we believe that pressure ultimately can force them to change direction saying you want to go see just when they're having a chat with a few people in a room is one thing saying you want to go see when there could be millions of. brutha construction is entirely another and we actually believe that the six million trade unionists plus the thousands and thousands or hundreds of thousands of pensioners and students all becoming a joint campaign is going to be politically very powerful and already seen in britain a march of one hundred five hundred thousand people three months ago transformed the political mood in this country really from march can be our river walk it strikes actually doing. ok you can watch the full interview with british trade union leader works about

here in just over an hour's time here. but coming your way shortly tensions are still high a long awaited change in egypt the capital yet again reaches boiling point star says a protester is accusing the interim government of a lack of action and with deaths caused by police you know recent reports. the african union has condemned fronts for supplying weapons to libyan rebels its chief said the move threatens to put the entire region at risk while wednesday france became the first nato country to openly admit to owning tribal fighters striving to topple gadhafi have recently been making gains and who to advance on tripoli with more on this we're joined now by john laughlin the director for the institute of democracy and cooperation in paris thanks for joining us here on france is once again of the forefront of nato is campaign in libya now a drop in weapons to the rebels some analysts say the move contravenes the u.n.

braga one arm supplies to get there what's your take on that. well obviously it does and it also makes a nonsense of the whole argument in favor of the war in the first place that argument as you know was predicated on the idea of the accusation that the libyan government was attacking civilians well the admission that france is arming the rebels is very obviously an admission that what's going on in libya is a fight between the government and armed rebels and armed rebels are not civilians so any attack by the government on armed rebels in libya is therefore not necessarily a war crime in other words this news is not only incompatible with the case that's being made for war in libya completely contradictory incompatible but are other countries larky to follow in france's footsteps in terms of arming rebels do you think. well britain of course is giving money to them and presumably they're using

that money for certain purposes i don't imagine they're giving it to charity. and it's quite possible that other countries i'm thinking of course of united states are giving other forms of support or possibly arms covertly so there is no doubt that the three countries britain france and america who are waging this war under the disguise of nato of course a wish to see the rebels seize power by force and overthrow gadhafi yes you mentioned nato there does seem hell bent on a military solution while ignoring the peaceful initiatives expressed by both russia and the african union was that. absolutely again nato like the main belligerent powers of which of course it is nothing but an instrument has said in its most recent official communiques that the purpose of this war is to effect regime change and to overthrow the government and quite obviously they know

that that can only occur by force so indeed nato is proving to be a force for war while the regional countries the regional organizations the african union today and also russia have called for peace on the other hand we must be careful about using the word nato this war is being fought by britain france and america they use nato is their figley but nato itself is of course a much bigger and there is not unanimity in nato only a few days ago the italian foreign minister said that there should be a ceasefire in order to allow humanitarian aid through so i think that this latest news from france will possibly increase tensions within the coalition although i repeat that the war is being waged by three countries losing nato if it is kind of now the international criminal court has issued an arrest warrant on colonel gadhafi for crimes committed against his own people well no one seems to me that worried about civilian casualties in their strikes from nato but what's going on

there is that fair. well the you know the international criminal court has once again and like the existing ad hoc tribunals showed itself to be a blatantly political. organization the prosecutor only yesterday received a delegation from the libyan rebels and just as he has shown no interest whatever in the wars in iraq or afghanistan so as you suggest in your question he is showing no interest whatever either in the civilian deaths which have been caused and admitted by nato itself so his indictment and the confirmation of it by the judges is one more proof that this organization is nothing but a judicial wing of nato it's a political court that issues indictments according to political imperatives and of course by doing so it brings the whole notion of international justice into very obvious disrepute if you use courts for political purposes just as if you use the

united nations predictable purposes as nato is also doing then you bring the notion of very founding notions of those organizations into disrepute and i don't think anybody outside london paris and washington give the slightest bit of credence. to anything that comes out of the hague ok john up in the from the institutes of democracy and cooperation in paris ethanol thank you. thank you. well for almost five years he's been the man at the helm of the u.s. military and the sponsible for the billions of dollars in the pentagon's coffins from washington now secretary of defense robert gates is retiring leaving behind three wars and i think growing defense budget director of the cia stepping into his shoes critics doubt will be much change in the pentagon's course and she kind of. whoever's in the white house in the pentagon it's business as usual robert gates

was secretary of defense to two different presidents obama was elected on a promise to end the wars of his predecessor george w. bush but america's worst continued and one more was even added to the plate of inconclusive campaign levy when administrations trained or change between parties there really isn't a great deal of training in the pentagon under robert gates is watch america's annual defense spending approach the trillion dollars rising at the pace of about five percent a year but statements from his office were often contradictory than spending that nearly doubled the base budget over the last decade but gusher has been turned off and will stay off the u.s. is supposed to leave iraq by the end of the year but it seems that there's line is not final he gives all kinds of contradictory statements for instance not long

ago he said that anyone who would visors for you or for land army in the middle of a major conflict should have had to. go to the same time. he's done everything you can clone over several times to baghdad leave nouri al maliki government to please please call us soldiers day after the deadline at the end of this year. the pentagon says they expect the iraqi government will ask them to stay beyond their scheduled december thirty first departure date but with the announced troop withdrawals from iraq and afghanistan the u.s. started actively waging a different kind of warfare what they call an intelligent war one that's waged with drones without sacrificing the lives of their soldiers in countries like pakistan yemen and libya and many say that's the major shift that happened in military operations under robert gates

a shift that some say can only lead to more destruction of. the united states has increased the intensity of the focus on pakistan in terms of drone strikes those are not the only vehicles while targeting terrorists the u.s. has been criticized for killing mostly civilians it's also making us less secure from a policy standpoint we can't intervene or the world it just fuels insurgencies and fuels and i am americanism analysts say the deaths of thousands of civilians in afghanistan are part of the reason why the u.s. has failed at curbing insurgency there now the u.s. is preparing to pull out a third of its troops by the end of next year many afghans fear that less troops doesn't mean less bombs dropped on their homes as the u.s. that stop aerial strikes in the region the possibility of waging a war without having to justify the deaths so the american troops has become more

palatable for the pentagon the cia has been at the forefront of america's undeclared wars and with a new secretary of defense leon panetta who was the head of the cia the trend is on likely to change i'm going to shut down reporting from washington our team. but nothing you've missed something we've been covering all day you can always try it on like that auntie dot com only using the days of their fee was well a. preview of us more states are interesting the duties of running prisons. as private detention is thriving it excites me as the billions of dollars institutions are making. music saws of to new heights nasa astronauts joins in legendary jethro tull's front line in and out of this world duet more going to come.

some other international stories a brief egyptian officials have ordered a probe into clashes in cairo which of left more than a thousand people injured three days of protests brought police used tear gas dispersed demonstrators pelted offices with stones and firearms the rest began over the slow pace of prosecution to senior officials and police officers accused the group turned a teacher in the massacre as a great resource for the speedy implementation of reforms to knowledge of old totals present. two french journalists who are being held hostage by the taliban in afghanistan again three of them back home after spending five hundred forty seven days in captivity and two men are said in good health and good spirits t.v. reporter and his cameraman with captured with their colleagues in two thousand and nine and are filming in a mountainous area of the country. venezuela has delayed next week's

major summit of the latin american and caribbean leaders and the chavez is still recovering from surgery in cuba comes out the state television show with the six year old talking to young castro parents which failed to quell speculation over his health it's also with us. liberations marking a two hundred year anniversary is what is independence from spain if you like best actress information she surgery earlier this month. since. going around its time of the latest in our series of reports on life in the former soviet republics before that the business of the. hour welcome to our business towards around the south thanks for joining me russia's gas giant gazprom is holding its annual general meeting the company has announced it will increase dividends and may boost investment to

a record level now for more let's cross over to the cost of who's at the gas plant headquarters hello larry. hi kareen of all the latest here outside the headquarters of gas promise that the company is exploring new opportunities in europe they say that they see germany as a very attractive market for new projects and they see that they see the importance of natural gas and they're making now one of their areas of focus we've also found out that export volumes in the first half of twenty eleven increased by twenty six percent compared to the same period in twenty ten now we're still expecting to hear about the record breaking dividends gas from is proposing to give just under four google's pershore and if it is approved it will be the biggest amount of money ever given in the company's a history now it's once it's our results for gastro work positive sells revenues went up to one hundred eighteen billion dollars that was historically low and export volumes reach pre-crisis levels now the company is looking ahead and they're

planning to increase their spending and put took what would a higher stock prices and higher demand in europe they're also raising their output and export volumes and targets and of course the investment program is expected to be race a record forty four billion dollars not all of these decisions will be made with a new board of directors who will be alike later today ok marina calls for reporting from the gas problems meeting in moscow thanks very much for that now to other stories russia is about to realize its biggest investment dream of the country's newly created ten billion dollars will come up with the first projects and september ahead of the fund has outlined its investment priorities. cultural pressures are increasing dramatically so agribusiness is very important health care and again health care can be much more efficient and can be improved dramatically with proper investments i was in ohio and there's a difference we all know that we are so much dependent on manager prices and there

are all sorts of new energy efficient technologies that produce very significant course for you. so it's not venture projects it's more to restrict the early space broadchurch those are the projects were concerns were predictable careful and such as energy efficiency that will produce good results but also good for the country. i thought look at the markets all prices are low after a low absolutely rallying two percent on wednesday the increase followed a u.s. interest report that showed a sharp decline had surpassed expectations like so it is trading at ninety five dollars around ninety five dollars another barrel and brant is around one hundred twelve dollars a barrel european stock markets are high as greek lawmakers approved additional sturdy measures this will help the country get more aid and avoid a default puts is up point eight percent with lloyds banking group surging over nine and a half percent on a rosy of cost cutting plan other u.k.

banks also up with world bank of scotland jumping five percent barclays adding two percent and here in russia stocks gained for third day after the u.s. government several supplies dropped almost three times energy majors are among the main game is on the rise next now let's have a look at some other individual share moves on the rise extract make a come august is up almost two percent supported by news it could create a joint venture with a belorussian model must by the end of the year bank is also on the rise held by reports it's a.d.r.'s have been approved for trading in london frankfurt and rolls telecom is up over two percent after it announced a six percent increase in net profit for the first quarter. that's all his for this hour on the back with more in less than one hour from.

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