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a night of ballance leaves greece shaken after protests big governments agreements to higher taxes and yet more job cuts to pull the country out of its debt hole. 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 from being slashed. retiring u.s. secretary of defense robert gates leaves three wars to deal with and for his successor many question whether the incoming cia chief will turn the pentagon's course around . and our top story in business gets from announces a priest dividends and made both investment to a record level journey for more of this happens as paula zahn in about twenty minutes from now.

international news and comment twenty four hours a day they say saute greece is picking up the pieces from the latest spots of civil unrest thousands of angry protesters flooded the streets soft apartments gave the green light to tough cuts in order to secure a further financial lifeline from the e.u. well we're joined by a financial journalist if we treat kofi anan so we hope i can you actually have coffee in this audience i can hear you i can hear you that's fantastic want me to song what's the atmosphere like in the greek capital a day off to these massive austerity measures were agreed upon. at this very moment it's very quiet. for protesters are supposed to come back later in the afternoon busboys latest six o'clock as uprising really because of all the protests yesterday have they got people pretty tired they are probably in a bit of a break but there 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 where there's a lot of that but also police working with provocateurs agent provocateurs with the escorted into a safe location that 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 sukkot station 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 tear 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 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 there are a lot of them in their homes they haven't yet collected back in the square it's interesting you say that people will be giving up then or in fact they increased them out 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 that 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 yesterday's protests but the great unions are sounding the indomie of the cots for to go into the most vulnerable members of society many of whom have been protesting do you think these austerity measures have been better thought out

or is it just too late anyway. of course they could've been better thought out of course absolutely i don't know if it's too late. that's all that really that really depends on this government but i think the people here pretty much given up on the three hundred members of parliament that reside in the in the heart of the building across the street from the constitution square i think the only real option for them right now for the protesters and for the greek people is if some sort of political option or movement develops out of a society out of the ranks of ordinary people who are intelligent or capable who come from universities who have some idea of what the country needs i think that's the only real hope the only real option for averting a default and a reckless return to the drachma well many of those people you talk about this say that the measure is only there to save the banks and the single currency what do people in greece make of that. well 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. really working to solve the problem in a meaningful way that we can can can provide a lasting solution that's what the e.u. for example would be trying to do they try to there 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 compliant in case of capital . liquidity capital issues so. yeah i don't i don't i don't really i'm sorry. question i think you did yes indeed thank you very much indeed

in fact seventy three. janice thank you for that joining us. well there you can share your views on what's awaiting the greeks and now that parliament has agreed to these new cuts so far most people believe they should not give up their fight and we should be pushing for early elections however many of those who got in touch with us think worse austerity is yet to come and bankruptcy is stern the cards some who believe that greeks should abandon ship and emigrate to have a chance to tell us what you think they had investigated. well it's not only greece that seeing massive civil unrest in the u.k. around three quarters of a million a public sector workers are set to 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 sorties lower emmett's of this into the voices of frustration down . with industrial action and also discontent starts here as the u.k. braces prove wave of strikes not seen the decades this time it's three quarters of a million public sector workers walking out unhappy with the planned reform of their pensions which they say will see them paying a lot more and getting a lot less we don't think that should be right pensions we think. of security retirement people talk about withdrawing from the pension scheme because they can't afford to pay the mortgage at the same time as paying for the kind of. people really angry that time and bankers are making bonuses yeah guy we're being asked to take a pension in our pensions to pay more for our pension it's reality is we've got to fight the rest were just interest 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 bob apple a says his one point three million. members already a prolonged industrial action and we're almost a war footing we've got thirty million pound 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 nor the ridiculous package they're proposing at 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 fallacy the unions admit public support is fundamental to having a successful strike action 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 do already get very generous pensions and the cost of

those pensions is very much under the carpet and the burden falls on to the next generation a great is absolutely essential that public sector pensions are reformed and even after they are reformed public sector workers will get far better pensions and most private sector workers the unions want to apply enough pressure to force the government to change its mind and it's no stranger to you 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 is doing this to reduce the current fifty billion dollars pension bill but it may be cutting off its nose to spite its face the wider issue here according to the new u.k. pension fund fugitive making a law that made it public that to work if no don't think that pensions are what while they may stop contributing to that if it was a widespread withdrawal pension funds which collapsed and that would leave u.k.

p.l.c. very short of investments just what it means that more than ever begins will be addressing that but is the guy. let's make your avatar three loved it. all the scale of the walkouts in the u.k. hasn't been seen for decades later we hear from the british trade union leader mark so walk up he 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 matters to the government is if they try to ignore we'll come back in the autumn and 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. i'm 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 won't negotiate just when they're having a chat with a few people in

a room is one thing saying you won't negotiate when there could be millions of people taking strike action 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 pro lexically very powerful we've already seen in britain a march of one hundred five hundred thousand people three months ago transformed the political mood in this country from march can to our viewers well what could strikes actually do. and you can watch the full interview with british trade union leader mark so what can just over an hour start here out. but coming your way shortly tensions are still high over long way to change in egypt the capital yet again reaches a boiling point as thousands of protesters accuse interim government of the lack of action over the deaths caused by police during the recent revolt.

the african union has condemned fronts for supplying weapons to the libyan rebels its chief said the move through. it is to put the entire region risk wednesday france became the first nato country to openly admit to arming tribal fighters striving to. have recently been making gains in hope to advance on tripoli but more on this we're joined now by john laughlin the director for the institute of democracy incorporation in paris thanks for joining us here on r.t. france is once again at the forefront of nato campaign in libya now a dropping weapons to the rebels some analysts say the move contravenes the un embargo on arms supplies to libya what's your take on that. well obviously it does and it also makes the nonsense of the whole argument in favor of the war in the first place that argument is you know was predicated on the idea on 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 contradicted 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 the 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 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 a 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 is 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 unity 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 a fig leaf but nato itself is of course 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 using nato as a disguise but now the international criminal court has issued an arrest warrant on colonel gadhafi for crimes committed against his own people while no one seems to be worried about civilian casualties in airstrikes from nato but what's going on there then 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 for political purposes as nato is also doing then you bring the notion of the 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 now to anything that comes out of the hague ok john laughlin to form the

institute of democracy and cooperation in paris or to leave it there for now thank you. thank you. for almost five years he's been the man at the helm of the u.s. military on a sponsible for the billions of dollars of the flowed into the pentagon's coffers from washington now a secretary of defense robert gates is retiring leaving behind three wars and an ever growing defense budget the director of the cia stepping into his shoes critics doubt will be much change in the pentagon's course and teacher counterparts 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 the inconclusive campaign levy when administrations change or change between

parties there really isn't a great deal of change in the pentagon under robert gates is watch americas and you will defense spending approach the trillion dollars rising at the pace of about five percent a year but statements from his office were often contradictory and spending that nearly doubled the base budget over the last decade the 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 vices support us a land army in the middle of an asian conflict should have had it right. there at the same time. he's done everything you can flown over several times to baghdad to leave nouri al maliki government to the please please put

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 and 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 that is remotely piloted vehicles so while targeting terrorists the u.s. has been criticized with killing mostly civilians it's also making us less secure

from a policy standpoint we can intervene all over the world it just fuels insurgencies and fuels and i am americanism and always 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. steps up 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 that trend is on likely to change i'm going to check our reporting from washington our team. well

now if you've missed something we've been covering on the air you can always try it online dot com when using the games are there a few as well the quick preview of the u.s. and more states are relinquishing the duties of running prisons and this private detention is thriving critics say it's because of the billions of dollars these institutions are making. music sources to new heights and nasa astronauts joins the legendary jethro tull's front line in and out of this world duet more than two r.t. to come. some other international stories are great for gyptian officials ordered a probe into clashes in cairo which of the after more than a thousand people injured during two days of protests brought police used tear gas to disperse demonstrators pelted offices with stones and five bombs going rest

began over the slow pace of prosecution to senior officials and police officers accused the group turn a teacher in the mass uprising three activists also ordered for the speedy implementation of reforms demanded you called toppled president barack. two french journalists who are being held hostage by the taliban in afghanistan have been free and back home after spending five hundred forty seven days in captivity the two men are said been good health and good spirits t.v. reporter and his camera and what captured with afghan colleagues in late two thousand and nine filming in a mountainous area of the country. venezuela has delayed next week's major summit of latin american and caribbean leaders literature others is still recovering from surgery in cuba comes after state television showed the fifty six year old talking to fidel castro appearance which failed to quell speculation over his health which others were also sort of braced. marking

a two hundred year anniversary event is what is independence from spain fifty july . was rushed into a vacancy surgery earlier this month suffering from a public sense. but in around few minutes time at the latest in a series of reports on life in the former soviet republics before that the koreans hear the business update. hello welcome to our business books on the south thanks for joining me russia's gas giant gazprom is holding its annual general meeting the company has analysis it will increase dividends and may boost investment to a record level now for more let's cross over to the who's at the gas headquarters hello marina. hi currying of all the latest here outside the headquarters of gas problem is 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 say 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 their record breaking dividends gas from is proposing to give just under forty per share and if it is approved it will be the biggest amount of money ever given in the company's in history now twenty term results for gas won't work positive sells revenues went up to one hundred eighteen billion dollars debt 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 with a higher spot 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 raised to a record forty four billion dollars now 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 the country's newly created ten billion dollars will come up with the first project and september at the head of the fund has. it's investment priorities. agriculture prices are increasing dramatically so agribusiness is very important health care. health care can be much more efficient and can be improved dramatically with investments i was and know how and their deficiencies we all know that's real so much of the bentonville manager price systems are all sorts of new energy efficient technologies that produce very significant cost savings so it's not a venture project it's lot were early stage projects so it was a project where we can see sort of predictable cash flow and just and there deficiency it will produce good results but also good for the country. let's have

a look at the markets oil prices are low after a low absolutely rallying two percent on wednesday the increase followed a u.s. inventory report that showed a sharp decline that surpassed expectations like sweet is trading at ninety five dollars around ninety five dollars on a barrel and brant is around one hundred twelve dollars a barrel european stock markets are high as greek lawmakers approved additional austerity measures this will help the country get more aid and avoid a default footsie is up zero point eight percent with lloyds banking group surging over nine and a half percent on a well received 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 gain for a third day after the u.s. government said paul supplies dropped almost three times energy majors are among the main game is the minus six now let's have a look at some other individual moves on the my six truck make a come august is up almost a percent supported by news it could create

a joint venture with a belorussian rival must by the end of the year bank is also on the rise held by reports its a.d.r.'s have been approved 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 old news for this hour on the back with more in less than one hour from now.

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