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mass protests have shaken greece over the government's plans to pull the country out of its top hole by raising taxes and cutting jobs a final vote to outline implementation of the radical austerity measures is underway. the u.k. braces itself for mass destruction of hundreds of thousands of public sector workers to begin twenty four hours of industrial action in response to planned changes to their pensions and pay. concerns in moscow over double standards at the un after the organization's hard my position on syria he says the crisis there warrants only a peaceful solution. foreign minister sergei lavrov says the un security council shouldn't be contemplating taking action against syria while stakes during what he calls a civil war taking place in yemen a lot more not so good later on. and russia's largest company gazprom has announced its boosting its dividend payments and investment program to record levels find out

more what's coming out from the annual general meeting of the gulf putting in twenty with a side of the salty. it's five pm in moscow this is coming to life and now with our top story this hour greece is gearing up for another day of protests after thousands clashed with police said wednesday following parliament's decision to pass tough austerity measures the government now has to implement the agreed costs in order to secure a further financial lifeline from the e.u. financial journalists. at square the focal point of the protests with more. things are really quiet here no one's not i gathered yet the protests are supposed to take place around six o'clock where they're supposed to start first first start collecting honest in the square on the afternoon right now most people are probably

home resting or looking at footage from last night there's a lot of police brutality footage that's been circulating around and got a lot of phone calls from friends that have been at the rally is that asked me if i'd seen the footage so i think that's a big part of what's happening also. another piece of news is that the the head of the national farm workers pharmaceutical situation here in greece will be suing from what i understand the government along with other people for the use of chemical agents that included as fixating agents and other other harmful chemicals and us very measures increase the value added tax at twenty percent for a lot of things like. soft drinks and other you know consumer items in addition to all the previous bad increases we saw so the tax increases are a big part of the of the pain is going to be felt here from these austerity measures i would say the majority of people are fed up with the e.u. and would like to go get out of it but that may or may also be because they don't fully understand the implications of leaving the euro zone that being said they're justified in believing that there may no not be another option for at least for the

for the government to return to paying its public sector with with drachma and borrowing money and draco's be perhaps the the rest of greece can get in to use the euro in a kind of buy currency union but i think that people are are pretty fed up with the situation and they understand that with the eurozone comes a lack of autonomy and control i think that what's clear here is that the violence is not going to go away in the protests are not going to go away people are very angry and as i've said this is shifted from being you know anarchists or provocateurs and whatever to being the the large breath of the of the protesters who are engaging police i believe that eventually you're going to have an overthrow this government probably shortly and then. another day of the next government and the next government till a solution is implemented. so your opinion counts here at r t you can visit our web site r t v dot com and have your say in our latest poll on what's happening in greece today we asked you what should great people do once the new set of austerity cuts are approved so far most of you think

they should defend their rights until early elections a close second with thirty four percent is the opinion that they must prepare for even the worst parts with bankruptcy still looming either back to favorable responses or that clique should consider emigrating and that they have lost a fine tighten their belts let us know what you say drop us a line at our team dot com. we'll have more for you online today. learn how police prevented a terrorist attack during a drug raid. but for more analysis on the situation in greece and in athens we can turn to journalist manono stop to lock us in the greek capital for us as we've just heard

the government is being accused of using illegal chemical agents to disperse protesters a person who is great in the middle of the action of course in central athens what do you make of the measures taken against the people. i think would be. doing. the this is a very huge buy kids a huge boat goods with no future why they see no future because the situation is very dramatic here for bridging the income for example a made me do because it was really my own solar is about forty percent seventy seven percent over hughes or money or must be to the banks so you see but there's thirteen mergers a very. card and the other on the other hyundai see what this time from to gender until now. it's month and transferred to the banks outside greece the tax revenues

have decreased three point five billion. still this time and this is a security. big in the seventy five percent of the national budget and so they don't see a future because the what they see is now they pay they pay they pay for the first by goods and the government has collected only one billion euros that's a very crucial situation when they see that for the next month from next month they will loose even the next bill which is very hard but german chancellor angela merkel has praised the move taken by your government to implement new can't saying that it's good for the country and good for the stability of the euro what about greek people how are they looking at this i mean what good comes out of these measures for them. by kids the problem for the people who see that for the next four or five years then we see their jobs are

in a risk because we have an unemployment of seventeen percent at this time for the next year the european union says that unemployment would be about fifteen percent there on the other hand you see that the taxes are increased their pension income is going to mice and when we reach that in five years the target what will be this is the situation in greece. did to be below zero or a little more above zero and. the deficit would be very very high and the this situation would not change so they think that we are going to suffer for five or four years in this situation would not cheat that's a problem. but experts are saying that if green. doesn't receive this bulk of european aid that it could go bankrupt as soon as august is about the worst economic scenario for any country. if we see this country to go

a bankrupt to be like brothers would be the worst scenario are we so that hours before they always do because of the situation where the amount of tax is absorbed by the lenders this can not be continued so. very dearly but what we pay here what money do we have goes directly to the lenders at the same time in this country we have a vision about thirty billion is the one for six hundred billions transferred in bank accounts corruption is about sixty billions so if it the to see what's happening seventy five percent of us if unemployed people here employed people. say that the statement the less than ten thousand a year and only fifteen thousand people. say that they had more than one hundred thousand a year the enormous amounts where people say where is the money where the money is

going because this is government the oldest in the beginning that we have money so no people see big don't have the money at the same time if we go bankrupt the situation will be more hard right i'm going to stop it or lock us live from athens thank you very much for your analysis this hour. to the u.k. now we're up to three quarters of a million public sector workers are preparing for industrial action their voice in their opposition to planned changes to their pensions and pay both part of the government's austerity measures a third of schools are expected to close with court hearings postponed and u.k. airports bracing themselves for destruction or teaser nicol who is in london following developments. not action. it taking in the london about seven hundred fifty thousand people had to turn to turn up at these hotels teachers double team members apologies. all expenses not to express their sons in

this enough to be sent but since the trip planned by the government as far as we know it's not just the college students and people think teachers that are inside that but we do have to say that about ninety percent of london. does it say also they're expected to belong to the airports because customs and immigration officials are also taking as well all of these people are demanding that the cuts would not be held such that the government is not told what the cuts they do say that the lawsuits against the clintons are not willing to work longer hours to get a flat back i say it will. come up some of the teachers will be back to the sixty eight so it will take six of the cuts being made in the wrong direction so they're not to be made to see if it is the sponsor of the current financial crisis. those most responsible for our current predicament

. largely untouched the government seems to be writing me so some agreements halfway through with do consultation to the people most of. the changes that i may consider pensions but it necessary to this way to address so i think we do need to make cutbacks in things are being. tried and tried to teach which is why so much of it is to where nothing that seems to need to disturbances other than the laws that possible traps exist seven to take place at the same time there are organisations such as the tradition to network the toll on people to turn to the old phrase. again henri let's put this in sunday maybe two months a little bit reality of the same time we also must not love the fact that anything might also take heat and make some damage. but other than that people are expected

to protest peacefully again it's one of the million people that are going to be marching from the center of london to watch to make their voices heard in the pension pot each up planned by the government. the russian foreign minister has highlighted double standards at the un over the organization's approach to the arab world sergei lavrov says the crisis in syria and yemen are provoking vastly different and unjustified approaches peter all of our reports from moscow. mr lavrov was addressing a meeting of the foreign affairs committee of the duma just behind me he highlighted and says out really where russia stands concerning the ongoing situations in the arab world now he gets outside what he sees as a western desire for regime change in the middle east saying that this was unacceptable and the russians would not support any circumstances he also went on to highlight the fact that this was actually against international law. feels

a little disappointed to say the least about the way. the the situation in libya has progressed russia of course abstaining from the vote on the u.n. resolution that allowed international intervention there they very disappointed at the way they see that mission has gone beyond the parameters laid out in the u.n. resolution and came to avoid a similar fate a similar situation occurring in syria yemen. sigil of rolf pulling no punches he hit out at those that have have criticised russia's stance on the u.n. security council and also had a few words to say himself about what he sees as a lack of consistency by the u.n. body. many have been criticizing russia and china's position on the u.n. security council resolution on syria for the fact that we consider such a resolution in appropriate i'll give you a simple example the situation in yemen is no easier than in syria there's

a difficult civil war going on there but nobody's going to the u.n. security council to try and stop it. reiterating in some ways words he has said before that russia wants to see peace brought around about in the arab world to discussion and diplomacy and not international intervention something that they will not support. sergey lavrov has also announced that moscow is waiting for confirmation from libyan rebels that they have received weapons from france it proven true the russian foreign minister says it would be a serious violation of the u.n. arms embargo french officials earlier admitted their military has airlifted arms to the country it's the first time a member of nato has owned up to supplying weapons to the b.s. since the bombing began over three months ago alliance officials want paris to explain its unilateral action the un mandate on libya allows military action to protect civilians but operates a ground invasion and arm supplies paris based political analyst john laughlin says

three countries have hijacked the mandate. 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 it completely contradicts it 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 we must be careful about using the word nato this war is being fought by britain france and america they use nato is the. 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. the assets of former ukrainian prime minister yulia tymoshenko have been frozen by prosecutors she stands accused of abuses of power expressed here is accused of stealing highly unprofitable gas deals with russia in two thousand and nine these are said to have a horse ukraine around four hundred million dollars investigators claim she had no authority to find the contracts and that she did not secure cabinet approval to a striker claims the case has been fabricated by her political rival president victory and of corbett's it sound guilty to most and go could face up to ten years in jail. a look now at some world news in brief for you this hour and the gyptian court has ordered a probe into the case against two policemen accused of brutally killing a man that helped trigger the country's uprising the slow pace of legal action

against police sparked a riot in karl rove earlier this week which left over a thousand people injured activists are angry at the country's interim government saying there have been no improvements in the country for president hosni mubarak resigned in february. rival forces in have agreed to withdraw from the border areas ahead of southern independence next week the agreement follows separate deals to end fighting in two border areas which for some one hundred seventy thousand people to flee the two sides are still to agree on how to divide sudan's oil wealth after separation the region has seen more than two decades of civil war which claimed over two million lives. two french journalists are back at home after eighteen long months of captivity in afghanistan the men had been held hostage by the taliban but are said to be in good health and good spirits the t.v. reporter and his cameraman were taken along with afghan colleagues in late two

thousand and nine filming in a remote mountain it's the longest seizure of french nationals since the lebanese hostage crisis in the one nine hundred eighty s. . u.s. secretary of defense robert gates has announced his retirement after almost five years. in the job but with three ongoing wars involving america his replacement former cia director leon panetta is expected to make dramatic changes to pentagon policies can has the story. 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 his 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 fan 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 visors support us a land army in the middle of an asian conflict should have his head examined yet at the same time. he's done everything you can flown over several times to baghdad leave from nouri al maliki government. that please please good u.s. 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 warm. here's 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 the student terms of drone strikes those remotely piloted vehicles while targeting terrorists the us has been criticised quick 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 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 of 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. a russian court has found that some scientology literature distributed legal writings

by the father of scientology hubbard have been ruled to extremists and anti social why now aren't you sorry for the scientologists quarters here in moscow sarah scientologist always lead a controversial existence in russia and around the world really what does this latest development spell for a church. with this court ruling means that some of the books by the founder of scientology. will be banned in russia. what is scientology as she can see just to the bottom of the main building here they've got a book still has some of these books that will now not be legal in russia but as he said a very controversial history and scientology actually very used to fighting these legal battles and not only in russia but this particular ruling mirrors a reading that happened in april last year in the siberian city a state gets in that case a very similar decision was reached a team of experts that included psychologists and sociologists found that some of

these materials contain cools the social religious hatred and the hindrance of law enforcement activities and so i was banned but in that instance the justice ministry actually and the decision so it's not entirely sure at the moment whether or not this particular court ruling here in most cases will be allowed to stand if you say scientology it attracts a lot of attention for its controversial practices it's going to have a ten million followers well why it's a famous float is including. john travolta very used to fighting legal battles so the potential now for them to take this ruling to the justice ministry we'd have to see from that whether that reading was allowed to stand many countries around the world considering scientology not to be a religion in fact but to be a cult or sex. or for live from a central moscow thanks for that update. next business here in. we have to stay with us.

thanks and welcome to business russia's largest company the 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 from all its crossover to money. which is money so what happened today at the a.g.m. . well it's pretty clear that gas problem is trying to increase its share in the market they're looking for new opportunities in europe especially germany they said that their exports in the first half of this year increased by twenty six percent and that was the to higher demand in europe and the decline in production they're also looking to work with asian partners and in particular they're trying to strike a deal as with south korea india and china and this could see them increase their exports by fifty percent and their overseas earnings could reach of record highs twenty ten results were quite positive they saw themselves revenues reach one

hundred eighteen a billion dollars and of course they're expected their shareholders will be receiving just on the four roubles per share which is the biggest amount of money ever given by the company and for this year they're planning to increase their spending and they're also planning to increase their investment program to ever occurred forty four billion dollars and from now on all the decisions will be made by the new board of directors who were elected here today all right thank you so much money and of course bring us the latest update from the headquarters of. the big. move to the markets and oil prices mixed. for light sweet crude twenty eight cents for bread to schooling eleven cents this is following a u.s. injuries report that showed a sharp decline that surpassed expectation. if you look at the market reaction in terms of stock markets in europe they are in the black that says greek lawmakers

approved additional thirty measures this would help the country get more aid in the way of the vote. banks like bank of scotland and barclays are in the lead in london the energy sector is so active the shares of the major b.p. are up one percent world a shell almost two percent two. russian stock markets have one more hour of trading the r.t.s. is up by point four percent my stakes by just annoy some energy majors are losing because of this uncertainty in terms of the oil price there you go rules now down half a percent in this respect banks are slightly higher bank up point four percent and was telecom is up more than one percent officers announced a six percent increase in net profit for the first quarter. coming up next i'll see the headlines with any so do stay with us for that. thanks.

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