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today's top stories interview of the week twelve billion euros in aid are coming to the rescue of greece's economy while violent protest against a group harsh new cod's shook the country. want to for crimes against humanity as the international criminal court issues and arrest warrant for the khadafi as the son of the libyan leader lashes out of the decision exclusively telling r.t. the court is corrupt. a u.s. captain of a gaza flotilla ship is rested by greek authorities add there are several vessels were seized and for following what activists believe is a pressure from israel and the us. a mass walk out of public sector workers hit schools airports and job centers across the u.k. people protested against their pensions being slashed.

welcome to our team with me we're going to josh each day we take a look at the top stories of the week how greece has a ruptured into some of the worst civil unrest it's seen this week as thousands of angry protesters flooded the streets of athens the eurozone has agreed to stand a lifeline to the economically crippled country but people raged against tough new cuts and tax hikes which were needed to secure the second handout face was twenty billion euros worth of the stereo measures protesters gathered in front of the pie . in building threw stones at police smashed windows and sent fire to property responded with tear gas and stun grenades dozens from both sides were injured while manny demonstrators worry detain the aid and the international monetary fund preparing to release an extra twelve billion euros in the next two weeks without

the money greece will default on its loans within days a financial journalist imagine casino says the greek government has simply bought itself a stay of execution. i think the 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 where 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 the 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 according to scholars here in greece for constitutional scholars and former members of the government they claim that the measure simply unconstitutional the first place because you need one hundred eighty members of parliament to pass this legislation first of all second of all they can pass whatever they like but if the people don't agree to it and the people are not willing to sit down and take it it doesn't really matter what they pass and that's what we're seeing here right now what you're looking to have happen is you're going to see a fall of this government at some point i've said if things go it really the violence

is a really big issue because if if the violence if this results in casualties not just massive injuries then that's going to that's going to lead to a collapse of this government will that mean that the next government will come in and actually do something productive maybe maybe not but then they have to fall to i don't see the people in this country lying down one of the things that is circulating around here is a video that shows police not just police brutality with there's a lot of that but also police working with provocateurs agent provocateurs would be escorted into a safe location that they were communicating with and relaying information from there's a report that the head of the pharmaceutical national pharmaceutical soci. and 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 this was just tear gas there were other chemicals in including a strict seating agents and that's why you see a lot of people here 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. for that reason people are very

angry here in the very upset and they understand what's going on and they understand these measures are not going to help them and their future. despite a violent protests e.u. officials have welcomed the greek measure saying the move will help the country get back into a path of recovery but as has been finding out many greeks believe the plans are to rescue the banks not the people. on the streets about the voices of discontent the growing louder. it's a war we did not create this so we're not going to pay for this we want to. squeeze continues to fight against economic ruin. and attempts to prevent us from previous lame attainment that the greek people seeing a penny. of this money actually comes into the greek economy it all goes out. the battle zone save the banks and prevent

a large scale financial crisis for the people the price is simply too high they see their income going down they see. taxes and nothing else their money does not go. near a struggling against. him and the government now faces an electorate opposed to a bailout or people here have been saying is that the. european central bank. financed the initial bailout that scene of one hundred ten. when they'll start looking at ways of continuing to purslane money i merely come to a plan b. if that when it comes to the troika many people now in greece simply don't want their help their actions is being born as a self interest. not

a way to get as much as they. get out there are going to get all this they. problem i mean very proper and they are going to give almost everything in the bailout would certainly come it's a high cost for the cuts in public spending raising taxes and any question of privatization program that would mean the sale of many great public assets one of the reasons that everybody is so determined to keep greece in the euro is so that the banks don't have to take a serious hit of their phone to be lending policies and it's almost as if there's a whole other holy alarm of politicians and bankers versus ordinary people it's a fight that the people say they're not prepared to. sort of r.t. athens. was greeks cry out against the toughest sirrah the measures it's the germans going to bear the brunt of bailing them out lawyer marcus curry the greek

rescue package is a result of the fear of contagion and puts athens creditors at risk. people believe that the greek crisis might create a contagion to other more developed economies politicians are afraid people who are afraid take very very unreasonable decisions the first decision to allow greece to have a very generous credit last year and a credit to a sovereign country means just as long as the common southern country has a lead in goods has not paid to take the credit or people who have been creditors will remain at risk so we are in a very very dangerous phase of european monetary policy. institutional policy because we have stayed away straight away from the institutional norm diverted which is laid down in the treaty and overnight in on the ninth and tenth of may on the french influence of the european economic. community and in particular the

european monetary union has been redesigned without any vote by the populations who have consented to giving up the money runs to the germans and their will and very bitterly i feel. and that was lawyer marcus kerber talking about what the greek means for the wider euro zone. on monday the international criminal court issued an arrest warrant for libya's colonel qadhafi accusing him of crimes against humanity the hague has grounds to believe he ordered attacks on civilians during the beginning of libya's unrest with scores thought to have been killed the african union said it will not cooperate with the tribunals demand in an exclusive interview with r.t. colonel gadhafi son saif islam is also under the court's arrest warrant says international justice is nothing more than a sham. the score of these it is it became of course come on the accuse me of killing people you know the sentence against. the compound

so they decided to kill me and i did kill my brother and destroyed my house so there is me to execute you so now you are talking about me three months ago you go to kill me. after me every day you are trying to find me and to give me over there my brother. number two just to tell you that it's a free court. they are trying to negotiate with us a deal if you accept this the we've ticket of the court what does it means is the court is controlled by those countries. which attack us every day it's just to put . a political pressure but. i can see the full interview with say in about twenty minutes time here in r.t. or you can find it on our website dot com. many libyans

feel the criminal court is just a cover for nader's attempts to kill colonel gadhafi saying it's the alliance as members who should be held to account for the bombing campaign artie's wary of an arson investigator the consequences of the continuing airstrikes which are said to be directed only at military targets. 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 it also 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 hit in the targets of military value well call say these telecommunications towers so fifteen minutes west of the target that's been destroyed in a terror attack carried this is a safe 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. what used to be have been this man says has become hell what was home now suzanne familiar. i have nine children and i send them all to my relatives abroad i don't want them to see their mother in such a condition. from the small pool not far from brad even gas used to flow to europe . we used to produce fuel to send it to them you know see they destroy it all this is terrible and ridiculous at the same time the closer you get to the frontline the more you feel it you can hear the war and you can even read it on a tuesday leaflets jobs just before the bombs arrive. this one says as you can see

there is a sign here in arabic but nato is here in libya to enforce and i'll fly zone over the country to protect civilians on the other side there was 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 filming regulators major parties where the front line lies dividing the country into two parts into two swirling sides it's been a quick one flashpoint between the rebels and gadhafi forces it's a very important point as to to quote case gets in a firm hand on this town would mean taking control over the country's economy all facilities seem to be a red target that. while it looks like the civilian population can hardly. 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 or all companies stall with friends gathered after work. we were eating with my colleagues then there was a we knew what that was we tried to help those trapped in the helicopters came in and started to shoot at us. the story's a repeat. of our problem i live. in the food they know to every man every day every day well being a big kid our civilians but there's been nothing from this country this is from libya well those voices become more and more frequent is the sound of exploding bombs and warplanes the drones that. tripoli. moscow has raised concern over france supplying weapons to libyan rebels and over ambiguous interpretations of the un security council resolution on libya france's admission is the first time a nato member has owned up to air lifting arms to the country since the beginning

of the campaign russia has also criticized what it calls the double standards being applied to the situations unfolding in syria and yemen moscow's opposed to adopting a un resolution condemning crackdowns on protesters in syria fearing such a mandate could escalate even more violence foreign minister sergei lavrov said the continuing turmoil in the two countries is being treated in completely different ways. but many have been criticizing russia and china's position on the un security council's resolution on syria for the french that we consider such a resolution inappropriate 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. so i have here in our team no man's land french finance minister christine lagarde steps into the global economy stempel as the first woman ever to have the international monetary fund. and we find

out whether it gyp could yet again become a boiling pot in the middle east as thousands take to the streets accusing the interim government of a lack of change. the captain of a gaza aid ship has been arrested by greek authorities after trying to leave port without permission several ships with activist and humanitarian aid for the blockade of palestinian territory were stopped in the port of her rommany or athens on friday campaigners claim greece is working under the orders of israel and the us the flotilla is drawing parallels to the gaza bound convoy that was store and buys really marines last year and resulted in the deaths of nine people at r.t. the respondent is on board one of the ships that's been seen and she says people are still determined to carry on their mission to spy greece's actions. not to will not give up there are twelve members of european and other national

coralie among the free gaza activists and they're trying to pull strings to force their governments to try to influence greece's decision to block their ships and lawyers for the freedom flotilla are saying the greek government's actions are unlawful because the ships cannot be prohibited from going to gaza and they should not be restrained from freely leaving the harbors i have seen every part of the ship i'm on and there are no weapons or anything that could be used as weapons the people who participate in the free gaza flotilla are harmless most are elderly many over sixty and even seventy. well there was our t. correspondent killed worker who's on board one of the ships stopped by greek authorities from sailing to gaza. and on thursday the u.k. partly came to hold was more than half of all state schools forced to close and disruption broad to air and ground transport hundreds of thousands of civil servants took to the streets against the government's plans to slash their pensions

and increase the retirement age or am it followed the action down tools up with industrial action and all some of discontent starts here this time it's the public sector workers walking out on happy with the planned reform of their pensions which they say will see them paying a lot more and getting a lot less they're going to. get it right i'm well familiar it's not easy to be black it's a good thing yeah to think that they could fix it by the changes that make it a pension or what it necessary to fix a way to address it so i think we do need to make cutbacks in things like being. tried and tried to teach extensions by sight much as it is to these people do a huge variety of key work from teaches and lecturers to air traffic controllers and coast guards unisons the u.k.'s biggest public sector trade union deputy chief

bulb apple a says his one point three million members already footprint industrial action we're almost a war footing we've got thirty million paying such a saw it and that we've got a strategy work but i must stress that's not what we want to do we want to talk to the government and negotiate a sensible package nor the ridiculous package of their proposal at the moment that package involves raising the retirement age from sixty to sixty six raising. contributions by workers and having payouts based on average career earnings rather than final salary the unions admit public support is fundamental the government's very unlikely to change its mind about reforms if the public at large doesn't back the unions but that's by no means a short 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 the grid is absolutely essential that public sector pensions are reformed and even after they are reformed 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 strangers 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 dollar 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 but it is a part of me public that to work if no don't think that pensions are what while they may stop contributing to that if there was a widespread withdrawal pension funds would collapse and that would leave u.k. p.-l. of the very shores of investment just what it means that more than ever your avatar

t. love that. well she's the first woman at the helm of one of the world's most powerful financial organizations by the new i.m.f. chief christine lagarde isn't shying away from putting that having burden of the earth problems on her shoulders to count as more on the implications of the appointments for the global economy. christine lagarde appointment keeps the european at the head of the world's top lender keeping the long held tradition intact and in a debt crisis having one of its own chairing the international monetary fund could be more important than ever for europe seeing the. intimate knowledge of those mechanisms. of the european community and the eurozone of its many leaders can help the guard's main competitor was augustine carstens from mexico who argued her appointment would only add to the perception of i.m.f. bias there could be some conflict of interest i mean up in those they know their

main borel's institution will be it will europe so we'll have a situation where they will roll or stormin eighteen to create their institutional emerging economies the engine of global growth in recent years are vastly under represented in the organization with the u.s. and europe holding half of the votes and veto power analysts suggest i.m.f. bias has had a negative effect on the world's economy and they would use their monopoly over credit. to force certain policies. on countries in policies there were not in the national interest the i.m.f. lends money monitors the global economy and in theory at least prevents crises its credibility has been shattered by the financial collapse in the advanced economies which it definitely did not spot they missed the two bigger biggest asset bubbles

in the history of the world i think they didn't want to go against all their friends on wall street and others that were making a fortune at the time some experts see the intimacy between the i.m.f. and u.s. corporations as a matter of concern all of the big decisions at the i.m.f. are made by the u.s. treasury department then you had of the i.m.f. is more than familiar with the u.s. corporate world for years she worked at a major american law firm representing the interests of big business and is a member of the u.s. poland defense industry working group divest the interests of a v.a. ssion giants like boeing and lockheed martin helping them to seal multibillion dollar deals the u.s. and europe. bound christine lagarde the best for the job so did several emerging markets including russia and china but she faces the difficult task of appearing independent despite her past and will struggle not to cement even further the perception that the i.m.f. exists only for the benefit of its creditors i'm gonna check our reporting from

washington r.t. . it fragile interim leadership is facing the strain with a renewed violence in the streets this week officials have ordered the probe into clashes in cairo which left more than a thousand people injured after recent protests riot police used tear gas to disperse demonstrators who pelted officers with stones and firebombs the unrest began over the slow pace of prosecution for senior officials and police officers accused of brutality during the mass uprising in february activists are also calling for the speedy implementation of reforms to manage to ring the revolt that toppled president mubarak journalist option returns he says the current leadership is ignoring people's demands. the government such as it is has not responded to the concerns of the people there strikes at the suez canal transportation workers people being killed again on the streets of cairo not a peep out of the corporate media and meanwhile we have william burns in cairo

talking with mr time tally the provisional head at the moment of the government and even the trial of the interior minister who is hated so much on the interior minister and also mubarak has been adjourned people are not getting what they thought they were getting when they toppled hosni mubarak we must remember that joe biden and hillary clinton didn't want to mubarak to go that's also the mubarak and his cronies so many of them are retaining power and it's a very dangerous situation and we mustn't forget what's crucial for the international. outlook is this who is going to hell that's where trade goes through and it is the most populous country arab country in the arab world and we're not hearing anything about it in the corporate news it's as if that revolutions done and dusted in the egyptian people if. well if you missed something worth covering on the air you can always catch it online here's a taste of what's there for you right now at or t. dot com. a man in a strangely gets live behind bars after murdering his two year old daughter to get

back in his ex partner before stabbing the child to death you know he's in tension on facebook. and get all the latest from moscow star studded international film festival where a spanish movie snatches the top prize for more glitz and glamour. at america's military got a new boss this week as a former cia chief leon panetta was sworn in as a secretary of the fans after almost five years in the pentagon robert gates has retired leaving his successor with three wars and an ever expanding military budget retired u.s. army general steven anderson believes the new person in charge couldn't do any worse managing the finances i don't think we're going to see any major changes in pentagon policies i'm hoping though that he will do something about the a tremendous energy expenditure is that the united states army is expanding in iraq and afghanistan we have a tremendously inefficient energy base over there and we need to do something about

it i'm hoping that it will bring about some of the money should be using the united states to to work domestic programs i mean we're essentially bankrupt the elements of the of our nation in order to win this war in iraq and afghanistan from what my point is that we should be expending energy there but what shorter than we are if you understand the relationship between energy efficiency and military effectiveness then you can see we can win the war and we can actually actually save a lot of money and i'm hoping that secretary panetta will do something about that my point is that there is a very simple easy pragmatic approach and that is essentially insulating our structures in iraq and afghanistan and we can save billions we're presently spending about twenty billion dollars a year simply inefficient structures in our combat zone where i think that americans should be outraged they were not doing more better energy consumer energy missed our way. well a certain hour to some of today's world news in brief thailand's holding

a general election that hoped well and the country's long running political crisis the incumbent prime minister faces a tough struggle against the opposition whose victory would bring the country's first ever female premier violent political protests have repeatedly shaken thailand since the former government was toppled in a military coup in two thousand and six. hezbollah's chief has ruled out the arrest of four senior members of his group suspected of the assassination of former lebanese premier status on this ross said a special tribunal investigating the death should be asking questions of israel he also rejected each and every accusation by the un based court saying the charges were an attack on his movement he was killed along with twenty two others in february two thousand and five in beirut when a huge bomb exploded as his motorcade passed by. eleven people including young children have been killed in mexico after tropical storm arlene

drenched the country with heavy rains most of victims died after being buried alive in their homes by mudslides or drowning in powerful streams season's first tropical storm came ashore over mexico central gulf coast early on thursday almost three hundred thousand have been left homeless or otherwise affected by the storm. i'll be back with a recap of our top stories in just a few moments stay with r.t. . thank. you.