today's top story center review of the week twelve billion euros in need aid are coming to the rescue of greece's economy while violent protest against a group harsh new cuts shook the country. wanted for crimes against humanity as the international criminal court issues and arrest warrant for the obvious the son of the libyan leader lashes out at the decision exclusively telling our team the port is corrupt. a u.s. captain of a gaza flotilla ship is arrested by greek authorities after several vessels were seized in port following what activists believe is a pressure from israel and the u.s.

. a mass walk out of public sector workers hit schools airports and job centers across the u.k. as people protested against their pensions being slashed. this is r t coming to you live from moscow i'm marina joshie welcome to the program where we take a look at the top stories of the week greece has erupted into some of the worst civil unrest it's seen this week s. thousands of angry protesters flooded the streets of athens the eurozone has agreed to expand a lifeline to the economic only cripple country but people raged against tough new cuts and tax hikes which were needed to secure the second handout faced with twenty eight billion euros worth of us staring the measures protesters gathered in front of the parliament building a three stones of police smashed windows and set fire to. police responded with

tear gas and stun grenades dozens from both sides were injured while mary demonstrators were detained the e.u. and the international monetary fund are preparing to release an extra twelve billion euros in the next two weeks without the money greece will default on its loans within days but financial journalist demetri coffee in a says the greek government has simply bought itself a stay of execution. i think that people here pretty much given up on the three hundred members of parliament that reside in the in the apartment 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 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 what constitutional scholars and former members of the government they claim that the measurably unconstitutional the first place because you need one hundred eighty members of parliament to pass a sort of legislation first of all second of all they can pass whatever they like

but if the people don't agree to it and that 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 this government at some point i said if things really of 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 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 today naggum will 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 but there's a lot of that but also police working with provocateurs agent from other torture the escorted into a safe location and they were communicating with and relaying information from there's a report that the head of the pharmaceutical national pharmaceutical station here in greece is going to be following a lawsuit along with other people against the government for use of illegal substances because these weren't just just tear gas there were other chemicals

including us fixating agents and that's why you see a lot of people here i sell to myself 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 like a hospital for that reason people are very angry here and they're very upset and they understand what's going on and understand these measures are not going to help them and their future. despite the violent protests in. officials have welcomed the greek history measure saying the move will help a country get back into a path of recovery that hurts you sarah firth has been finding out many greeks believe the plans are to rescue the banks not the people. on the streets of athens the voices of discontent growing louder. it's a war we did not create this tour or going to pay for this we want to be called large but peace continues the fight against economic ruin. and a chance to prevent greece from previous lame payments that people will be seeing

any. money actually comes into the greek economy you know. the battles on save the banks and prevent a large scale financial crisis for the people the price is simply too high they see their incomes going down they see taxes taxes taxes and nothing else their money does not go to. a year a struggling against hostile stares he measures that many government now faces an electorate. that bailouts or people here have been saying is that. the european central bank and the e.u. the. finance the initial bailouts the tune of one hundred ten billion a year when they'll start looking at ways of continuing to first lend money. and really come to a plan b.

. when it comes to the troika many people knowing greece simply don't want to help . being born and to self interest. as much as. they are going to get. their. they are going to get almost everything for the people it certainly can it's a high cost cuts in public spending raising taxes and in the quest of privatization program they would need to sell as many greek 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 the lending policies and it's almost as if there's a holy alliance of politicians of bankers versus ordinary people it's a fight that the people say they're not prepared to lead. and see athens.

as greeks cry out against the toughest parity measures it's the germans who are going to bear the brunt of bailing them out lloyd marcus kerber says the greek rescue package is a result of the fear of contagion and puts athens creditors at risk people believe the greek crisis create a contagion to other. economies politicians are afraid of people who are afraid to take very very unreasonable decisions of the first decision to allow greece to have a very generous credit you and credit to a sovereign country means that as long. as we have all been who have not paid coca-cola or people have been credit will remain at risk so we are in a very very dangerous phase of view in monetary policy. institutional policy because we have strayed away straight away from institutional virtue which is laid

down in the treaty overnight in the ninth and tenth of may under french influence. economic. community and. monetary union has been redesigned without any brood by the populations who have consented to giving up their money and the germans. and very bitterly i feel. i was there marcus kerber talking about what the greek bailout means for the wider eurozone 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 that's or start to have been killed the african union said it will not cooperate with the tribunals demand an exclusive interview with r t colonel gadhafi son saif al islam was also under the court's arrest warrant says international justice is nothing more than

a sham if you score of these it is a court come on be accused of killing people over it with you know the sentence. of your punishment so they decided to kill and for me and. my brother and destroyed my house so this is you and me to execute you so now you are talking about everest me to the mines are going to kill me. after me every day they are trying to find me and to give me everything and of all the. number two just to tell you that the supreme court. they are trying to negotiate with a deal if your job is the. curator of the course what does it mean is that it's controlled by goes. attacking us every day it's just support. political pressure.

you can see the full interview with saif on islam about twenty minutes time here in r.t. or you can find find it on our web site r.t. 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's members who should be held to account for the bombing campaign at his microphone off investigated 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 bargain and. this is what's left of the civilian airport in the siege of. homes of one of the country's key oil the high res the last plane took off from this runway just hours before it was hit places they said it's only hitting the targets of military value they call say based telecommunications tower so fifteen minutes west of the

town of has been destroyed in a time gary this is a safe bet two strikes and they've also accidentally burned to cars and killed two civilians since there is no t.v. in this area and as we can see the phone lot has also been disrupted. there is no water and no. what used to be heaven this man says has become hell which was home unfamiliar. 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 they'll be from least small paul not far from greg even gas used to flow to europe. we used to produce fields 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 nature's leaflets jobs just before the bomb has arrived. this runs as you can see the reason sign here and arabic nato is here to leave it all in force 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 any time. any time happened three times over several hours while we were filming libbers major is whether from dividing the country into two parts into to see. the flick one flashpoint between the rebels and gadhafi forces it's a very important strategic location that's in the firm hand on this town mean taking control over the country's economy all facilities seem to be a rare target. population can hardly scale.

they were like my family not just going to the shop to buy some food and this happened six of them died i couldn't believe it and this used to be a restaurant for all companies start where friends gathered after work. we were eating with my colleagues then there was a we knew what that was we trying to help those trapped in the helicopters came in and started to shoot at us. the stories i'm really concerned about our problem ok we don't need the food they are not so there's imagine every day every day they've been a big kid our civilians. from this country this is probably live you well they become more and more frequent the sound of exploding bombs and war planes. out key sleepily. moscow has raised concerns 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 airlifting arms to the country since the beginning of the campaign russia has also criticised what it calls the double standards being applied to the situation unfolding in syria yemen as opposed to adopting a un resolution condemning crowd downs 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. with the group of many who have been criticizing russia and china's position on the un security council's resolution on syria for the fact 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 civil war going on there but nobody's going to the u.n. security council to try and stop it it's still ahead here in our t.v.

no man's land french finance minister christine lagarde steps into the global economies temple as the first woman ever to have the international monetary fund. and we find out whether it could get again become a boiling pot in the middle east as thousands take to the streets of the interim government of a lack of change. the captain of a gaza aid ship a. been arrested by greek authorities after trying to leave port without permission several ships with activists and humanitarian aid for the blockade of palestinian territory were stopped and the court of parameter 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 stormed by israeli marines last year and resulted in the deaths of nine people and r.t. correspondent is on board one of the ships that's been seized she says people are still determined to carry on with their mission to survive greece's actions. he

knew not what you had to do not the flotilla will not give up there are twelve members of the european and other national parliaments among the free gaza activists and they're trying to pull strings to governments to influence greece's decision to block the ships in its harbors noise from the freedom flotilla. government's actions are unlawful because the ships cannot be prohibited from going to gaza and they should not be restrained from leaving freely. every part of the ship and there are no weapons or anything that could be used as weapons the people who participate in to be gaza flotilla are harmless most are elderly many are over sixty and even seventy. of those are to your sponsor kevorkian who's on board one of the ships stopped by greek authorities from sailing to gaza. on thursday the u.k. partly came to hold was a more than half of all state schools forced to close and disruption brought 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 a fall the action down tools are within just real action and all some of discontent starts here this time it's the 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. but if i work for me it's that easy will be getting fixed yeah it will take the changes that make it a pension or what is necessary to it is a way to address it so i think we do need to make cutbacks in things that are being . priced into the private teacher pages why so much of it is through 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 our

police says his one point three million members already prolonged industrial action we're almost a war footing we've got thirty million paid set aside and 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 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 eight the unions it makes 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 service workers do already get very generous pensions in the course

of those pensions is very much returned to the carpets and the burden falls on to the next generation it really is absolutely essential that public sector pensions are reformed an even after they are reformed public sector workers will get far better pensions and those prices are to 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's doing this to reduce the current fifty billion dollar pension bill but it may be cutting off its nose to spite its face that the wider issue here according to the new u.k. pension fund fugit is a part of me if public sector workers know don't think that helps it worthwhile they may start to kick you think that if there was a widespread withdrawal pepsin funds would collapse and that would leave u.k. p.l.o. the very source of investments just what it needs it more than ever your average

r.t. loves it. christine lagarde has become the first woman at the helm of one of the world's most powerful financial organizations but the new i'm after she isn't shying away from putting the heavy burden of the earth's problems on her shoulders and i sit down as more on the work ations of the point for the global economy and it's 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 i think that's my. 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 point man would only adds to the perception of i.m.f.

bias there could be some conflict with theme clips going up into the group they know the name borel's the institution will be europe and all so will have his inflation were they war or storming a plane to create the 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 am have by as has had a negative effect on the world economy and they would use their monopoly over. force certain policies. on countries in which there were no in their actual 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 in wrists with too big it biggest asset bubbles in

the history of the world but i think they didn't want to go against all their friends on wall street and others there were making a fortune at the time some experts see the intimacy between the i.m.f. and us corporations as a matter of concern all of the big decisions that the i.m.f. are made by the us 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 advanced the interests of aviation giants like boeing and lockheed martin helping them to see. billion dollar deal the u.s. and europe found christine lagarde the best fit 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 going to check our reporting from washington r.t. . egypt's fragile interim leadership is facing a strain with renewed violence on the streets this week officials have ordered a probe into clashes in cairo which left more than a thousand people injured after recent protests riot police used tear gas to disperse them as readers 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 a mass uprising fabric activists are also calling for the speedy one intention of reforms the manager in the revolt that toppled president mubarak their early stuff he 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 transport haitian 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 charlie the provisional head at the moment of the government and even the trial of the interior minister who is hated so much on the minister and also mubarak has been adjourned people are not getting what they thought they were getting when they go barak we must remember the joe biden and hillary clinton didn't want to mubarak go that's also the mubarak and his cronies so many of them are retaining power and it's a very dangerous situation and wasn't forget what's crucial here for the international. outlook is this 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 for. if you've missed something we're covering on the air you can always catch it online here's a taste of what's there right now that it's not. a man in this trailer gets live behind bars after murdering his two year old daughter to get back in these acts are

there but before stabbing the child to death he announced his intention on facebook . to get around out of the action from this year's non-secure international film festival where a spanish movie snatch the top prize for all the glitz and glamour log on to. american military god a new boss this week as a former cia chief leon panetta was sworn in as 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 be 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 they will do something about the tremendous energy expenditure that the united states army is expanding in iraq and afghanistan and we have a tremendously inefficient base over there and we need to do something about it i'm hoping that it will bring about some change of the money should be using the united

states so we're domestic programs i mean we're essentially. elements of that of our nation in order to win this war record in afghanistan from what my point is that we should be expending energy there but for the shorter that 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 say believes 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 war better energy consumer energy in a smart way. well as for mains in a financial quagmire whether it's economy paralyzed prices rising the value of the

local ruble plummeting hard currency has all but disappeared from the country as well as most important goods now the belle of russian government is hoping for a several billion dollar bailout from the i.m.f. that would depend on deep economic reforms being in place that threatens the regime's hold them power many have been showing their discontent at the government's policies staging silent protest on the streets of the capital more than one hundred are thought to have been detained. now let's take a look at some of the stories from around the world in thailand as the polls show the opposition party isn't course for a majority victory in the country's general election the party is headed by the sister of ousted prime minister elections hope to and the country's long running political crisis violent protests have repeatedly shaken thailand since the former government was toppled in a military coup in two thousand and six. as well as chief has ruled out the arrest of four senior members of his group suspected of the assassination of former

lebanese premier afic hariri instead her son the strong settings 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 these movements was killed along with twenty two others of february two thousand and five and be rude about 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 months lies or drowning in powerful streams the atlantic 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 severe weather. shortly a reminder of our we stop stories stay with us here in our team. of

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