they are facing even darker demons japan already has one of the highest suicide rates in the world and following the disaster in march the government has issued a warning about a possible nationwide epidemic of depression. here are some organic farmers committed suicide because you know the. soil is everything very good soil. after many. just contaminated one night into so. far so i'm very sad to hear the news and many other farmers are also very much depressed a recent national survey in japan performed by dr roshini and his team shows that suicide rates in japan have been found increased in the months since the disaster compared to the same timeframe in the previous two years but the demographics are not what you might expect. increase.

in the. back. because some barbers struggling with you cost are rife and they have no time to make suicide this disaster has certainly taken its toll on japan's economy and such constant reminders of an intense topic can harm the collective psyche of the people who live here as well because of the. tsunami disaster plus nuclear disaster many people lost their jobs or their working on the show house crushed. so. yeah they have so many good reasons to commit suicide causing japan's death toll to keep rising even though the initial disaster has subsided months before in japan sean thomas forty. well the cleanup at the a stricken focus shima nuclear plant has been praised by the head of the u.n.

nuclear watchdog who said radiation could be contained by the end of the year. of yukiya amano is a visiting the facility to assess the progress and. preventing the nuclear crisis from getting worse because she was reactors were heavily damaged by the earthquake and tsunami it caused the course to melt and release dangerous amounts of radiation into the environment well workers have since been trying to restore the cooling system and stop contaminated water from the reactors leaking into the sea but hiroshima based a nuclear energy expert robert jacobs believes the i.a.e.a. visit is a farce and the japanese government still is not doing enough to protect people. in essence what this is is just just trying to give a nice shine to a terrible terrible situation and policy and not really in any way dealing with the actual problems that are facing us here in japan and least plants are still leaching radioactivity into the environment every day into the sea and through the

steam of the combing into the air and what's what's now preoccupied many people in japan is that even for those of us that live far enough away that we thought we were not in any way threatened by the radiation from the plants we're now finding that because of insufficient oversight to the food supply and public health questions that radiation is turning up in all kinds of food products so you're finding now people in far away from fukushima areas are now beginning to realize that they're not going to be escaping the radiation because of that distance and additionally besides that there's still a rather chaotic policy about what will be happening in the areas that were contaminated near the plants but outside of the evacuation zone for example pushing a city we know that that neither tepco tokyo electric or the government inform the public when they knew that there had been nuclear meltdowns people were not told to evacuate at that time and in terms of the current situation there is

a great deal of anger especially among parents in fukushima prefecture and nearby that there is not a comprehensive system to try to protect the health of the people in those areas so you are seeing meetings every couple of days in which government officials are being yelled out by local residents who are complaining that they're not being given enough information about the health threats to their children and their families and the situation is in many ways here in japan compounding. that was nuclear energy expert robert shake of sand here are my explaining the current situation in japan. now barack obama is calling on the american people to step up to the plate and pressure their politicians to dealing with the debt standoff congress has a week left to raise the country's multi-trillion dollar debt ceiling if it wants to avoid a potentially devastating default well in a nationwide address obama warned that an american default would impact around the world he blamed republicans for stalling talks and refusing to accept

a balanced approach republican speaker john boehner hit back accusing obama of spending beyond the country's means and expecting quote as a blank check the republicans and democrats have been a locked in a dispute over whether spending cuts or tax hikes is the answer to the debt crisis a washington watcher matthew says the government needs to act fast to avoid an investor exodus. and the democrats in congress just want to keep on spending. and so they would like to see the debt ceiling raised so that they can continue to give rewards to their supporters among the labor unions and the various political organizations that are sympathetic to the democratic party's cause the u.s. is able to keep raising its debt ceiling because people investors around the world have confidence in the united states they believe that the u.s.

government will honor its outstanding obligations and so as long as people have faith in the investors and faith in the u.s. government in its credit worthiness then the u.s. could keep raising its debt ceiling the problem right now is that the debt is so high that that in itself is starting to become a negative factor that could lead to a credit rating downgrade of the united states government if china lou. has confidence in. america the american government's ability to pay its debts then the u.s. will have nowhere to run to the u.s. with the only the only choice it would have would be to keep printing money to inflate the currency run the printing presses and risk devastating hyperinflation or the u.s. government would have to drastically cut spending and implement pretty severe austerity measures. you're watching r t and still to come in the program good

internal politics worsened the missile defense made between the moscow and washington get the latest comment from russia's envoy to nato in just a few moments. the polish investigators have concluded that a pilot error was to blame for last year's plane tragedy according to media reports with a crash in russia claimed the lives of president lech kaczynski and much of the country's political elite warsaw previously challenge the intergovernmental panel finding which blamed the flight crew be a committee found pilots had ignored a warning from russian air traffic controllers to abandon the landing but poland decided to carry out its own investigation the plane crashed during its descent into a russian airfield in a poor weather conditions all ninety six people on board were killed and the polish investigation is expected to be published before the weekend. a senior north korean

diplomat has been invited to new york for talks on how to revive the stalled negotiations on its controversial nuclear program well some media suggest he's already on his way to the u.s. now the move comes just days after top nuclear envoys from north and south korea got together for the first time in over two years that's during a security summit in indonesia where they agreed to return to six party talks as soon as possible they go down after north korea's deadly shelling of an island belonging to the south and what it claimed was in response to provoke a military drills the u.s. says north korea must dismantle its nuclear facilities before any deal can be reached but with us now erica weingarten who's visited north korea as a consultant on international humanitarian affairs thank you very much for being on the program with us now will north korea's visit to the u.s. be enough to convince the country to return to the negotiation table.

will be convinced north korea has wanted to get back into direct negotiations with the u.s. for quite some time and so they will definitely see this as a very positive signal from the obama administration which up until now has practiced what they call the strategic patience in other words mainly ignoring north korea in terms of direct involvement in. india in talks so this is a first step but the u.s. has also outlined numerous steps that north korea will have to take before they will actually agree to restart. and get back into the six party talks all right well they are giving them a quite a number of conditions right well south korea and the u.s. are also planning a joint military drills and disputed seas next month which as we have seen in the

past the north always finds provocative so why do you think the south and the u.s. just keep on. well. one of the difficulties that both u.s. and south korea will face in the next year is that the elections are coming. it will not be very helpful in either of the countries if there was that reason. military incident with north korea we've also heard this week north korea is planning there were other major. military exercises on the western sea shore which is exactly the place where all of these incidents have happened before so the situation is becoming rather serious in terms of military confrontation and that with the help of the asli if there were some talks in process. because

usually north korea is that. the talks. either with the u.s. or with south korea or indeed with the six party talks the provocations have not happened so i think there is an energy that is building up in all of these countries. trying to interrupt you but this by the talks that you were saying earlier that even the north in the north was actually willing to talk to the u.s. but from the perspective of the west north korea is often cited as a threat and and as refuse as a reason and that it needs comprehensive missile defense so how much of a threat really is the country's nuclear capability. personally i don't think it is a threat in the sense that north korea would use it to attack so korea or japan or any other country for north koreans this is. this is very much a defensive measure they don't want to be attacked and they believe rightly or

wrongly i think wrongly in any case they believe having nuclear weapons or even the threat of nuclear weapons will safeguard them from attack ok well thank you very much for your insight there eric weingarten who's visited north korea as a consultant on international humanitarian affairs thank you. well you can go to our to dot com for more comment on where north korea's nuclear program is heading was a lot more to well here's what's online today the new york hotel maid who accuses the former i.m.f. chief of sexually assaulting her goes public saying she wants to see dominique strauss kahn behind bars. and heroes of the world unite we report from comic con in san diego and the biggest tax file of fiction finest fantasies. kossovo has sent its special forces to the serpent of north after

a tit for tat. trade bad the cost to flare up police seize control over one of border crossing while the other two are being blocked by local serbs because of those move has been widely condemned by the un and the e.u. among others and it's feared it will stoke ethnic anger also proclaimed its independence in two thousand and eight when it unilaterally split from serbia now some six hundred thousand serbs still live in the region but refuse to recognize cost of us sovereignty because of us independence has been a bone of contention between serbia and the e.u. which is pressing belgrade to recognize kossovo before it can become a member well joining us now is political analyst aleksandr pocket she's in the serbian capital right now thank you very much for joining us now in this are published this cross border trade dispute it's threatening to descend into something far worse isn't it but what does this tell us about the current levels of tensions over there. well first of all the treat dispute is really one sided because the authorities those so-called costs of all national used to do

a trade ban on all imports from serbia and most imports to kosovo. whether they come from serve you're not have to pass through the territory of serbia so actually the one sided measure and this is bill great and by the course it was serves as. pressure from the government to preach to not to make them actually accept. there's. their rule in the so-called independent kosovo well actually this even if this ends in a stalemate or temporary peace the tensions will remain ok but wouldn't cost of a be aware that using its police to seize control the checkpoint could inflame the situation there. well you know i think they're very well aware. even now even be true western government in serbia and its president type which made a remark couple days ago when this whole thing started that the authorities from

prishtina would not have brought this measure without some sort of at least tacit support from western powers and i think they're mainly alluding to the united states so this was something that was actually calculated to bring about further pressure on belgrade because the bilby government there may be a campaign issue practically single issue is e.u. accession and so they realize from the west especially from brussels and washington they can always blackmail them and they can put as much pressure on them as they need to because they have no other recourse if you're talking about pressure from the west and we've actually been seeing nato peacekeepers already moving in now how deep are fears of this conflict with outside involvement now. well we have all the side involvement and cost of already as you said we have nato peacekeepers in kosovo and we've had them since one thousand nine hundred nine so actually we outside of volatility have been kosovo and actually it's the western forces that

are. in charge in kosovo without them without a word to hear of france who got western diplomats rightly nothing is done very to not know that british tonight does not do anything by itself i mean that's. why i got i also want to ask because of those actions right that have been condemned internationally do you think it will face any penalties. i don't think so i don't think it will face a penalty as i think right now they're going to try to make equal sign between belgrade and preach to now. they're trying now they're seeing that this action didn't succeed so now they're going to try to restart the negotiations the start but. non-stable it will be construed stability ok well thank you very much for your analysis there political analysts out of habit from serbia thank you. their

agreement appears to no closer between the u.s. and russia on how to develop missile defense in the europe despite further talks in washington this tuesday while they tell says that the system is designed to protect the european continent from countries like iran or russia fears the project is aimed at its military might and is offering alternatives the u.s. is plowing ahead with its plan despite objections from the kremlin russia zaw why did nato was added tuesday's talks and afterwards he told r.t. that washington has to overcome its inner divisions. there are questions that remain unanswered if missile threats against europe come from the south why is the us placing part of its military infrastructure in the north close to russia's borders this is the question that we can't get an answer to when we ask for legal guarantees that the system is not aimed at russia we're told there's a big conflict between republicans and democrats in congress and they start to explain that conflict but we're not interested in that what's important for us is

that the u.s. is behind this project and they should provide security for all partners russia is very flexible if for some fabricated political reasons they rejected our suggestion to integrate our means of anti missile defense then there's another scheme that could be cooperation between two independent systems if nato wants to defend itself it's no problem but if russia wants to provide its own security so be it otherwise it's like when you come home and discover someone else's bodyguard sitting in your bedroom he's been sent to provide your security who's going to like that so if all our suggestions are rejected and if it's understood that iran is just a reason to have the plan while russia's nuclear potential is the real target then russia will come up with its own military response which nobody is going to like. well let's look at some of the world's other made news right now the man who's confessed to killing seventy six people in a rampage in norway may be charged with crimes against humanity thirty two year old anders breivik has already been charged in court with terrorism which he denies all

the bombing of government buildings in central all slow and the massacre at an island youth camp last friday devastated the nation one hundred thousand people gathered in the capital in tribute to the victims of brave excess he targeted norway's leading party for failing on immigration. a moroccan military aircraft carrying eighty one of people on board has crashed in the south of the country state t.v. news says seventy eight were killed and three were severely injured when their character as transporter went down in mountains north of the border with western sahara bad weather and low visibility are thought to have caused the crash. the un security council has been holding an open debate on the middle east including a palestinian plans to declare statehood at the united nations later this year well earlier israel threatened to pull out of the also accord if the plan went ahead the one nine hundred ninety three agreement is the main road map in resolving the

conflict and it's thought that over one hundred countries are promising support for the palestinians in a september's vote. well twenty years ago one of the world's legendary rock bands all but ground to a halt the death of queen's a flamboyant front man of freddie mercury was undoubtedly a pivotal moment but guitarist and songwriter brian may tells r.t. later that the show did go on and freddie's influence has never faded. like a family member but you don't. and we no longer get. you get that close if you're somebody that you can be creative with other than for him those are the. more you can success but in the. to confront you you learn to to know what somebody else might be thinking you might not always be right but you have a feeling so i still feel and roger does as well in a particular it applies more if we're working on

a screen and we think what would freddie say and you would be he would say this. he's part of the creative process because he's part of what we are because we really chiseled this thing out all together me and freddie and roger so i mean for a while i didn't want to you know i was very you know. there was a point you know the grieving process where i just didn't want to talk about green didn't want to feel that it was there even except it's history but i sort of got through that and now i regard it as part of my life which will never go away and it shouldn't go away because it's so big part of what i worked to create to function. all crean's brian may talks r.t.l. less than ten minutes before that all the latest from the world of business occurring.

and welcome to business here in our take russia is looking forward to expand its privatization program to spur economic growth deputy prime minister laid out the new plan that was disclosed by a bit of us to newspaper he suggests the for privatization of fourteen state companies by two thousand and seventeen however according to the plan the government will keep controlling stakes and infrastructure companies like russia where ways and transmit. the moment for privatization is gathering dust but it's also probably a function of the fight that we're going to face to do this. it's not so much about the money or those significant amount of money and go to the original plan was for thirty three billion dollars would be raised if we were talking about one hundred twenty billion dollars but this is part and parcel of smoke motivation programs and for him the key here is state owned companies run efficiently and the point is to get the government to the economy and hand over to the private sector so this

will have hopefully a huge impact in terms of improving productivity. and a quick check on the markets all reversed from early gains brand has added eleven cents investors are concerned that u.s. debt deadlock may damage the economy of the world's largest group consumer debt gridlock in washington is causing more worries on wall street stocks are down as u.s. lawmakers remain in a bit a stalemate over raising the country's borrowing limit industrial companies late stocks lower after earnings reports from u.b.s. and u.s. steel raised concerns that the economy is weakening here in russia markets closed makes what the test pointing upwards and the mind states in the red cross has declined for a third day raising in the early game of as much as four percent all majors were among the main losers and we could have to end it half a percent down a look or lost over a third of a percent bucking the trend is gold game point three percent gold purchased eighty

nine percent of the company reversed takeover. capital wraps up today's trade. in terms of training well as the market remains very quiet and there's actually not trying to change change their positioning. of the resolution of the situation in europe and the u.s. the focus of attention. in the morning was was in the oil prices and a slightly more positive mood in asia but later on obviously optimism disappeared as in reality there are no real buyers and the oil price is unfortunately not really translating into the prices of russians thought it is a little bit but not to the extent you would hope and that's how it looks it will end quote close to further slightly being up so basically no particularly serious momentum russia may place your bones on the foreign markets in two thousand and twelve tepper the finance minister sergei stuart chalk says russia plans to boost

borrowings significantly over the next three years. with russia his in the porton competitive advantage so high debt sustainability. to convert the budget deficit by borrowing i would grow school rings will amount to seventy two billion dollars similarly in the next three years. and that's a business update for this i'll be back with more in forty five minutes from. if.

the limited. to sleep. just some a. period. if you're. going to take three.

three. three. three. videos for your media project free media r.t. dot com. welcome back here's a look at the main stories we're covering today on our suicide rates in japan are rising as people struggle with the aftermath of the earthquake disaster meanwhile it's thought radiation at the fukushima nuclear plant could be contained within months. president obama's calling on the public to pressure congress and to deal into a deal out of voiding default or he blames republicans for stalling talks and refusing to compromise on debt. and

a top north korea that diplomat is invited to new york to revive the long stalled talks on scrapping the country's nuclear program but it's just a few days since north and south korean envoys agreed to discussions. at up next legendary queen guitarist and songwriter brian may well he talks to sophie shevardnadze about life with the stars and not only working alongside front man freddie mercury but also his other life as an experienced astrophysicist that's coming up next. it's great to have you with us today sir thank you for being so recently i was going through the glass bead game of passage and it's about music and what he says about music is that except it's art it's also true power over nations and human

souls and then many people say that exactly why music is compared to exact sciences like math. so i never really got that because i finished product conservatory and i always failed my math class now you as a man of music and science can't tell me how music is related with science or exact science like math for example it's a hard question. there are all mathematical things in music but ironically i think the most important things in music or be instinctive things so i don't know quite how that works out except maybe gives you a balance but yes i love pure science and i love music and they're not the same sure but. throughout history there has been connections and people who were immersed in both of them you know from the united to b. and c. to. patrick moore you know. it seems to be that we maybe some.