international news life for moscow this is r.t. with me you leisure by the hour thanks for joining us andrew greig's have gathered in athens to protest against a new set of government cuts expected to be passed next month the country's parliament has approved a new property tax as part of strict austerity measures being demanded by the i.m.f. and the e.u. before vital next to bail out installment is granted prime minister george papandreou isn't germany trying to convince its main lender that greece is on the right track to reduce its crippling debt and has called on german business leaders for help sarfatti reports now from athens. the fact that. he kept going off again he said looking like he was going to escalate and it seems the double shuffle would think see if he. has the right. fishing. it's been

a struggle here to get the situation under control for the first time in this country is seeing people below the poverty line being taxed they simply don't have that money and they're calling on eurozone leaders now to be realistic the talk is certainly turning to that a greek default analysts here have said to us at the really it's a case of how that happens whether it's a controls to fold the sole greece's turns over the e.u. leaders will again play by their rules and that benefit really the greek prime minister george pop and jay has been having meetings today in berlin he said he thought the country could get out of this crisis and we had the german chancellor saying much the same thing everyone hyping that the situation doesn't once again descend into violence like we've seen happen before but unfortunately that is the level of anger today amongst the greek people people we've been speaking to saying they can't afford their rent they can't afford to support their families the visa

applications the greeks wanting to leave approach has risen dramatically extremely volatile situation that simply fed up with what they see as a complete and absolute wife between what the people are asking for a look see the leaders are pushing for a year as a leader that the name is still has yet to decide on whether to provide that eight billion a year a cash injection the greece they desperately needs and will that eventually they will be approving that because they don't want to see greece i think the year is saying if greece lays then anyone can leave and that really what they say listen. it's the end of the year. you know the name of the bring everything. we might say that can't be done with the price. date. nights but time to say that it. was.

and while. that pushing greece towards demetri kafin it's a blow going to make a thousand pounds he contributed says there's another way to stop this crisis right now you have austerity with tax increases and a giant that and you're not going to get anywhere and the greek economy is contracting so if it if it continues in this way in the short term long term it just means. because you have this giant debt that's not going to go away why don't think greece can stay in you it certainly can't continue to pay this debt without defaulting on some of it and i think that goes for ireland in portugal and spain as well and perhaps italy but i think that the smartest thing for the e.u. and the i.m.f. to do if they really want a solution would be a structured default of greece portugal or viral and probably spain as well in some sort of way and to allow some of those currents countries especially greece for example for the public sector to issue drachmas again it doesn't mean that euro

zone have to circulate but it would mean a kind of dual currency system that would like we saw in argentina after they exited the dollar peg but on the other side there's the bank issue now which is more and more in question france and french banks which are most exposed have come under attack you could potentially have a catastrophic effect on the european bank sector mostly because confidence would be shattered if it happens in an uncontrolled way if there's an exit or default unilaterally. in syria government troops bound by tongues and helicopters have reportedly stormed a key opposition town after pondering it overnight with heavy machine gun fire meanwhile at the u.n. russia's foreign minister has once again called on all sides to sit down for talks retreating dialogue is the only possible solution and he's also been addressing the u.n. general assembly in new york offseasons the situation is that. wrapping up his visit to the united nations general assembly session here in new york the russian foreign minister sergei lavrov has addressed the united nations general assembly with a speech touching up on many different subjects that are most burning for the

international community and syria was certainly at the top of that list and one of the most important points he made regarding syria was that it's key to let the government and the opposition try to carry out talks let them talk before any intervention from the outside world take takes place he has said that the government should be given the opportunity to carry out the reforms that they promised and you know the international community should refrain from taking any action until this opportunities given to let syria deal with its own issues to avoid establishing the region even further because he brought up the latest example of libya he reiterated that russia really believes that russia stands against the use of any kind of force against innocent civilians and libya's example has unfortunately showed that actions from the outside world really should take place within the scope of the international law and going behind the scope can hurt innocent civilians so russia is really speaking out against america's approach to

call for the syrian president to step down and for sanctions to be implemented at the security council difference but we cannot support the projects that is being pushed through by western countries and it is among other things to do with the libyan experience we ask what the next try to use how have you calculated your next steps the answer we get is that we haven't thought about it yet but president assad needs to go we need to draw him into a corner with sanctions should go first and then we'll see it's a very simple i believe not very reliable strategy if it could be called a strategy we know that the united states and the european union have implemented unilateral sanctions against syria and have been calling within the united nations security council for the international community including. russia of course to join in but it's been made very clear that russia would not support a resolution against syria until syria is actually given a chance to work some of these things out to many different issues were certainly

addressed but all eyes have been on palestine here in new york at the united nations general assembly and the russian foreign minister has reiterated russia's position really that it supports palestine's official bid for statehood within the united nations security council and within the united nations and he has welcomed expressed russia's welcome feeling for palestine's wish to participate in further negotiations with negotiations with israel as a that we know have been stalled and of course is to give our viewers a bit of a background like we've been reporting it's been a mean sort of issue of. hard work behind closed doors the united states has been really working hard to try to prevent palestine from placing this official bid to the security council the palestinian leader mahmoud abbas did go ahead with this and this is something that the united nations security council will officially be considering come one's day and while there seems to be this whole progress reaching peace in syria journalist and. lindau was his present a son should take advantage of russian expertise in dealing with the crisis all

things die consequences. there is no way bashar assad can do this by himself and he is not receiving any proper assistance from the united states or any european power that would be able to offer conflict resolution sanctions are not the answer sanctions only hurt the syrian people but. if bashar assad will be would be wise he would quickly invite a russian delegation to come in and help the syrian government resolve this problem sanctions freeze the situation so that diplomacy is stalled it never works it is a bad bad strategy and it means that they lack ideas for advancing problem solving they have no strategy for going forward all they know is regime change it's like what they've done in libya what they've tried to do in libya they thought that if they remove gadhafi all the problems would go away actually has not gone away we've

lost control of the situation in libya the rebels came in and declared victory but there is no victory in libya the people of libya are furious they hate nato they're fighting back and so qaddafi may not be in the future of libya but what no one knows what is and now we have a situation in syria where the west thinks that removing the head is going to solve the problem it will not solve the problem there have to be substantial reforms and that does not require the removal of bosh or a sudden who in the past has been very supportive of reforms but the syrian people are correct that this process has been moving too slow and it needs to go forward and bashar assad needs to accept help and i sincerely hope that the foreign ministry of russia will give it to them because they need this help. so to come here and i'll see why immigrants and person are doing a good job for and why because i'm soaking up to ninety percent of my guess is in

the country's employment market. finance minister gets his marching orders from the president just goes up to giving a controversial find out on all sides that cost him his child. israel has advanced plans to build another one hundred new homes in disputed area in east jerusalem the church settlements have already been opposed by the u.s. and has counterproductive to middle east peace the european union reacted by saying the decision should be revised is likely to further wason relations with the palestinians have abandoned peace talks over the settlement issue the middle east quartet the un the e.u. russia and the us have proposed a deadline on the end of the year for agreement to be reached between israel and the palestinians and who as a co-founder of the israeli committee against house demolitions told us that israel doesn't need talks so long as it's called support from its big allies. basically.

israel has created facts on the ground over the last forty four years then it really made made its all too patient irreversible i mean you've got half a million this rabies more than half a million living in the occupied territories so that it's i can't possibly see how . are going to end israel's occupation i don't see any pressures to get a half a million people out and i think that's what abbas is saying if you go she is are useless either you get out of our territory period or there or there's no point in going on with the process i don't think israel has anything to worry about from its point of view there are three countries that matter the other hundred ninety are irrelevant this three countries are the united states britain and germany as long as they're behind israel's policy towards least. even if they criticize as long as they prevent saying sions and provide this umbrella for israel israel is so i think

they worry about who's going to saying that who's going to force it to get out who's going to put pressures on israel. violence has erupted don't they so because of a border with seven local said is injured in an exchange of fire between protesters and nato peacekeepers a dispute at a frantic crossing clashes broke out after they alliances forces tried to get rid of barricades set on by suds nato planes attacked it only in response to times by kosovo subs and says troops just he is rubber bullets and tear gas to self-defense however reports have amassed in serbia that nato forces eased real bullets that's according to they tell new news agency in the country which has shown x. ray images of gunshot wounds on television talks between belgrade and prishtina were to resume in brussels they try to stay but a recent incidents have good the negotiation process under threat and the boy said mother age seven historian and author says that nato actions would only weisel the terror situation. they started out using rubber bullets and they switched to real live ammunition. nato claims that this was after protesters pipe bombs at them serb

reports are saying that they used just players to do use that soccer games to drive off nato troops from trying to bodily remove a truck that was blocking one of the middlebury kids for the past about eleven days there's been a game of nerves on the barricades we've needed was sitting up barbed wire and a fully armed troops in the surge building barricades of earth trying to block nato and use us from the routes into the province because whenever serbs try to use the albanian man crossings they will get beaten abused detained and otherwise mistreated just a few days ago after did nato first put in to bear against the local serbs at this very crushing actually gave them food and trying to be social there's no reason why they would attack the. very very many absurd. that are saying that media was absolutely outside the bounds of that much its mandate it is not supposed to be a law enforcement agency for their former self proclaimed governing jibberish you

know it is it wasn't supposed to seize these so-called customs posts in the first place and it certainly isn't supposed to be shooting at people they don't peacefully protesting the strain of the turn of events the u.k.'s employment rate has hit eight percent of the highest rate in fifteen years but immigrant workers are basing the braves have the down to over ninety percent of the few jobs available auntie's i have a bennett in london reports now and what's behind the surprising figures and the government pledges to reduce immigration. jaymes amongst the growing ranks of unemployed he's been trying to find a job in social housing since may competitions fears that for the six agencies now working for each job so you just find that you know it looks like is about for you they will get short listed of it as look at salaries slightly less you know maybe going to go back to college and maybe do some parts on unemployment is now it eight percent the highest for fifteen years but no matter how hard jamie tries the odds

are stacked against him job centers like this one helped fill one hundred eighty thousand new vacancies in the last twelve months but only eight percent of those went to british workers with foreign nationals more successful in the job market nine times out of ten reversing that trend was a key election pledge of the new government promising to slash immigration but a year on its only increased migration was nearly a quarter of a million last year up to twenty percent on two thousand and nine and britain second biggest annual total ever way off the government's five figure target i think we're probably over promising given the restrictions that they face it didn't make sense to promise to bring the number down to an arbitrary level we initially been having a more honest debate with the public about the limits on what they could do the government claims its target can be met by capping nor e.u. immigration but that ignores how most are coming from within the e.u.

where restrictions don't apply entry numbers for eastern europeans rose by eight times in the last year alone as they continue to cash in on the open borders it's unlikely that a top of the measures are announced will meet that target and might come close but it is unlikely to me to further measures are necessary for others the problem lies at home pretty patel's an m.p. and from an immigrant family herself she knows what it take. to succeed here it says most don't i go back to thirty forty years ago and you've seen immigrants come to this country what they want to do is they want to work hard and get on in life they really do the families think about except except sure you don't you days gone past we used to have a tremendous british work ethic in this country we really did i think we've effectively lost some of that was it was easy to see that at the job center where most i'm it will migrant workers the problem is that a lot of british people

a member of the bit hasty but they've got you know you know not doing the minimum wage jobs and low paid work so they need to be forced into taking these jobs the government claims it's now doing just that it says we are reforming the welfare system to ensure that we in the benefit dependency which is trap so many people and finally ensure work pays but it was the long term unemployed can be forced to look for jobs there's no guarantee they'll get them coming back to that immigration promise the government simply can't keep the bennett r.t. london. just after showing the daughter as finance minister alexei kudrin president dmitri medvedev has warned that all those questioning presidential policy will follow in the same direction could recite here couldn't work in a new government and i'm into that of if the president becomes prime minister in a future a shuffle at the top peter oliver takes up the story. well since president medvedev came to power there were certain areas of the country ditties earmarked for

spending in improvement things like improvements in the prisons and the armed forces now some of the spending policies appears to have been in disagreement towards alexy could have been thought and that's why he lost his job on monday now president dmitri medvedev has on tuesday robustly defended his spending policies saying this defense spending in particular was crucial to the development of russia when you more from a way to say we can do without defense spending and this spending should be worthy of russia we're not some banana republic we're a big country with a permanent member of the un security council and we have nuclear weapons that's why an increase in spending for the defense budget arms and salaries for military personnel will be the government's top priority and whoever disagrees with that can work out where you saw us and with that i will do but will missed well could really clearly did disagree with us and now he will be looking for work elsewhere this all really came to a head the catalyst for it being the announcement to flatter me of putin will run

for the presidency in twenty twelve and then he would put forward to me to be made to get as his prime minister this sparked couldn't to say their tea couldn't work with. to be traded as as prime minister g two spending policies made debt over in turn issued an ultimatum to could do in saying i think get on board or get out and tell your resignation that didn't come and he was dismissed from his post late last night after eleven years. and came across the developments on that story at r.t. dot com including the actual fostex change between the president and the man who was his highness chief wish for his ministerial career to an end and of course there's much more for you to find online including bashes interest in history says he needs to know all the days of the country's most famed candy kalashnikov saying if how dated benefactress say and brand new version of the legendary weapon is in the pipeline and. hope to be supplying russian forces again next year.

and movie abilities and also have eyes that this is an internet sensation dancing mop his videos show him performing his jerk around the world at his now in the russian capital getting locals on their feet i was no stopping them despite the l.a. chill that hit moscow this september so watch them get down at all as he has other videos and reports that are. coming out sophie shevardnadze meets one of the world's leading experts on u.s. foreign policy walter russell mead explains how he sees america's future global direction.

walter russell mead thank you very much for being with us today sir it's good to be here it's a pleasure so i know that you're on a vert democrat you voted for obama has disappointed you in some ways yes in some ways no i have to say when i voted for him i didn't think oh this is the one everything is going to be perfect i thought he would be able to manage our foreign paul will she. affectively not perfectly. and i think he has.

i think we're in fairly good shape and he's been able to do some of the things that the bush administration tried to do but without all the trouble and aggravation and some ways which is good domestically i think he made some mistakes at the beginning of this he he thought that the country had elected him to transform the country i think he was actually look to be more like bill clinton and try to keep everything nice and so he's gotten now because he tried to do too much and do some things people didn't expect or want he's now on the defensive and this is a difficult time for him what do you think shapes the values of a promise administration lot of things i think he's very much a product of the kind of ivy league educational system. because he sees himself i think as part of a new kind of america almost the millennial generation in some ways looking to

build a post racial society i think he does he's he's not as much on the left as some people thought he is i don't i don't think that's right i think he i would consider more a kind of a technocrat in the in the mold of people like mcgeorge bundy the sort of great harvard technocrats of the one nine hundred sixty s. and seventy's i think is where he is getting is going to get reelected that's very hard to say but i know that you have described the united states e.u. and japan as financially responsible superpowers so i was wondering how do you think the world kind of foraged to be led by responsible super powers well of course there are a lot of financially irresponsible non superpowers too i think financially they're not superpowers right but what i guess what i'm saying is. can it be led by that was going to my second question that if the united states actually loses their

leadership who would it be well that's partly why i think it may be less likely that the us will lose and in some ways the dollar as a reserve currency it's the chinese are not going to internationalize theirs for a while the euro is is not really an alternative to the dollar so what is it the swiss franc south african rand so let me just recap because there's been a lot of talk in the past two years about the world becoming law type color. in your opinion things are going to stay the way they are the world order for a while well i guess what i would say is the whole. the goal of american foreign policy is not actually a uni polar world i think people. think that the united states actually is more a gretta garbo and that is we would like to be left alone for example the european union from the united states' point of view is the perfect solution the europeans

aren't going to war with each other they aren't going to war with us they're pretty prosperous they like a lot of the things we do so the europe if the if the nicest had a dream for europe that would be it it's ok now we have much less power in europe than we did in one thousand nine hundred five when we could decide who ate what's ok but you have much more power in other parts of the world right but again what we want to say is we would like every place to more or less be like your happy rich at peace so that you can be left alone so right so that the world would be the way we want it to be but we wouldn't have to make it perform that's the american goal and so in that sense. polar world in which most or all of the polls kind of like the american way. without us making them like you see that's the goal and to some degree the emergence

of india the emergence of europe the fact that brazil is growing into just that kind of power suggests that that we're getting that what americans would consider a banani and multipolar already rather than say the one nine hundred forty s. when you have the soviet union germany and japan that all heat that system and are trying to destroy it how would america like. america would like to see russia happy free democratic and secure thank you very much. thank you.

wealthy british style. market why not. find out what's really happening to the global economy with mike stronger for a no holds barred look at the global financial headlines kaiser reports. please. to.

play. in the czech republic is available in. central europe. most of the stuff. in bosnia and herzegovina. the children of each. teacher turned topsy. multis available in.

the headlines hail. more angry protests in greece. approves a new property tax with north. to meet. demands as the country continues to. default on its debts. bronze western proposals of fresh sanctions against syria irresponsible and calls on the regime and its opponents to talk as government forces stormed a key opposition town in the country with heavy weaponry. seven said the injured in clashes between protesters and nato peacekeepers at. border continues to rise in the area as it is for self-defense firing only rubber bullets ok words.