among. tens of thousands demanding justice across spain as workers protest cuts sun labor reforms with a general strike. that's amidst mounting pressure for the deficit cuts a spanish government sets of cost the most the budget greece the latest from the streets of madrid very shortly. petrol panic grips the u.k. ahead of a possible tanker driver strike while london paris and washington all consider releasing up oil reserves to push down prices. and moscow renews its call for no

foreign and military intervention in syria as a divided arab league debates the peace plan for the war torn country. worldwide news live from the heart of moscow this is artsy with me roll recent showing anger over a pile of public cuts in new labor laws has brought spain to a standstill as workers stage a general strike by tens of thousands of people across the country are also gathering for rallies on the streets by the massive industrial action is seen as a tough test for the country's young government and which is now yet to reach one hundred days in office. grievances in which. i think the police leave the company late as there is a space but secretly if it is really like you they all get on the mic and

strike. three of the. five years our country comes to deficit reduction and what that means essentially the labor laws of motion against right now amy to be easier the way it works. for jews place in business. i think on the right but twenty percent of the limitation cutting on the following dollars a little bit of money i think the mistake is losing a lot of young people on the street that this is something to be the case for. only one hundred days don't let it go in that o.t. . strike demonstrations. this is like. the sun

sign now the government will if they will sing on the budget. which will be very very close there like ease any. any of the old people get. fresh. and years like the tree. recently. spotted condition something that came back over a year's time but this comes on the back of the bike lane and country that's a cyclist i see. now marchers are rolling through spain as people rage against austerity and the labor forms that people feel will leave them on the breadline these are live pictures for you right here from the city of seville where demonstrators marching up brandishing flags and chanting slogans for the strike. it's destructive public transport with flights delayed until friday and many businesses and banks and even schools shut as well even some television stations

have also gone off the air you can watch these live pictures right here as they continue to happen on our web site r t top con where we are streaming live pictures from all across spain today. this is r.t. now u.k. motorists are caught in a panic by rising petrol prices and a threatened tanker drivers strike but with fuel costs escalating france britain and the u.s. are discussing a possible release of their strategic oil reserves to push the prices down let's cross over to london now get more from our correspondent i've abene who's standing by live it's a what's been going on in the u.k. i mean how let's talk about the reality of it all is it possible that a fuel tanker strike could actually go ahead. well they haven't done anything official yet no date has been set but a strike by tanker drivers it is certainly looking increasingly likely because they

union called unison has actually said that the majority of drivers have backed industrial action and since that they supply ninety percent of petrol stations across the country across the case a strike would certainly have severe ramifications so what we're seeing in the last twenty four hours or so is panic buying widespread panic buying of fuel up and down the country by motorists queues outside petrol stations and what's really been fueling this panic buying is is the government's handling of this crisis their first piece of advice to motorists was to tell people not to panic which immediately of course set the alarm bells ringing one cabinet minister even said it be a good idea to top up your car now also fill up a spade jerrycan in case of emergencies to have so much have emergencies put petrol supplies. on standby david cameron the prime minister's even put the army on standby to to drive that the tankers should industrial action go ahead so these drastic measures are really fueling the panic and what we're seeing up and down the

country queues outside petrol stations runs on the few as fears of shortages are increased in some petrol stations have already run dry even and the government's come in for some severe criticism by the opposite of that it for its handling of this crisis and so if since tempered their advice saying to motorists only top up when your tank is half empty but that's really done nothing to allay their fears however france for the meantime has joined the u.k. and the u.s. in talks to explore possible release of oil reserves tell us is the situation really that critical. all of this comes as oil prices are record high not only in britain but also in france and america and what that means is unhappy voters and with elections just around the corner in france and america they need to do something quick to pacify the voters and so what france is now doing are joining us america and britain in discussing the option of the emergency release strategic

release of emergency or oil supplies to try and drive down those prices now this is a move normally reserved only when there is actually a physical disruption of the oil supply which isn't actually the case here because of the oil prices. increasing is really a problem of their own making one of the main reasons for all prices escalating is the sanctions imposed on iran a key or producing nation by america britain and france which is hitting the oil exports hard and this is why countries like germany and italy are refusing to back move to release emergency supplies even ahead of the i.a.e.a. the international energy agency which has to authorize any such move has said the there hasn't been a destruction significant enough of oil supplies to warrant such moves so they may have trouble pushing this through but america britain and france have got themselves in this situation and clearly they're very desperate now to limit the

damage and repair the damage that they've caused themselves before it's too late for their administrations right obviously i would live in london thanks for coming on today. what is still to come for you this hour in the program here the world economies five a growing powers banking on serious change find out how the brics group of countries is aiming to break the domination of the dollar as the main reserve currency we talk to our correspondent live in the region sure. and oscar has reiterated its position to any foreign military intervention its opposition to that kind of move is ongoing in syria as the arab league needs to decide how to mediate a solution to the crisis and the group will give its backing to a u.n. sponsored peace plan while calling on the opposition and president assad to fully comply not all of the body's members are committed to diplomacy as artie's reports . well sirius already said that it's not going to test any initiative by the arab

league of course it was suspended from it last year and we still say fortunately all of the arab league mission in that country that failed also highlighted really the internal decisions that the arab league as a body itself faces and in see this arab league summit is the first it's been held in baghdad key decades it hasn't been particularly well attended some of the countries not sending their top diplomats to get involved in that now iraq's foreign minister said that the country rejected calls for foreign intervention as a means of ending the conflict he did say to the country's behind the syrian people's base of freedom but you can see that's quite a difference of opinion to some of the arab league countries that have been seen very much to be pushing for arming the opposition and first sending in arab peace to intervene we've seen a guitar call for that to happen so there is definitely

a difference of opinion whether the abbe's case davil to bridge those divisions m.a.c. see that it certainly thought that today of course there is talk of the attention that they'll be hearing from cave and possibly endorsing that six point peace plan the six points now very similar to the arab league initiative. at the beginning of the year the removal of the forces from some of the conflict areas the release of political prisoners all it with its sunni important but of course it doesn't have the alternates and it doesn't cool the president it's not the syrian government already accepted that plan formally that's been met by some of the opposition with a fair amount of understandable skepticism here in istanbul we've had hundreds of the members of the opposition gathering ahead of the friends of syria conference is going to be happening on sunday and really the message from the opposition and the message from the international community to the syrian government has been very much ok you can date it now. prove it i want to see the actions behind that this

peace plan the backing of russia and china so possibly that is going to make a difference that's going to be more clear but at that brenda's there will be happening at the end of the week especially those who gave me the big questions that i ever. saw middle east history and politics professor at university in turkey he says of the front should syrian opposition is fast running out of steam on all fronts and the syrian national council has been in disarray from the union and has been dysfunctional. now just in the last few days in a visit nations there's room for members. of the council members in the. council are also ready to quit and form your own body because they see. him to be. unworkable and this includes isn't coming from. into account.

the money is gone. and given the rest and innocent. questions about a lack of transparency transparency essential to someone so we see here. is in. total disarray cannot be said to represent the syrian people at all yet we're being told the next three and. one thing which is just recognisable to clear views in st this is all just admit it. just doesn't make sense. now bringing peace to syria without outside interference also on the agenda in india where five of the world's fastest growing economies are talking security and finance by creating an alternative global lender and stepping away from the dollar as a reserve currency are two of their main objectives it's pretty sure it is i live in new delhi to give us details on this here on the program so what have we been

hearing so far from the leaders. that's right as you mentioned the leaders from the five of leading emerging economies in the world brazil russia india china south africa are all here in new delhi for the fourth annual brics summit russian president dmitri medvedev actually just held a bilateral meeting with the indian prime minister manmohan singh just wrapped up and there have been a lot of things on the agenda one of the main themes of this year's summit is how these growing economic powers are also starting to have more political clout on major international issues like syria just yesterday actually russian president dmitry medvedev also had a bilateral meeting with the chinese chairman. and again we saw russia and china saying that they back a cease fire in syria they want peace in syria but they don't expect president assad to step down they don't want him to step down like many of the western

leaders have said let's take a listen to what the russian president had to stated in today's summit. we need you from one of the priorities for bricks through the years to come should be strengthening the key role of the u.n. security council in maintaining international peace and security and also ensuring that the u.n. is not used as a cover for regime change and unilateral actions to resolve conflict situations. and that was another thing that all of these leaders talked about reforming the united nations we saw the indian prime minister say that african leadership of whom are also say that another another point that everyone was talking about was iran and house thing sins are not going to work on iran all these leaders mention that they don't believe that intervention is necessarily the best policy when it comes

to dealing with these international issues like syria and iran. but so a priori when it comes to other the issues being discussed as you have mentioning that of the syrian ongoing syrian crisis iran the reformation of the e.u. and certainly global finance was an issue at the center of the summit what's being discussed on the. absolutely rory as you know that these five countries are expected in the next eight years to make up fifty percent of the global g.d.p. even earlier this year all of the brics countries were discussing potentially bailing out europe from its financial crisis one of the major things on the agenda with talking about a potential basket currency that could serve as an alternative to the american dollar or the euro today all the five leaders signed an agreement to actually give out loans in their local currencies which is another move that they're thinking about moving away from the dollar and moving away from the euro another huge thing

on the agenda here in delhi was the idea of a joint rift bank could serve as an alternative to the last three legged traditional financial institutions like the international monetary fund and the world bank or authorities appreciative of life or from the bric summit twenty five percent but i do catch up with all the analysis and developments from the bric summit i just do so it taught calm some of the items i learned off you on the website there right now including a bowing to the kremlin or a voice from the past republican presidential hopeful mitt romney slams barack obama's foreign policy for putting america's national security in danger. and our writers in the storm are the first of a polo so-called snowmobile race in siberia for spectators a chance to glimpse knife in the fall and all those details on the spectacular footage it's. west african leaders are in

mali trying to find a way to restore order after last week's military coup several thousand people protested in the capital bamako over against what they see as foreign interference in their country and the takeover was led by soldiers unhappy with the way the president was handling an insurgency they have already unveiled a new constitution unpledged freedom of speech and movement the actions have been condemned internationally and there is now threats of sanctions of soldiers don't stand down lawrence freeman from the executive intelligence review magazine thinks the failure of western policies in the region are actually behind the work of. mali this was an area that us put a lot of military backing and they were trying to fight the various forces no one is al-qaeda on the ground and you had a military low level officer carry out

a coup so you have to wonder how strong will the government this is a continuation of the arab spring into sub-saharan africa once that is in the. nature of president obama and president sarkozy and prime minister cameron in their intent the carrier we've seen. in libya and killed could nothing when it was not necessary there actually how this process because many of these rebels are coming back from libya very well. pickup trucks with machine guns and other ammunition so essentially it's the failed want policy president obama in the west together with the economic crisis that i think of it can mean causes for the. all right starting with pakistan let's get to the arctic world update for you some other international headlines and grief at least seven have been killed in separate attacks in the bottle just down pakistan province in the

first shooting gunman on motorbikes fired on of the outskirts of the city of quetta killing five shiite muslims in a second attack a u.n. employee and his driver were shot dead at this point no group has claimed responsibility. police in the philippines of clashed with farmers protesting a us free trade agreement that came into force earlier this month over sixty activists through paint bombs at the american embassy calling on manila to cancel its upcoming military exercises with washington the deal was initially signed in two thousand and seven but has been delayed due to political stumbling blocks in both nations. pope benedict the sixteenth has called for an end to the half a century old u.s. trade embargo imposed on cuba on its final day a visit to the island the pontiff said the restrictive economic measures quote unfairly burden its people earlier the pope met fidel castro and celebrated

a huge mass on the site which marks the communist revolution during his three day trip he also called on the government to continue reforms. of toulouse gunman responsible for france's worst terror attack in years will be buried in a muslim ceremony in the country later today his father's native algeria denied permission for a funeral there for security reasons mohamed merah killed seven people including three children before he was shot dead in a standoff with police last week. interest few moments is the business but for now republican candidates are still slugging it out for the right to challenge democratic president barack obama in november election but there are many people frustrated that with only two real alternatives their views are not being properly represented and i think it's going extra counterpoints. in american politics three is a crowd work through a string of primaries two parties present their candidates for the president of the

united states all americans are accustomed to happen to teams they watch football games based on games or basketball where there's one team against the other team that's kind of the way they see politics as well i think it just takes their thinking they think there's only two choices republicans and democrats get it they just grown accustomed to that team mentality but according to a gallup poll of record number of americans forty percent now identify themselves as political independents there are many people who have expressed dissatisfaction with the current system but they seem resigned to the notion that those people who are currently in positions of power are not going to want any sort of change and that we're not likely to see change anytime soon for an independent or third party candidate getting on a general election ballot is considered a doomed task in the us ralph nader an independent a renowned lawyer

a consumer rights advocate ran for the presidency six times harder to get on the ballot in this country by far than any western democracy fifty different state laws hundreds of different county laws it's a total nightmare created by the two parties to avoid competition he's miscue to party like computer should we call it or do our police and they're all fighting for osha sleep over who's going to go to the white house so they can take up residence and take orders from their corporate paymasters some analysts say the system works in a way to avoid any real change in the way america's government and special interests play special role the extended primary process we have in the us gives special interests like. military contractors or others it gives them time. time to monitor the election process and put in resources to attack anyone who's not going to use

dokken to give so shit or save rules favorable to them so it does make it hard for an outsider to surprised establishment some believe congressman ron paul who would fare better as an independent as his distinctly anti-war rhetoric distances him from the other republican frontrunners political experts say someone like paul stands no chance of winning the nomination because at the end of the day the two parties always deliver mainstream candidates. presented with just two choices many americans vote not for who they see as president but i guess the one they don't like a lot of people don't necessarily vote for who they like a lot of people's vote republican if they don't like the democrats or bill so democrat because they don't like or they're scared of the republican us a lot of times you have americans voting for the lesser of two evils who's the lesser of two best many feet away candidates are picked to. think guard against drastic change but as this content among americans grows over the country's foreign

policy over corporate controlled economies so grows the push for fresh ideas and bold actions but the question is will the system allow in a quick break the much loved and much cherished business as usual washington old i'm going to check our reporting from washington r.t. . for the let's go straight over to the aussie business first now and check in with daniel. update here on the program i don't know you know i hate to say it i'm tempted to call you the harbinger of doom but any turn around for global markets this hour things were a no and this there were reasons for that let's go through in europe which is continuing a second choking week every main e.u. balls is down including the troops as the country gears up for power lies in general strike against government spending cuts before explains the only balls down for the view to date. russia is no exception let's take a look at major movers on the my six most of the blue chips are trading in the red

this hour mitchell is losing more than two percent russian british venture t. and k. b.p. is also retreating the firm plans to set up three power stations to provide electricity for its deposits in the north of russia. is also in the red it's twenty eleven net profit rose sixty percent though on the exchange rates the euro is no law against the dollar but the rules gaining both against the greenback and the euro is chick oil because prices are going down trading at the lowest level in almost a week sweet is trading just under one of five per barrel is around one to four biggest internet share listing in history may take place in two months from the wall street journal claim facebook is preparing for an i.p.o. in may and world's most popular social network plans to raise as much as ten billion dollars that would value the company that's around one hundred billion. the biggest chocolate brown denoted confectioner's government couldn't find an investor for its stake so cancelled the auction he wanted to sell

a third of the firm for half a billion dollars as part of russia's big privatization program and north america off the top of the millionaires list the number of asians with a fortune of at least one hundred million dollars is now eighteen thousand as compared with seventy thousand in north america there's about two thousand people with that some reports also reports that the number of the country's super rich will grow seventy six percent in the next five years and you're up to date rory more stories on our website r.t. dot coms that are i don't know thanks but hopefully next hour you'll give us some good news. right now in just a few minutes here on the program and the headlines for you plus a special interview with the chairman of the world's largest commodities trading company simon mari the details of the future rather of the euro and the dollar.

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not alone some are more severe than others and we have something that is born without skulls without or the least and sometimes with their legs totally twisted what it means death to those who it's point is such a angband. announce to those who abuse the splendid. and the celebration and they don't realize it said stand looking at their own future can't so comes this is just. it's so sad. i have. leakage and i'll show you. so the extent from which i have leakers.

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