thanks for joining our teeth this thursday with me karen tara two of egypt's leading presidential candidates are suspending their campaigning they blame the ruling military council for wednesday's brutal attack on protesters up to twenty people were killed and more than a hundred injured by unknown attackers sparking protests. the rally was supporting a disqualified all truck conservative islamised candidate seen as one of the frontrunners before he was banned various political forces accuse the ruling military for orchestrating the bloodshed sarah firth looks into the chaos religious tensions have created in post-revolutionary egypt. taking phone in middle east and. this is the leading comic actor as a live man and his should tary cool film believe is just one of

a number in which he's still heard that if you learned as an imprisoned offending islam it's a ruling that's him raging with the public ok struggling so that was put things in quotes that was he got a letter big melting pot case of i got really mad about this like the calls for the not to was this was i got raised that it was going to the rest of the country and it was a very well christ third freedom of expression and it was. such convictions accosting a cloud a very artistic plans to actions which the great in the good of the arab media industry a quick to condemn of to being banned for years and to mubarak hardline parties like the muslim brotherhood and the newly created select is now look i see could gain serious political clout having won the lion's share of seats in parliament. has hope.

to build and. grow just be it will that new egypt look like the greeks like i will it means in praising much strict muslim curried have no problem with. this system so we have our culture has its own culture of content and out of it language and. we live in egypt so i think the system and the laws have to come from this culture and this culture means islamic moved. many of these pushing for implementing shari'a law in egypt let me publicly that it could still be a long way off but there are already signs that change is taking place a lot of people who are currently governmental come to this for president are being very cautious about the statements that they make with the go to policy everyone is preaching moderate islamists but the same time there's an undercurrent like for

instance we're going to change that. we're not going to make schools but we're going to preach religion better at schools they matter how subtle the differences may be at the moment egypt's eric sheikh restraint in meeting its each and there is still so what happens right now could be fairly it's the generation serious. kyra. military council condemned wednesday as attacks at a news conference and reaffirmed its willingness to step down after the presidential election but political activist ackman believes the latest violence is actually the generals or latest attempt to destabilize egypt with moves that have roots back in the revolution. they've been definitely there since day one of the revolution but this is what the military council kept calling or referring to a third party the party have been part of the militias the national democratic party and the state security apparatus for the past twenty years those are all of

them very intense criminal records and they're being used instead of. militias all the army itself so they're doing the dirty work for the military council they've tried already that in november and december during the parliamentary elections but it fell be trying to drive the muslim brotherhood into the areas where they can be. and say that the muslim brotherhood is a violent violent group but they failed to do that now they're trying to do the same thing and every single time it turned against they've obviously not learned the lessons that they're following mubarak's steps exactly and that's why they've managed to unify everyone again all the liberals and the brotherhood and these everyone is in the same trench right now against the military council. elsewhere in the arab world another protest ands with blood being spilled the ancient city of

aleppo largely untouched by the conflict that's tearing syria apart becomes the site of the latest bloody at the so between the pro and anti assad factions. and it can trigger tremors and even poison water supplies but british leaders insist the plough on with a controversial method to extract underground gas despite the costs to residents. america's chief diplomat is origin china to help rein in tensions over iran and north korea's nuclear activities hillary clinton is in beijing right now and said both the u.s. and china should work together to restrain pyongyang from further provocation and prevent iran from developing a nuclear weapon clinton's visit comes at an extremely delicate time in their relations beijing accuses the u.s. of meddling in its internal affairs after the u.s.

embassy briefly sheltered a chinese dissident activists it's also irritated over washington's military buildup in the asia pacific something trying these experts say is aimed at distracting beijing from its own policy in the region. the u.s. strategy is really trying to encircle china from order. to. india three quarters so. clearly china and explosion in the south china sea there you is just so. used to smaller countries did to challenge china so the u.s. strategy is to give enough to do some leverage in countries to keep china occupied so a dead child never would not have the time. hard to do with our the geopolitical fleece john they spit host set up his own institute in china to study social and

economic developments there foresees a new current of cold war on the horizon here's some of what we'll hear later on in today's program. we've heard a lot of talk about malta over world but last century it was it's over the us this is truly to be very simple minded out of this century is the u.s. and china that bipolar that world is going to be dominated by the bipolar connection of china and the u.s. and people will make countries will make decisions and calibrate their their actions against what they perceive will be the response of the u.s. and or china that there will be a bipolar world replace it and they so be us but very different bases so no knowledge of war no i guess a cold war but sort of a cold war with the soviet union on an ideological bent basis with china on

economic. nine minutes past the hour here at our team and russia warns it could launch a preemptive strike against the nato led defense shield plan for europe if divisions between them over the project reach a critical point the country's military chiefs have been voicing their concerns at an international conference on missile defense and moscow has an isa now explains the missile defense has been in a deadlock for some time now that's certainly no secret between the u.s. russia and nato and once again russian officials today reiterated the sentiment that bad deadlock needs to end or else russia is going to take responsive action we've heard the phrase preemptive strike this is pretty harsh rhetoric we're hearing from russia they're very serious about their their concerns their national security concerns being taken. consideration by nato and the u.s. we also heard from officials that if some kind of compromise isn't made that

they're warning of in fact another arms race so very strong words coming from russia what they're hoping to come out of this today's summit is first of all to prove that these so-called rogue states like iran and south korea which the u.s. and nato say this missile defense system which is well underway in eastern europe in poland romania even as far as turkey that russia has research and is giving basically officials details on why they believe those two countries certainly don't have the missile capabilities to reach europe so a lot of questions surrounding the goals behind this defense system so close to russia's border and also showing a computer model of why exactly this missile system poses a threat to russia's national security in detail this is something moscow has been trying to convince the two of us through dialogue for years now washington continues to stress that the system is not against russia like i said that it's

against iran and north korea but russia just isn't convinced oh let's not forget that hot mike that we heard in south korea where obama told medvedev hang in there i'll be ready to compromise after the election and of course it's an election year in a lot of countries across the globe in twenty twelve and officials certainly understand matt so what we're going to hear most likely as this two day summit wraps up is baby steps we're ready for dialogue but how far both sides are willing to compromise is still very unclear let's now talk to bruce going from the global network against weapons and nuclear power in space think tank in the u.s. the u.s. isn't ruling out giving moscow a legal binding guarantees that its missile defense shield won't be directed against russia but it says a cooperation agreement should be signed first does it look like the impasse will be broken soon. i don't think so i think the u.s. intends to continue surrounding russia and china with these so-called missile

defense systems claiming that they're really aimed at iran but we know that iran has no nuclear weapons today and they have no missiles capable of hitting the united states so indeed this system is aimed at russia i believe it has a lot to do with russia has the world's largest supply of natural gas and don't we know by now that the pentagon's primary job today is to serve as a resource extraction sort of us on behalf of corporate globalization why do you think washington is so slow and giving rush at these guarantees. because i don't think they intend to give russia those guarantees and cycle what i see happening now inside the united states using the mainstream media i see russia and china being demonized over and over again by the us i think the strategy is to make the

american people feel that russia and china are the aggressors we find that it's virtually impossible to get any mainstream media coverage over this u.s. and sort of russia and china i just finished a thirty day speaking tour from san diego in california all the way to seattle in washington twenty four cities where i spoke about this very u.s. encircled by with missile defense systems of russia and china and the mainstream media would not touch this issue and the speaking tour that i do have so the american people don't really know very little about it but instead we hear a lot about how russia and china are expanding their military which of course is happening largely because the u.s. is militarily circling both those countries today now office says it will develop brand new weapons to counter the myth out over concerns the shield could intercept current technology does this have the hallmarks of

a new arms race here. sadly i think it does i'm against any country developing more weapons these days but we don't need a new arms race we have a big problem on this planet called climate change that we need all the countries of the world to help deal with but in fact when you're being surrounded as russia and china is today one begins to understand why they feel the need to increase their military especially when the united states can't come in and his war gaming a first strike attack on china every year and now for the past several years said in the year two thousand and sixteen so in fact when they're working. at the same time that russia and china are being surrounded and you can understand why those two countries feel like they have to respond. oh i'm sorry to interrupt you i just wanted to ask you very briefly if the election here in the u.s.

president obama wants moscow to sort of cut him some slack until reelection but what happened to their missile defense dialogue if he's not re-elected. well i think it's going to continue whether he's reelected or not i don't really believe that statement that obama made in south korea that you know give me some time let me get reelected i don't believe for a moment that obama was really serious about that i think he's just trying to get russia to back off a little bit stop implying so much pressure about this i think the u.s. is clearly committed all the way back to two thousand and one the washington post reported that the u.s. was going to pivot its foreign and military policy into the asia pacific i think it has much to do with circling russia and china trying to control access to resources particularly in central asia around the caspian sea trying to control the direction that pipelines go to move the oil and natural gas from. in the caspian sea so this

is a long term project that the united states is undertaking to really control the declining resources around the earth i don't think it's going to be slowed down by any president any new president that gets elected oh right i'm afraid upon a time we have birth i know for space for peace or thank you for your time thank you. and you can have all mine to our t. dot com where right now we're literally bringing you the widest of you. how's this for a few shocking shots thrill seekers in russia's far east a show of their head for heights with these dizzying pictures posted online although the local police they weren't too thrilled. plus hunting fox the phone hacking scandal plaguing rupert murdoch's news corp sees the level calls for many of his american t.v. broadcasting licenses to be pulled.

spanish police have made a number of arrests at a protest in barcelona where you the european central bank chiefs are meeting now security precautions ahead of the talks have been heavily ramped up spain's even going so far as to reinstate checkpoints along its border with france to try and limit the number of demonstrators arriving from within europe the fear was that a potentially massive protests could turn violent thousands of riot police were deployed with reinforcements on standby the e.c.b. chiefs resisted calls to begin buying up spanish bonds as investors abandon the country's debt auctions instead they're urging patience over austerity saying it

needs time to work that as spain real from disastrous unemployment levels and million strong all staring the demonstrations economists janish a volatile fokus says he sees glaring double standards. why would they spend the last few months one canadian. banks. the group to be. low interest rate of one percent. it is if using to come to the assistance of states like spain like portugal like ireland like greece and to come to their assistance the european union as a whole requires misanthropy conditions to be imposed upon the population suppose countries so you have a completely different attitude more of a difference of your one is towards the bank a bank is where essential in holding this crisis and they are being treated with

a glove. and then you have the way the states like spain are being treated europe does not have the fusion should be there in order to avert the kind of good scale of insolvencies of spades that we have been experiencing over the last couple of years and apparent protest against president assad and syria's aleppo university met a bloody end today leaving four dead and two hundred arrested unverified video from the clashes show troops and students together attacking the demonstrators. a senior columnist at the all akbar newspaper in neighboring lebanon blames much of the violence on arms proliferation. let's look at the situation in a realistic way there are some many that are all around city in cities major city and cities there are gunmen you know and it's very difficult and they're not very well organized so there are different groups of men on the streets and it's very

difficult for the army decision officer army to withdraw from the cities and leave the ground for the gunmen so that's also in making things more complicated what is required is that is that the gunman would actually back down and the syrian army would withdraw the tanks from the cities and that's very difficult to implement and there are weapons being smuggled into syria last week there was a shipment of weapons that were stopped by the lebanese army on the lebanese coast and there was a huge shipment of some some heavy some high caliber. weapons and this could create a lot of damage and i think. the countries surrounding city are should actually make put more pressure on on stopping the smuggling of weapons to syria because smuggling weapons to syria will only increase the violence and violence will lead to more violence and this is a vicious circle. all right let's take a look at more of the world's news for you now israel is building a large security wall along its border with lebanon it's intended to protect the israeli town of metula from lebanese sniper fire the two countries are still

formally on the war though their officers meet regularly under u.n. supervision to avoid clashes on the troubled border as well waged a devastating military campaign against lebanon's hezbollah movement in two thousand and six that claimed some thirteen hundred lives all of which were mainly civilians. the trial of iraq's fugitive vice president has been postponed while his lawyers appeal for a special court to hear the case to recall me denies running death squads targeting government officials security forces and shiite pilgrims is currently seeking refuge in turkey and calls the trial politically motivated the hearing resumes next thursday. deep beneath the rolling english countryside live pockets of gas suitable for energy the trouble is getting it can be destructive and toxic to those living above the process of fracking is banned in some countries but the british

government intends to drill away era specht of public fears or the environmental consequences here's artie's iver bennett. it triggers earthquakes and could poison water supplies but fracking suggests got the green light in the u.k. a government study says the controversial gas extraction technique is safe despite causing two tremors in the popular coastal resort of blackpool last year environmentalist's fear is smoke screen hiding the far more dangerous side effect of large scale deadly pollution but it fails to address the fact that earthquakes and seismicity you know these issues are actually a new very small fraction of the other associated problems with fracking so the report doesn't really do justice to any other aspect so ultimately the department of energy climate change regulating this hydraulic fracturing or fracking extracts methane gas from underground millions of gallons of water and chemicals including

hydrochloric acid pumped into a three kilometer deep well that high pressure when the rock cracks gas escapes but so too can deadly toxins and radiation previously locked in the ground this site just sixty kilometers south of london is one of many the government intends to drill and the people who live here have had no say permission has already been given for fracking to start here and that's the hole that will be pumped with water at one thousand meters it's not shallower than most other fracking sites which means the risks of tremors a much higher but so too are the chances of toxic chemicals seeping into the water supply and that's the worry for residents who live nearby the fact that fracking could take place four miles from my home makes me feel very angry very disillusioned very disappointed in our legislators to things absolutely exasperated that they can even countenance sanctioning because it is an eco sidle technology it's short term it's short sighted halfway between the capital and the coast bulk

i'm surrounded by a network of reservoirs that provide water to much of england's densely populated south. beast the fear is the toxic cocktail left by fracking will pollute supplies only a quarter of the carcinogenic chemicals pumped in actually come out again fracking has already begun in america these online videos show what happens if the well casing splits taps flaming after gas leaked into the water system but britain insists it's a cleaner alternative to cold local campaign is far from convinced we really need to be looking at how we're going to move away from fossil fuels and what's happening at the moment is that the government is diverting its attention and its resources towards. energy such as new clear fracking don't increase resilience and don't move as a way to reduce close. impact fracking is banned in france and bold garia because

of public outrage but in the current corners of england's countryside people's fears are no match for the energy giants might have been it r t sussex. and dmitri joins us with the business news and it seems all prices are going deeper and deeper every hour what's going on a lot of action is going on mainly fears about what's going on in europe as mario draghi says the situation is becoming more uncertain and downside risks are increasing therefore indeed we are seeing oil prices red with with thinking of the . two and a half dollars per barrel of brant is declining two dollars per barrel also we've heard statements from the opec saying that basically prices are too high and that supplies should be loose. in the united states we are seeing also a negative picture with the nasdaq plunging even deeper now more than a one percent decline in. the dow or half

a percent this is on the mix that we've got the housing market seems to be reviving with thirty year mortgage rates at their lowest level ever but. same time the service sector is slowing down its growth and therefore the reaction we're seeing right now. over in europe for the session ended on a mixed and flat picture because on the other hand all those statements from mario draghi we've had spain placing two and a half billion euros worth of bonds successfully on the currency market is pretty much even though with the dollar declining the slightly as you can see there but the group will last against both currencies not getting any support from low world prices and the markets also saw in russia declined a second day of declines with the r.t.s. declining one quarter of a percent the obvious point six percent moving my say well basically those were after shares a look at them in just a second airflow was

a bit better than the market despite its net profits decreasing around fifty percent in the first quarter gazprom was up even one percent one of the best performing stocks of the day after bowers is down seven percent as a read only sand is getting its grip on the company it's closer to take you controlling stake now it's setting up a joint venture with the state corp russian technologies for which it will increase its taken out of aspirin only said it will invest seven hundred fifty million dollars and essentially double is shared to just over fifty percent head of after versus partnership with international majors will help the company diversify its production. here use the year off. launching new cars and modernization of off the us we have launched a new line and it will be aligned together with the airlines during the last six months as we want to new cars by the end of the year we are going to produce this. and move more to brand manufacture and in one year we're going to launch. our cause

as well on the same visit all the. headlines are next on r.t. .

for joining our team with me karen terrell rodger at half past the hour these are your headlines the crowds grow wider in egypt troubled to election violence well as over banned religious candidates with the ruling military seem to be the only ones to benefit. hillary clinton pitches for china's support on north korea and iran but the you want to smell of terror is the asia pacific build up as the support for chinese dissidents leaves beijing where. and police cracking down on an anti all stare at a rally in barcelona as major european central bank heads to heads look at their disgust at the state of spain spiraling debt. ninety minutes in washington d.c. next first lauren lister's all the money to see if it all adds up in capital account stay with us.