the euro crisis looms large over the g eight summit in america with president obama expected to urge more rescue measures from the e.u. . campaign for reelection. in. german chancellor angela merkel suggests greece holds a referendum over whether the country should continue to use the euro. meanwhile hundreds of activists attained in germany as police break up an occupy protest here in frankfurt join me in a few moments for all the latest on this. also reporting this public outrage in bahrain and plans to merge two of america's gulf allies which is being called a u.s. plot to reshape the region our top stories this hour.

international news incoming twenty four hours a day this is team as the u.s. president hosts this year's g. eight summit is expected to pressure eurozone members to apply a more expensive bandage to their open single currency wound but barack obama's admitted to having his hands tied on some issues as reelection worries dominate his thoughts and he said no he has more from washington. there are several challenges for this year's g. eight summit one is facing its host obama has his hands tied with an election coming up in november a lot of focus for him on trying to stay in the white house so he's going to have to balance domestic and international considerations at this camp david summit something that's never easy but even more so when you have voters to please and global leaders to reassure it's always

a difficult thing to do even more difficult during the election he has in one sense to reassure american allies that america has remained strong and committed to the g eight and it has an important role to play at the same time he has to be sensitive to what his constituents in america are thinking about domestic concerns the economy unemployment housing all of the things that remain an issue the obama already told the world that more ready to compromise on global issues through the election given it was by accident in that hot might sit down with dmitri medvedev but with that incident aside many experts say that it's very unlikely we'll see progress on bilateral issues with russia per se on missile defense or iran's nuclear program in the election year now another challenge facing the group as a whole is the question many are asking does the g. eight format still work it's true that most countries of the world see the g eight

as outdated most countries in the world don't recognize the the singular leadership of the united states and its western european allies so in terms of what might come out of the g eight i think that again substantive policy decisions are unlikely rather this is going to be a much more much more geared towards padding obama's image as the host of the summit and showing the world that obama is this sort of a uniting uniting force rather than the divide. the force that he has seemed to be for the for his first term now in terms of uniting one of the main goals and focus of this summit will be the euro crisis the goal there to try to get the new french president on board with all of the massive austerity cuts that we're seeing throughout europe this is something that european leaders will certainly be looking for obama to try to unite all of them on how to move forward with that but again a lot of critics think the g. eight is an outdated format and then you have all the speculation as to why

president putin didn't come perhaps it's because he does understand how important the g twenty is especially when it comes to the financial turmoil that we're seeing across the world not of course will be held in mexico in june reporting from washington and he's now a party. the german chancellor has unexpectedly throwing down the gauntlet to greece has suggested athens should hold a referendum on whether the country still wants to keep the euro when it votes in national elections next month and there's some not joined by. peter all of his life in frankfurt a change of tone coming from the german chancellor. well yes i'm glimmer who has said this when greeks go to the polls on june the seventeenth they should also be voting on whether to remain within the eurozone single currency well i will merkel has said previously she wants to see greece remain in the euro now she's saying

that they should have the chance to decide the people of greece should up the chance to decide whether they do or they don't whether they stay or whether they go now this comes ahead of that g eight summit that's been held in washington expected to be dominated by talks of what to do with the ongoing crisis in the euro zone now it also comes on the back of the as the greeks may be booted out of the single currency now that should they not have here to austerity measures that are a major part that are a crucial part of a very i.m.f. e.u. bailout money going towards the country should greece not adhere to the austerity measures then they could face the boot from the single currency whether they vote for it or not now the reason that the greeks are going to the polls on june the seventeenth is because a previous ballot earlier this month failed to result in a. coalition government being able to be formed they currently got

a caretaker government which will see the country ticking over politically without any real power until that ballot is taken on the seventeenth of june. but yes a huge decision has to be made there in greece for the greek people and this comes as well of course as billions of euros have been taken out of greek banks by investors by savers who are worried that should greece have to revert back to the drachma they could lose the valuation and could lose some of the valuation of their savings so everything quite tense in greece and merkel coming out and saying that they should have the chance to vote in a referendum as well to stay or go from the euro doesn't help matters where you are there in germany it's the strongest economy in europe why then are we seeing protests in frankfurt at the moment. well frankfurt is one of the major financial centers of the world the biggest financial center in europe band well it's home to the european central bank we've seen protests taking place today on friday it is

also a a weekend of activism planned this is a bank holiday weekend here in germany so people from all over the country and in fact they expected people from all over europe have descended on frankfurt the the occupy frankfurt movement been going since the bear and october time they set up a camp outside of the the european central bank that camp was actually cleared on wednesday the head of the planned demonstrations that will be taking place over the weekend now the group of change it up a little bit from the standard occupy movement they're calling themselves block u.p.i. as they try and stop people getting into the european central bank headquarters trying to stop the european central bank from doing business as they say they want to see a more socialist economic policy and acted in across europe now it's not just the bloc you find people that are taking part in demonstrations also attack the left leaning socialist group as well they're going to be out in force on saturday on

friday we saw majority of quite peaceful protests however there were some flare ups here in frankfurt police saying around a thousand people taking part in demonstrations four hundred were detained this is after people tore down traffic signs as well as trying to hang banners and places around the city. now as say these demonstrations will continue there's a very very strong police presence here in frankfurt at the minute i was driving through the city on friday evening lots and lots of police everywhere you turn around five thousand expected to be out to try and keep the peace on the streets of as i say europe's largest financial center alive from frankfurt thanks very much indeed for that update r.t. correspondent peter all of that. well of course the worst hit victims of the euro crisis of the millions of europeans who have lost their jobs and incomes almost half of all of spain's youth alone are out of work and yet this is not stopping

brussels from spending thousands of euros on bureaucratic hiring process is for ministers or correspondent to silly reports. good income great working hours generous benefits career growth and essentially a job for life it's no surprise that the tens of thousands of applicants across the european union vie for permanent posts in the e.u. institutions are is one of them i applied because maybe i get the chance to become a star but it's job more secure can transfer to another position of their two years walking the halls of these buildings are thousands of men and women who want this massive uber shimmery managing the union for five hundred million citizens no doubt requires manpower but so many people are quite fouled were talks payers money is concerned it costs between seven thousand and fourteen and a half thousand euros to simply go through the process of hiring one permanent staff is an awful lot it's probably the same amount that

a company would pay only crew chain a chief executive say of microsoft that's of course ridiculous by no means to fund the book why is it that these stories people emerge and i think in all honesty the e.u. officials who really matter they don't seem to care i mean they might say certain things but at the end of the day they are asking for more money year after year after year this time the e.u. commission is asking for a budget increase of six point eight percent for two thousand and thirteen taking the total amount to one hundred thirty eight billion heroes about twenty three million of which will go to the european personnel selection office or eb so in charge of selecting potential permanent staff selected candidates are then placed on a reserve list for about a year commission various e.u. institutions can choose if you keep people reserve list this list is only valid for a certain time off to which these people probably find jobs so where's the value

added in that the cost of hiring people could be much higher we also need to select people on the border. possible geographical bases so we need to make sure that people from all countries represented there is an additional cost for that she adds that in an exercise comparing the costs of each new hire and twenty nine international bodies including the world bank and the united nations episodes average cost per person is still lower but in this context seems like a where millions of jobless e.u. citizens are hanging by a thread critics say that no amount of justification is going to make this situation appear like taxpayers' money well spent yes or cilia r.t. brussels. tens of thousands of protesters a rally didn't bahrain against the government's planned integration deal with saudi arabia early on friday thousands also took to the streets in iran calling the gulf

project a u.s. ploy to reshape the region tehran's unhappy about the plans by two of washington's key arab allies to cement a military and political alliance islamic state fears washington's all just crazy unity push to force it into a corner tirana some of the bahraini diplomats for an explanation what iranian professor told r.t. that america's gulf allies are desperately clinging to power. this is basically for the survival of the dictatorship in bahrain because the dictatorship of the king is immensely unpopular the vast majority of the people. want the regime but unfortunately the west supports the saudis and the. what ron is concerned about is that the saudi regime will attempt to. reign because the dictator and back. here been able to keep control.

in order. revolution. how the fore. if we occupy the country it's very interesting that the people about her and despite all this this small country has put up so much resistance and i think this ship itself shows them and weakness that lies behind the saudi regime but the iranians believe that the fact that the united states supports the bahraini and saudi dictatorships also makes them responsible for the both the bloodshed as well as the current situation at large. had to a website while tito com where we are closely following the developing situation in bahrain that's as the country's moves into more controversy by heading to london to attend the queen's jubilee lunch ship buckingham palace when protesters are creating a feast of problems at home. also on the web site of the moment fishermen for sale in north korea demands two hundred thousand dollars for the return of twenty nine

chinese men captured at sea the details on dot com right now. the ancient city of babylon in southern iraq is considered to be one of the seven wonders of the world but that prestigious title doesn't seem to bother the country's booming oil industry the country's government has extended the pipeline through the archaeological site claiming nothing historic has been put at risk for more on the story let's go to and talk to expert on iraq mike ready. mike in this clash between the protect of the past and those striving for oil driven economy what's more important. well i suppose that depends on the one's point of view and and also the class one serves for the ninety nine percent of us. the

heritage of the cradle of civilization and the history of iraq is more important but those who serve the elites and the global oil companies to them world heritage in antiquities mean nothing to them they're the end of the most important thing is the mighty dollar and they will stop at nothing to get what the what they see is their own resources but would not that country iraq benefit from what you say the mighty dollar the iraqi government has already begun investing the oil revenues into the rebuilding of roads and hotels infrastructure it proves surely that oil is the key to iraq's future get the economy on track the people benefiting that promote stability. i'm not sure the people will benefit any infrastructure the roads and things that have been built there to actually make the transportation of resources out of the country much easier for those that are doing the plundering all the profits will be leaving the country as well these western oil companies

these are b.p. chevron dutch shell they're not based in iraq and most of the profits will be leaving the country so the iraqi people are really going to benefit from having western oil companies in there in their country this is the reason they were pushed out in the sixty's in the seventy's and they've been trying to get back in for the last few decades it's only since the illegal war in the illegal occupation of iraq . the worst of all companies have been rubbing their hands with glee knowing that they'll be awarded all these can contracts but even developed economies do rely on foreign investment but you'll see that iraq definitely the people will not benefit from this the interest from western oil companies. there may be a few even the the oil workers themselves most of them actually left the country during the occupation during the war so the all workers that there are there and the security service is there protecting the all workers of all westerners at the moment there's very few iraqi oil workers actually benefiting from this directly as

i say most of the infrastructure that gets builds will benefit the actual corporations the transport in the infrastructure and as in that they all pipeline that's going through the the what should be a world heritage site because iraq itself is going to look domestic problems when it comes to corruption and lack of coherent legislation. those problems are an iraqi problem need to be sorted out and then proper form potential investors would be attracted and the country then benefit yeah i think this is part of the problem at the moment is that people are debating about the oil legislation that has been delayed for the last six months but the western oil companies have basically riding roughshod over this legislation because they're signing contracts with the kurdish region in the north sea doing oil contracts with the oil pipeline providers in the south to another the legislation is actually in place so it seems to me that the oil companies are fully aware that the legislation that will be in place to benefit

them no matter what happens to the iraqi people the legislation is always going to benefit the oil companies and all the oil companies are western oil companies as i say they're not they're not there to benefit the iraqi people they are there to make a profit but iraq itself with these massive oil reserves could it become a regional player akin to iran and saudi arabia not just because of the or rest of your revenues but also because of its status presumably improving as its economy improves. well i think that's partially true but when when the troops when the u.s. troops left in two thousand and ten two thousand and eleven obama when on stage in front of a military audience at fort bragg and actually said that he's left the country stable and the people have a democratic representative government that he left or it left a sovereign stable nation but it's not sovereign if western oil companies have trust in your world. that all companies were private were nationalized in iraq and i think they should be if the people want to benefit from the revenue then they all

companies should be nationalized and iraq should be able to sell its own oil whatever price it decides not have its all taken from them from western oil companies at the price dictated by the west interesting perspective thanks very much indeed for your thoughts expert on iraq might rally joining me there in london thank you. be careful what you wish for that's what egyptians are learning the hard way at the moment last year's uprising in the revolution brought about change but namely by destabilizing the country is left people facing chaos and a massive crime wave a burglary and armed robberies artesian in a glasgow reports from cairo. it's not just protests the disruptive peace on the streets of cairo just ask taxi driver. it was calm before the revolution one hundred percent where in a total mess now i used to drive anywhere wherever the waters came from never refused a customer now i park my car in the garage at six pm and go home i could have

special security system on it so it would be harder to steal. robberies and car thefts all have become part of a daily life in large cities like cairo and alexandria since after the revolution many people say the police at times simply choose to turn away when a crime is being committed. all hell broke loose after the uprising i know some who escaped from prison there are still stealing and they use guys who steal cars for them and then use those cars to deliver cocaine and hash to drug addicts so that. people see this was something unheard of before the arab spring and the mayhem that followed the uprising of january two thousand and eleven many believe thousands of convicts escaped from unguarded prisons a crime wave has followed with egyptian media reporting more than twenty five hundred murders and some two thousand abductions since their revolution yet the police are accused of doing little or the police

a lot of respect a lot of. the tools that they use to work with like the weapons because most of the different people for that this. has been treating my. for the last thirty years i would say for a long time maybe for six. this police is not looking to us we are the police. and the minister charged with enforcing the law has a very different view saying the situation is under control i want to settle out like this sadly i told the members of the people's council look at the results we managed to achieve in record time i'm sure that no one could have done as much yet we had a total collapse of everything and stability was nonexistent i don't have it all numbers regarding organized crime groups robberies and thefts they were committing

and the achievements we've made. that in the meantime until come returns to egypt he brought him and others will continue to close up shop early and head home before sunset fearful not only for their property and possessions but for their safety and lives in cairo in a ghost go. and that's an explosion and fire of hit an ammunition dump belonging to russia's ministry of defense and the country's far east officials a number of weapons exploded when they were being disposed of the explosions have been raging for hours voting fire fighters from battling the flames also forced a suspension of the trans-siberian railway part of which is located a few kilometers from the site of the incident officials have deployed special amphibious aircraft to fight the fire one person is reported injured while more than two thousand have been evacuated from nearby village it's. time now to take a look at some of the other news that's making headlines around the world today thousands of anti regime activists are taking to the streets in northern syria in

the northern syrian city of aleppo where human rights groups are reporting that people have been injured by tear gas and live ammunition also persists elsewhere with regime forces were going to the town of rest and in the temp to break up defensive lines set up by the opposition meanwhile the u.n. chief says al qaeda militants were behind the deadly suicide car bombings that killed fifty five people in syria last week thank you moon also said the death toll from the crisis now stands at ten thousand. three civil tennis blasts of struck an outdoor bird market in eastern baghdad killing five people and wounding dozens of others the bombings took place in a shia neighborhood when the area was crowded with shoppers violence is decreased in iraq in the past few years however insurgent attacks and security forces and civilians continue in an attempt to undermine the shiite led government. buses crashed off a bridge in central vietnam killing thirty four people and injuring dozens the

crowded coach was travelling to the city in the south when the driver lost control causing the vehicle to plunge eight hundred meters into a river of eleven thousand people die each year of viet nam in traffic related incidents that. turn twenty four minutes past the hour here in moscow let's now join katie on the business desk for a roundup of today's markets a friday evening here in moscow. facebook getting on then well i mean it was a bit of rocky start as you know because there was a technical issue going on on the nasdaq and we saw a rally of twelve percent but right now it seems to stabilized at around five percent so it's a little bit underwhelming actually for the most hyped i.p.o. that i've certainly ever heard about but it's not a disaster by any means now you've got to consider the fact that the company only started eight years a guy now when this i.p.o. first came about they priced it at thirty eight dollars per says it's actually

above that now now when that came out a lot of people were saying that it was too high now or they'd ask us all from these to be capped to says given the low revenue streams for facebook and the high valuation holding onto the says could be a risk for investors. being placed. i would be very surprised if the stock actually performed really well in the aftermath of may in the next you know the first two sessions given that demand seems to be pretty high and more than the issue but. the current shareholders are always so in the placement with the cell afterwards reducing their stakes for minds or a lot of performing investors already invested in facebook and such as private equity funds and there will kept any gains in the spark and then. look at performance i doubt it would lead to extra positive sentiment particular because the money's been

taken from the market and demand has been taken out from from other stuff. see that perhaps is right now when we look at the u.s. markets they are indeed trading right now and as we can see both the dow jones on the nasdaq are indeed in negative territory so the whole facebook. has fallen to really inspire optimism which is slightly disappointing we've got the american forces then now on a losing streak since. i can it's going to europe and see how they finished up the day and as you can see that the whole greece scenario of leaving the euro zone is keeping those markets on the edge of their seats right that we've also got the g. eight leaders are meeting as well can you imagine being on the fly around the world my goodness me what's going to be discussed i would imagine greece what we hope of the agenda as well as about the dying is now a concern with sixteen of the banks being downgraded by moody's today as well as

that we've also got the german finance minister will things people he was saying that he's expecting the crisis care of the two more years which is just pressing prospects there is get on to the common currency and see how that's reacting to all of those sentiments and i want twenty seven sixty three that you can see the variables will fall money and it was the poor and i will fight against both the u.s. dollar and the euro that those investors are really getting out of a risky asset and that can be said for the russian markets as well they're really pulling out the money as they try and cover their losses elsewhere as you can see the l.c.s. around one point eight percent down the mindset is one and a cool down in the dumps today let's get on to a snapshot of the stalls and see some of the biggest companies here most of them i should lose out because like that over three percent down off to seventy percent losses yesterday gas from as well massive energy major hate downhaul the umatilla

one of the early game is blocking of a trend in the set. in around a quarter of a concern today and if we talk about the mice exam in general just the kind of really exploring that you've got a graphic on the screen just as you can see just whole operating down ever so slightly we're now looking at two year alone as of for the rush limbaugh says it now in the last thirty days the index was around twelve percent that's not all doom and gloom when you consider the fact that russia's g.d.p. rose four point nine percent in the first quarter of this year that was above expectations of fall stronger than any european and they said so as far as fundamentals the domestic scene is concerned here russia is all the international affects that already taken their toll and that can be evident in the oil prices are are indeed declining at this hour so that all the russian markets are suffering as a result that was all for me the rest of the business

a much i'm going to enjoy my weekend now with your monday break here you have a good weekend good to see that thanks very much indeed we'll be back with the you know headlines very shortly that will be in a few moments there with us live here in moscow this is. news today violence is once again flared up. and these are the images the world has been seeing from the streets of canada. trying.