tear gas and petrol bombs in athens marking the latest show of greek anger over e.u. in forced cuts this comes as germany says it wants more control over various national budgets. as the international envoy to syria warns the conflict could set the whole middle east a blazing clash as a breakout though across the border with lebanon. i did libya the former bastion of late colonel gadhafi under attack again as militias launch an assault on bani walid leaving at least eleven people dead.

this is r.t. live from moscow with me rory sushi welcome to the program scenes of violence return to the streets of athens where police have resorted to tear gas to disperse anti austerity protesters tens of thousands of greeks voiced their anger over a new round of cuts being demanded by the country's leaders in exchange for another bailout payment this coincides with a general strike that has seen tens of thousands of people walking off the job for the second time now in one month. from the university of the g. and who took part in today's protest says the e.u. imposed measures will only result in more social unrest. we are facing another. live demo staging cuts in wages social protection pensions we are facing a new tax where facing is a social disaster in the world who says the living conditions that can explain day

to day with such massive demonstrations in the last instant only were greece will have more hundred reached their limits and then they cannot stand it's the political class currently does. from society and the same goes from the troika under specific liberals is this the european union just building up the explosive material to make social experiences and. simply by being passed through parliament issues has no legitimacy in society and i think in the end in the end she is singing it's such an intense social crisis and. i was just going to see some sort of crisis after sort of crisis certain explosion of themselves explosion. then they need to do and incite. now the nationwide strike in greece was time to coincide with another you summit in brussels just

ahead of the meeting the german chancellor angela merkel she called for the e.u. to be given powers to veto national budget let's discuss that further now as well as the rest in the debt ridden states i'm joined by tom gill the london based writer and journalist and it's good to see you today thank you for coming on the program and see austerity protests taking place almost every day in europe especially in the south do you think e.u. leaders i are they completely out of touch with the people when it comes to the issues the publics of placing in their countries. i think you're absolutely correct here they're completely out of touch with the evidence in terms of all the rest on the street from president threw down right not faith in the late sixty's probably but against a backdrop which is much much more serious and opinion polls across the continent. come for. rebellion among the people against their leader and. they're not listening well i mean that's really quite the issue here because why is

it the e.u. is so apparently addicted to the bailout austerity remedy when in fact it doesn't seem to be a remedy at all can you name any successful examples. i can't and the whole the whole process of bailing out. the countries in the southern europe is completely and utterly flawed if you take the example of greece all the loans that are going to greece and not straight back to the recipient and therefore there is no money for investment or jobs and therefore we see years and years of austerity the recession and greece continuing and i'm afraid that's going to continue until greece takes the plunge and takes itself out of the euro and my view oh well there certainly are many many many many suggesting that greece should indeed take itself out of the euro but if i may just for a moment the german chancellor angela merkel saying now that she wants to see you to be given powers to veto national budgets

a lot of people have been talking about the losing the rights of sovereignty of this stuff and the other talk to us about the democratic principles of risk regarding that well absolutely that is a bigger time of the democratic principles that of course is part and parcel of the of the whole process of european integration for quite some time now. with the removal of monetary and fiscal policy from national governments effectively since the creation of the single currency there's been a huge democratic deficit and current proposals that will give more power to unelected officials in brussels and frank and give particular amounts of power to. stronger states. is fundamentally undemocratic and is rolling back the whole principles of what european integration was about when when it was founded not long after the second world war when we talk about whether it's portugal's spain greece

italy we're all looking at our bailout issues here we're looking at struggling economies as well we've got the so-called meeting of the troika of leaders the international monetary fund the european central bank the european commission all getting together for another anti crisis summit why is it that it's the banks dictating to the politicians who are then dictating to the troubled public. well that's a good question and goes back to the point that our politicians are out of touch but we've had a whole process of decades where the principle of unfettered markets giving free roam to grants and a global elite deciding and calling the shots while the rest of the country. are being sent into misery and we see new fresh data every day of populations in general getting poorer and poorer and yet we see the top of society getting richer and richer i mean in germany alone that some forty billionaires now according to

forbes dividends paid out to corporations were. increased again last year we're back to a bonus culture but at the bottom i mean the middle the middle classes and the working classes are paying the price of these wrong policies they're ripping up the social contract that was created after the second world war they're rolling back labor rights privatizing public services this is not in the interests of the european people and yet european leaders carry on with the same policies again and again and it will only lead to further misery further further misery and continued and possibly increase frustration tom killed one by the writer and journalist many many thanks for coming on r.t. today that's all the time we have. the international peace envoy to syria warns the conflict is now a threat to the whole region and one of the first signs came in lebanon when armed men apparently used machine guns to shoot into syria of course sparking fresh

border clashes reporting from the region to use a really good. presidents have been reporting fire overnight coming straight from the syrian lebanon border you have to understand that their supporters really close to this village right here is syria in fact is right behind me the group of several identified men have opened fire from the lebanese side towards syria and. the syrian army has responded of course the situation in syria continues to be highly unstable despite the efforts by the international community to broker some sort of ceasefire between syrian government forces and the opposition groups and the situation is being intensified by the fact that the various fighting groups in syria continue to receive shipments of arms coming in from across the border not with just turkey which was reported earlier but also with lebanon now the details of how those arms and up in syria in the hands of extremists groups here is a report from marty's enough. training for war getting ready for battle and

possibly their doubts these young recruits are preparing for what their instructors called a campaign to rid syria of tyranny. some of these student to be fighters haven't even held a gun until now. this is the first time i use weapons there was no need for them before the revolution now we carry weapons to get rid of assad. weapons have yet to topple the government of president bashar al assad but they're flowing into the country with ease it's a trend that has some officials worried. provide arms to either side. for the majority and the risk of unintended consequences porous borders with its neighbors to make the flow of arms almost impossible to stop and lebanon's town of is one of the main gateways behind me is the way to one of the illegal border crossings between lebanon and syria weapons fighters and supplies go in to syria

while refugees fleeing the violence come out but by no means is this a safe or easy journey frequent shelling as well as a large minefield on the syrian side of the border crossings like these a deadly gamble a gamble that lebanese sympathizers of syria's opposition are more than willing to make. this is five thousand. dollars thirteen hundred eighteen hundred and two thousand in tripoli r.t. spoke to this arms dealer whose business was booming. people come or contact me every day we have a revolution next door for sure we are with them will help them topple assad will be doing. the weapons may be easy to come by the harder part is understanding exactly where they go a classified report uncovered in the new york times reveals that many of the arms sent to syrian rebels are ending up in the hands of hardline islamic jihad one of the leaders of the f.s.a. said you know we admit that we infiltrated the jihadi jihad is

a coming coolies who reports from all over the muslim world but we don't know exactly who they are back in syria both in the training camps and in the battlefield rebels talk of high hopes for a bright future. i hope that there will be free elections that the syrian people will be able to choose their they want and that we will win back our rights freedom of expression and political freedom exactly what that freedom looks like may depend on who is getting the guns. lisi caffein of lebanon. and more advanced weapons are being smuggled to syrian rebels causing concern that some could end up in the hands of islamist extremists and assad forces claim they have gotten hold of portable anti aircraft missiles or let's talk about this not independent journalist who's keeping a very close eye on the syrian conflict good to see you today it's thought that some parts of syria are now awash with illegal high tech weapons supplied for

rebels from abroad i mean given that it's still unclear who exactly constitutes the syrian opposition how dangerous could this be. i'm not show that so wash with high tech weapons it's a wash with weapons the question is how many of these out what percentage of these weapons are high tech because that as you say is going to have a big bearing on what happens in the future but yes of course it's very dangerous. robert just for a moment here i do want to just get some details here regarding moscow officials say moscow has actually warned against shipping illegal arms to syria let's have a quick listen to what the deputy prime minister had to say if you bear with us here. truth will be should your issue it's not a good idea to put old fire with fuel we have the example of other countries in north africa in the middle east i will see this again stop supporting the arab spring it will not and will after the arab spring there will be a very hard arab summer and you could win for those that russia has recently come under harsh criticism from foreign states for selling arms to the syrian government

which moscow insists is purely defensive and under long running contractors how fair are these accusations given the activities and suspected clandestine shipments from western allies well that they're lawful it's it's comics the statements that come out of the american state department from hillary clinton downwards we talked the other day about russian moral depravity i think i mean he's people are hysterical. the last five years the french foreign secretary called effectively for . said to be assassinated you really wonder what these people have been smoking when they talk like this or why they find it necessary to talk and see sterile fashion and the business of the jet plane that was forced down in turkey is a similar example i mean you really wonder whether in fact what they do in use is to create the news to fill the media because the attempted coup d'etat which is

what you see is against bashar al assad supported of course by internal dissent has failed. the question now is how bloody and how long a civil war is going to continue in syria causing misery for the syrian inhabitants but they have actually failed it's not twenty months since this started and bashar al assad is really not looking as. if he's about to go any time soon as you say it's twenty months since all this started and one of the issues one of the questions i think we should get to here is the issue of al qaeda al qaeda has repeatedly signaled that support for anti assad forces just how widespread do you think it is the presence and influence of foreign jihadists in syria at the moment well i think we've had reports from pretty unbiased sources like on two years of french. medical charity who said that sixty percent of the people they bumped into in in one area where they were dealing with cantus were foreign generalities and i

don't know is there any doubt that they've been fed in there quite deliberately to stokes the prising against the syrian government and not just the. let's let's be quite clear that there are an awful lot of syrians who do not want their country to be turned into another libya well you know but you raise the point of the basically the syrians concerned there would have another example of libya on their hands but let's let's address this issue in brief it is i'm running very long time i do apologize are the rebels widely portrayed as representatives of the syrian people fighting for a cause but now some reports suggest they are losing support from civilians because of the violent tactics what do you think are the consequences of that i don't see i mean i've talked to syrians right from the start of this i don't think they ever had that much support for many of the the syrians who watched what happened to gadhafi is libya and realized that if it wasn't perfect what we what they're getting afterwards is a great deal worse than they've always been aware of and they're totally cynical about the west's motives for interfering in. the gulf states motives for

interfering in in civil strife in the in sorry how big a bargain in syria and i don't think there ever was a majority in favor of this office of personnel and that's a personal point of view i didn't go down but that's my view our independent journalist or robert on us are joining us live here on r.t. from strasburg thanks very much indeed for coming on. well i still to come for you this hour here on the program thousands have been killed in u.s. drone attacks in pakistan but only a fraction are actually militants islamabad reveals horrifying statistics of civilian deaths and we asked one expert about what it would take for the deadly strikes to stop that and more for a short break. homeland

security now has robot tune as seriously robot fish the drones in the sky spying on you just weren't good enough effect they've revealed that they're going to be using robotic hummingbirds soon how cute these things can only see you though above the water now during the one percent or less of your life that you spend swimming homeland security will be keeping you safe since nine eleven we've heard ad nauseum that we need to be kept safe so americans have given up their rights but have things gotten that much safer honestly has any of the stuff ushered in some sort of peaceful utopia no it hasn't the best terrorism prevention would be to not bomb secular regimes in other countries like libya so some fanatical wackos come to power that would help way more than robotic spy fish i hear a lot of people talk about personal responsibility in a lot of speeches and yes personal responsibility is a key component of the american way slit people provide for their own defense what is going to protect you more

a shotgun under the bed or terminator two so homeland security can of tuna right but i just might be. what's the strangest attempt of a military take on. the us president trying to overthrow a foreign country's government but his strategic game. and america recognized its defeat. question steve cuba has to cope with its victory all going to. all get out. i leave you q where you go but the rajab either live here the cuban missile crisis games and reality t.v. .

approaching twenty minutes past the hour here in moscow this is r t in libya at least eleven people have been killed and scores wounded after militias linked to the defense ministry shelled the bani walid a former stronghold of the late colonel gadhafi the country remains close to chaos following the western backed her belly and last year that toppled the nation's longtime dictator and libyan a political activist. says the nation is heading towards further disarray having been largely abandoned by foreign powers. division not only we're going to have not only for. the militias not a thank you very well you know which is you know highly populated area but i'm just yesterday you know. also that they used chemical weapons.

inside the city the city used. leave the can see. all of us who means. that this example. we succeed in libya so we see it in syria. by her dots here we are currently looking into claims that chemical weapons may have been used in the attack on bani walid will bring you more about as soon as we get that confirmation as well here on our city. now the majority of people killed by u.s. drone strikes in pakistan not militants that's according to the country's interior minister but it said eighty percent of more than two thousand people who have died

as a result of strikes. such discuss it further now with from national it's four of pakistan's a first political lobbying group live from islamabad a pleasure to see you today these are devastating statistics from the pakistani government do you think in any way shape or form washington will actually listen to them. this is a major blow. to diplomacy in position in parks done and this is the first time that a senior official actually come out to say this make this kind of a statement that the majority are civilians were killed by drones will this change the position of the united states i think the central intelligence agency and the pentagon are under tremendous pressure not just any government military but also from the public within the united states i'm sure you know you followed a couple of weeks bag there's been this major march toward the bucs in the tribal belt where american activist and. activist and of course spikes and activist

together march toward the region where the cia has been raining all these drones and of course is the. the entire thing is building up of course against the united states and of course the americans have been trying very very hard to convince folks dunnies that these drone attacks were actually our fault for the betterment of the country and would help the country but i think with this kind of a statement coming from the park from from a senior pakistani minister i think this is totally destroys the position of the u.s. inside box and i think will be i'm sure that the american diplomats at the u.s. embassy here in islam are increasingly applying pressure on washington on their counterparts in specially on people in cia but if you want to but if you're going about sort of pressure on washington it doesn't seem to have been working on for years now these new statistics that have come out from the pakistani government are indeed as you say very disturbing but what can do to make america listen. well it can do three very important things to media actions number one is to

withdraw the the you the permission for the use of box on your space that's number one and number two if it's really things become really worse. you can also resort to actually shooting down one of the drones and that is one of the options on the table and the fox and the air force and several people connected to the folks in the air force have said this repeatedly that the they have the capability to do this and they're just waiting for a decision from people from the government and as i said this is the very very first time in the past decade that it is that box a government actually came out so strongly so conclusively to say that civilians are being killed by the by the cia drones and let me just tell you one more thing. in addition to the statement of the drones the same minister also made a very interesting statement he said he said the fox had seen a ninety six incursions and attacks from the gun soil incite box done by militants

and we understand that couple of days back there was a meeting of the senior formation commanders of the bucks an army and according to . reports published by the media here today they were for the first time talking very openly about the fact that the u.s. army and nato is not doing much to control militants who are unknown as we don't know exactly who they are there are obviously taliban and i'll go on television or just simply of gun militants coming out by the dozens and killing boxing soldiers one of those militants is also accused of being behind the attack on malala uses a. pretty firm and i'm sorry to interrupt you here but very little time left here but one question is this if america did stop the drone strikes can pakistan cope on its own with dealing with the militants. there's no evidence that the drones have actually helped buckstone control the militants on the contrary pakistan has been very much very successful lives in the military in flushing out

a terrorist from the northern region of so wide that could two thousand and nine and clearing and cleaning up that entire area and if and now we see a resurgence of some of the activity of the terrorists it is because of these safe havens on the what i would call the american side of the border which is the afghan side of the border under the watch of the u.s. army where these terrorists who are flushed out by fox and army are maintaining arresting and training camps over there so i think the pakistani government appears to be putting the blame in a way on the on the americans and i think that would be the gist of the reports published by the fact that india today about the meeting which was a closed door meeting of the box any military commanders accusing or mentioning for the first time by the way a bigger ninety six incursions from the of gun territory into parts done resulting in killing of bucks and you soldiers and bucks in one because it is a very very big numbers and. from the pack nationalists for about pakistan's first political lobbying group live from islamabad thank you for coming on the program

today. or let's. not get the latest on the ali of what you were telling. earlier you have to was to buy up if indeed it was to buy a p.p. that that would take their total debt to more than that of the soviet union i'm not a clever man explain to me what that me i know well it would also mean becoming the biggest all producer in the well that's if the russian oil company buys out by shareholders we're going to talk in the markets are right now and check out wall street because they are the kalina and that's his job his kind is a more than four calls last week as you can see the dow designs are puffins posed to terry just by three basis points year of pain stock markets are actually gaining in the us as the e.u. summit cakes all faiths today of then we've got the euro eights down is declining the ruble has stopped trading for the day that finished up makes against a basket of currencies meanwhile the rough said i could see market say to have close let's check out the finish will be able to see that they did decline last as

oil prices head south and that's one of the type of bacteria in stevia or always a pleasure katie thanks very much you'll be with bulldog next hour in a just few minutes or an hour to you it's going to be months cars are taken several pop shots of the central bankers who he says are making a mockery of the global economy do stay with us if you can. share with beasts which brighten if you. zoom from phones to aggression. starts on t.v. don't come. more

news today violence has once again flared up. these are the images. from the streets of canada. china operations are the day. you know sometimes you see a story and it seems so you think you understand it and then you glimpse something else you hear or see some other part of it and realize everything you thought you

knew you don't know i'm tom harpur welcome to the big picture. what will change when america picks its president i mean the muslim rage working the iran tight rope pushing china russia as occupy hunger spreads the two parties still dictate. to us elections close guy. our team beginning a total of twenty second. i am asked as are welcome to the kaiser report. and go no calling plan to save the world as ben bernanke he aka bubble the clown spoke in japan last week and claiming currency wars are good for you and gideon gono.