vote of last. support from mainstream politicians all of this though is a sense of disappointment. america's new secretary of state john kerry. look at what his mission with the old nato allies could be like. to negotiate peace in syria the country's government says it is ready to talk to all sides. including those who are. drugs vegetables drug sees almost two hundred kilograms of heroin. with.

good to have you with us here today. live in moscow with your news from around the world. voting has ended in italy where a disillusioned public has begun choosing. exit polls show the center left coalition is leading with the main surprise of this election the party led by a former comedian also. more at all. good to see you can you give us a bit more specific numbers stacking up at the exit polls. well at this point of course the numbers are going to be changing every every minute you can say that of course that is it according to the exit polls but at this point we have yet allude to bits that means you have said with the center left coalition and the first place with just over one third of the votes that have been that have been

counted according to the exit polls in the second place we seem to have. gone to making a comeback to politics and then third place of course is the man who has been sort of a surprise votes all these elections and that is. the stand up comedian who has come to be the new face of the new voters who can say it's hillary and with the prime minister mario monti trailing in the fourth place so far of course understandably the votes haven't been counted yet the official results are expected to be announced on tuesday around four one pm oh so we'll be waiting for those but these are the results that we have coming in from the exit polls at this very moment of these votes for the parliament as you say we're getting the early taste of votes coming in from the from the polling stations now but when we do get to the official results if there's no clear majority then what happens next.

will probably it is very likely according to the to the analysts that some of the of the runners up will have to form a coalition for example it is expected that deludes. will have to form a coalition with modern monty a curious development you may say considering that the two have been showering each other with mild insults throughout the campaign but you have to understand that at this point italy is at the crossroads a lot of people that we've been speaking to here on the streets like taxi drivers and people just you know in cafes and restaurants they're saying that they're tired of the old politicians they're tired of. the way the politics in italy have been running for the past two decades you know that berlusconi is coming in second but a lot of the people a lot of the analysts are saying that the majority of the voters for their lives connie are actually older generation who wish things would go back to where they were just ten years ago prior to the crisis they want the good old life back

however there are tens of thousands of people who have been voting sort of in a protest for that very low again a very controversial figure he's a stand up comedian he is not going to be actually the leader of the party he's sort of the face of the party so if indeed his a five star party does does get some seats in the senate or in the parliament altogether he's not going to be among them it's going to be representatives from this party but again his party is getting a lot of votes from those who have been disillusioned with politics for a stick off your normal bureaucratic old men in suits who wants things to change because it's only obviously is an economic crisis it's and social crisis and people want out of it and actually you can see the eyes of europe are on what's happening in italy at the moment because this is the the third largest economy in the european union and depending on how things go here of course that will also went

back to the markets in the european union and that is the reason why these elections are being viewed. very attentively by you can see politicians all over the continent at this very point again however we have to wait for the official results to understand exactly which direction it's really is heading now the reader's interest how you say that as we know he's been around for ages now and it's getting quite a lot of votes from the old school from the older members over the public i was doing some reading the other day showing that one of but it's gone he's main campaign pledges is he says the government comes down to hard time. dodges which i thought was a pretty bizarre campaign platform when you're trying to appeal to the mass voters so it's good to hear from you and right we'll have to keep posted with you on this the italian elections are a ridiculous go a great pleasure thank you. for the political analyst alexandra police he doubts that any of the candidates will end up delivering on their promises to rein in

italy's finances which could of course at the end of a day like arena said just plunge the whole eurozone into a fresh state of turmoil. the problem of your is not the problem of public debts this is a financial assault that has been concerted by private entities to milk money from the eurozone that said of course berlusconi is not really the best choice to to drive around these difficult obstacles and the moment he wasn't really so much better despite being well connected with the financial world has a wonderful work. but very little continent and this is a bit worrying because as soon as he gets in it gets in parliament and it's not just italian politics he will make politics in the world and frankly for the moment they don't feel he is really well equipped i hope he will make up because anyhow he

will come up with a sizable number of parliamentarians but they have really to study very hard and very fast to come up with something credible. the new u.s. secretary of state is in london testing the ground for american foreign policy on the first leg of his first tour abroad john kerry has chosen to meet with rather traditional american allies in europe such as the leaders of britain germany and france before though heading to the middle east let's not talk to all of these and you farmer who's following this visit here in the british capital and you are good to see you so one would imagine though kerry's visit to the london ultimately seeing old friends are a good way to kick off his trypticon of exactly being a very taxing visit for mr kerry. well what you can say is that he certainly is pleased to be here he said it was no coincidence that this was the first stop on his first foreign trip he also said that it was a remarkable partnership and when to say went is fast to say that it was actually

a partnership of the heart but that aside i think it was pretty taxing actually because what has happened he only has a day to talk about many issues syria is at the top of the list and over breakfast today talked about that topic with the british prime minister david cameron he didn't go into much detail in this afternoon's press conference about exactly what policies the u.s. would take other than to say they reiterated the need for bashar al assad to step down william hague the foreign secretary for britain also said that it is britain's intention to intensify its support for the syrian opposition other topics discussed included terrorism and the growing threat and also iran and its development of its nuclear program mr kerry again saying that it was unacceptable for iran to have a nuclear weapon but it also goes on to say that it was still an option to hold negotiations with the iranians in good faith so these are the topics i think the shaping his the eleven day tour across nine countries at the moment is

a hectic sched you will he will head across europe after today there he will go to germany to france to italy and also to turkey he will talk to members of the syrian opposition coalition and he will also head to the middle east interestingly there he will visit allies there to america but he will not be going to israel to the palestinian territories the fisher with us line there is that they want to give the israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu time to form his new government although critics do suggest that perhaps this is something that indicates a growing friction between the u.s. and israel. so the newer u.s. secretary of state has a first trip there around the world are stopping down in london where you are and you farmer many thanks indeed. well a political expert on receipt says that kerry's mission in europe is all about persuading old partners to take on a greater role in nato as ongoing foreign wars it's always been very important for the americans to keep the nato alliance together but they always want to keep it

together on their own terms it's always been the case for instance that the senior commanding officer in nato is from the american armed forces what the americans constantly want to do use to shift the burden of military intervention on to the european powers but to keep political control all the process and i think the we've seen a number of times recently especially since the american focus is now beginning to shift towards the pacific to deal with the rising threat of china we are going to root them the europeans know how to take on a greater share of burden in respect of policing the arab world and north africa what we're seeing here is an attempt to convince the nato allies that they should pay more but have no more influence or at a time of this past seven in the evening here in moscow a massive drugs bust right on the edge of this city has once again highlighted the alarming rise in the illegal heroin trade from afghanistan into russia almost two hundred kilograms of high grade heroin was seized by drug control officers this

monday at a busy market earlier i spoke to r.t. sean thomas all about it. they have discovered one hundred ninety kilos worth one hundred eighty million u.s. dollars outside of moscow and how they discovered it is kind of interesting in fact the drugs made it all the way from afghanistan here in bags of radishes in fact you can see the radishes and then the green heroine check this out it's a dyed color of the red it is radishes so that it's less noticeable less easy to detect and there they've discovered one hundred and ninety kilos worth now the big news here is that they have blocked where they believe they've blocked a major supply route from afghanistan through and it was back a stand company a vegetable contract that was sending things to the urals russian company there and then brought to moscow in this particular case they have detained two people two more people have been arrested of course the investigation is ongoing if you look at this week around russia in different regions around thirty tons of various types

of drugs between heroin and marijuana synthetics drugs and psychotropics as well they were discovered in various regions around russia but the bad news is since the west has gone into afghanistan since the u.s. invasion drug production from afghanistan up five thousand percent from not good news at all and then again narcotics into russia from afghanistan has more than doubled in that amount of time and in fact of the director of the russian federal drug control services states that two thousand and fourteen may actually. saying that when the u.s. bugs out of afghanistan they actually expect that the import of drugs from afghanistan to russia will actually decrease. well drugs will certainly remain one of the central problems for security forces in afghanistan itself and as a further moral there after president karzai ordered u.s. troops to leave the wide back province he's trying to quell public anger over the

numerous cases of civilian murders and abuse it's a bit later this hour we've got the scoop on that. but for now the rivalry between the u.s. and china has gone digital and is threatening to turn into a full scale cyber war a recent scandal involving a chinese military unit allegedly engaged in cyber theft from american companies has now put a washington on the defensive but it might not be long before washington makes its own move in this new era cyber race as artie's marina porter has been investigated in january it is my pleasure to welcome president to the white house washington and beijing were the a list couple of geopolitics the positive constructive cooperative u.s. china relationship is good for the united states in february america's feelings are fleeting china unleashing its full spy power let's return to the alleged link between china's military and a prolific hacking group most cyber attacks are being carried out by teams inside

the chinese military china is officially out of control because don't look now but prove today our sugar daddy is a thief beijing became an overnight security threat last week after the american information security firm mandiant identified a secretive chinese military unit as the likely source of hacking against u.s. corporations are charged china vehemently denies. however as the u.s. refocuses its military might from the middle east to china's backyard critics say it's no coincidence that beijing is suddenly morphing into america's virtual al-qaeda i think this is part of what oh mamma calls the egypt of it which is really a china of it and this cyber thing is is fits right into that pattern i think what we're looking at is art of this obama pivot to focus on china and to paint china is the new military threat to the world it's the demonization china earlier this month

u.s. president barack obama signed an executive order aimed at strengthening america's cyber defenses when you know hackers steal people's identities and infiltrate private e-mails we know foreign countries and companies swipe our corporate secrets . now our enemies are also seeking the ability to sabotage our power grid our financial institutions our traffic control systems we cannot look back years from now and wonder why we did nothing in the face of real threats to our security and our comp but according to reports washington is all too familiar with the offensive side of cyber war it's the u.s. who launches things like stuxnet that you got there with israel to to cripple certain iranian technology capabilities in two thousand and ten a computer virus known as stuxnet infected tehran's enrichment facilities destroying nearly one thousand of iran's six thousand centrifuges according to

reports the virus made entirely out of code was a joint collaboration between the us and israel in terms of a pandora's box i think it will be slightly harder for the united states to adopt a position of purely defensive we sort of made it clear that we're willing to use cyber in advance of our national interest while reports about china's a legit cyber attacks have dominated u.s. mainstream media much less is being said about the pentagon's decision to double down on its cyber war work force expanding from nine hundred to more than forty five hundred employees experts say the move is indicative of washington's evolving military strategy every commander with whom i have spoken is going to be the next major war will include cyber component it will just be a traditional insurgency a bombing of their practice center our ground troops the next floor all certainly

will include a cyber component and the edge of cyber war france could become foes by the click of a mouse and some say in a very short time relations between the u.s. and china over virtual espionage can resemble the law. long stalemate that took place at the soviet union during the cold war marina port i.r.t. new york cyber wars hacking scandals you can have your say in all this right now by just heading over to our website r.t. dot com you can take part in our poll right now our live global poll to see how the voting numbers are turning up for this hour this is from our web site r.t. dot com so far the majority gosh sixty five percent leaving number one saying this whole cyber war it's all a p.r. stunt campaign from obama's cyber security policy people coming at a very distant second down to sixteen percent oh it's all about espionage which is

probably quite believable of this day in age of thirteen percent number three it's a glimpse into world war two. and i thought a six percent now it's a warning to china which it probably is perhaps a bit of a i suppose a shot across the bow to let the know let beijing know that washington is watching very closely and will probably retaliate if it hasn't done already we're still taking your pulse on this issue at r.t. dot com do local and let us know what you think though i'll be back in just a minute for now with some more international. technology innovation all the latest developments from around russia we've. covered. 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. i'm tom harpur

welcome to the big picture. is he. this is the syria's government is ready to hold talks with the opposition. factions the country's foreign minister made the announcement while meeting russian

diplomats right here in moscow now attempts to bring peace to syria though have now suffered a new blow after the main rebel group decided to pull out of old international talks complaining about what it sees as a total lack of action against president assad. this visit is taking place at a very uncertain time it's really not clear what's needed to be done in order to get the syrian opposition engage in talks with the government and saddam asked as it does stress that it is really for dialogue a word that the opposition and of the last week there were some positive signals coming from the wells they said that they were willing to hold talks with the government now they refused coming to moscow accusing russia of supporting president assad it was so the number of those who support this realistic approach towards a peaceful resolution is growing those who want to continue fighting to the end realize that so they're trying to suppress positive news from the opposition and

stop any steps towards dialogue which will in the meantime soon after thirty years have put together a government commission headed by the prime minister designed specifically for negotiations with the opposition and they say that they are ready to talk even with oil and rebels because. we are ready for dialogue with everyone including those who are fighting on the ground as we are convinced that reforms should not be made through bloodshed meanwhile it was more or less predictable that the rebels would refuse coming to moscow it came as a total surprise that they rejected coming to washington and to rome to take part in the upcoming meeting of the so-called friends of syria group which was initially designed to support to the syrian opposition and foreign minister lavrov a stress if nothing is done now and no political process starts if the violence continues there then the whole country is on the brink of collapse. online for you

right now at aussie dot com just days after that meteorite explosion in central russia canada is launching a state of the art satellite to track down dangerous asteroids on the web site we call the details of a multimillion investment aimed at saving the planet from potential dangers from space. and web freedom north korea style the country plans to make life easier for tourists giving foreigners full online access. germany has vowed to renew stalled talks on turkey joining the e.u. as chancellor angela merkel is there on an official visit right now and career is increasingly frustrated over a lack of progress in negotiations the prime minister calling the delay forgivable and political analyst emanuel oxon writer says the current economic situation in the e.u. actually leaves many turks determined to stay out rather than sign up we have to see that european union is no democratic pro-choice its political approach

a sort of ideological approach it because when you ask the people in germany if they wanted to head the euro for example fifteen years ago a huge majority of the people who were against getting that europe ask the people if they want to send troops to the turkish syrian border they say no the european union is a construct with out any democratic base it's an ideological based and so maybe hopefully we can hope for for the turkish people that they will have the right to take part in the referendum a vote about a turkish you membership because i can imagine that for the turkish citizen to see how do you repeat how the european union develops now in those days it doesn't seem very attractive to become a member of that club. the blame game is in full swing in washington over a looming budget cuts which could take effect through the end of the week eighty

five billion dollars to be slashed across sectors funded by public money if indeed democrats and republicans fail to reach a compromise on tax increases the latest budget battle and the risky methods used by the u.s. to revive its economy are being put in the spotlight today with cross talk that's coming up well in about ten minutes from now. in the case of the united state you're seeing the private sector seeing a gradual improvement of the economy a much needed but do you opinion situation where you have been head and go ahead we're do you see an improvement in the united states what do you see that and also do you think a monetary policy is going to get you anywhere while you have to balance sheets of every country and the printing of money is destroying it is doing the complete opposite of what you wanted to do the united states economy is definitely on an improving bad. housing sector coming bag.

put the housing sector of. the housing clinch confit consumer confidence is not a measure of economic activity. we see. now a world of daytime here in arts he's starting with the story of at least ten people were injured after a clash between israeli soldiers and palestinian demonstrators it's claimed shots were fired and happened during protests against the death of a palestinian man who died in israeli custody under disputed so. there are allegations that thirty year old that was killed by torture inside the prison was. israel denies all this say more tests and needed to establish the course of. ikea

has halted all of its meat balls sales in a number of countries after inspectors in the czech republic found they contained horse d.n.a. the whole horsemeat scandal first erupted last month in ireland but it's now spread all across europe and millions of products have been taken off the shelves while investigators try to figure out the source of the contamination some even see conspiracy behind the horsemeat mayhem blaming it all on the matter. south korea's newly elected first female president hey has called for the country's northern neighbor to drop its nuclear program and she believes the move would lead to shared development between the states communist north carried out its nuclear test earlier this month in retaliation to western imposed sanctions the daughter of the nation's assassinated founder was sworn in today at a ceremony attended by tens of thousands. and of love for the chemical factory in the southwestern chinese city of injured five but forced twenty thousand others to

evacuate firefighters arrived at the scene bringing the flames under control amid huge plumes of black smoke environmental workers are now checking the air quality in the region. thousands of protesters are marching across the ball garia venting their anger at rising utility costs caused by power monopolies people have been rallying for more than a week nationwide protests have already forced the country's government to resign after fail to bring down the ever rising price of. the afghan president hamid karzai has ordered u.s. special forces to leave the key battleground province of wind back troops there are accused of torture and of the murdering of civilians and just as can bull is preparing to regain control of security politics professor patricia de janeiro believes karzai also needs to regain the support of the people in the water.