the new u.s. defense chief sponsor on capitol hill with some republicans worry chuck hagel foreign policies may be too soft for their liking. major world powers a way to rein in response softer and also to ease sanctions in return for tehran halting part of its atomic work as the second day of top level nuclear talks begin in kazakhstan. and italy reaches an economic and political dead end as the country's crucial general election delivers no clear winner with the population massively rejecting austerity policies. you're watching on t.v. live from the heart of the russian capital it's eleven am in moscow. the pentagon

is bracing for change chuck hagel will be sworn in as the new u.s. defense secretary later on wednesday he's come under fire from fellow republicans for past criticism of the iraq war the jewish lobby with some believing he could also be too soft on iran but president obama firmly believes he's the right man for the job has gone she can reports chuck hagel was confirmed by the senate fifty eight votes for forty one vote against a narrow vote as you can see but he can finally leave all that apologizing and repenting behind and he had to do a lot of that to get the job sharp angle has been working very hard to tailor his views so as to please congress as a senator chuck hagel allowed himself to oppose the surge in iraq to criticize israel's policies two opposing war when they want as an option but as the president's nominee for the defense secretary position he backtracked on much of what he had said before and did it. as as even his supporters noted in a rather clumsy way but in a way that showed how much he wanted the job and the whole confirmation process

including the attack campaign against him including the filibuster ten days ago showed how intolerant the u.s. congress is of alternative thought on foreign policy ten days ago the senators knew quite well that chuck hagel would eventually be confirmed but they chose to block the vote as many say just to make a point president obama certainly knew that chuck hagel confirmation process would not go as smoothly as say john kerry's but he nominated him anyway it looks like president obama too wanted to make a point this is his last term he doesn't have to think about getting reelected and it is a good time for him to make a point by the end of his first term the degree of war mongering in washington has escalated and we should the point where even the president said there's too much war talking going on now mandating chuck hagel could be goes way over bringing it down a notch the president is also quite aware of the general war fatigue in the country but the u.s. congress doesn't seem to have that same war fatigue as chuck hagel confirmation

hearing showed quite to the contrary never too tired for war it seems one more thing it's saying important to point out here chuck hagel as defense secretary not be in a position to generate policy is there to fulfill the president's policies probably his main job will be managing the budget the biggest military budget in the world and figuring out where to make cuts but most of the questions senators asked during his confirmation hearing were about policies which is really not going to be in his field of work anyway. well foreign policy expert on how to manage things the republican outcry over hazel's nomination of mall today with p.r. than policy what it showed was that the on the street is willing to stick with a girl on this same if you can judge someone by who's enemies are then i think this was a step back from the sort of confrontational policies that the u.s. has followed over the past ten twelve years the republicans are trying to do two

things one is they were destroying as many roadblocks as they could against obama and it's quite clear the republican party has made a decision they're going to basically put their bodies on the railroad tracks and and jam up the works as much as possible this was an opportunity to do that but i think also it was a way to try to intimidate both. and the administration around the question of iran and around the question of israel so you know it was it was more public theater but a lot of politics the united states is public theater so i think that was the goal iran is mulling over proposals made by six of the world's leading powers with regards to its controversial nuclear program and the second day of high level talks in kazakhstan to run will respond to an alpha of an easing of sanctions in return for the closure of one of its plants however few believe the country will ditch its research activities that it says are entirely peaceful the west also wants iran to

stop enriching uranium to twenty percent in exchange for the resumption of gold trade on some international banking while many nations including the u.s. are willing to give diplomacy another go israel is running out of patience saying it will use force against iran to stop it from building a bomb however middle east expert advice says the main decision maker is once even present during the talks. if we look at the behavior if you look at the offers which were made i understand not the lifting of sanctions but revving of sanctions i think that the pro israeli roy and the israeli club if i could say in general still has a significant amount of control and leverage on u.s. policy towards iran and on the p five plus one talks and if this trend continues i don't think we could expect much because iran has made it clear that it will not bow down to talks or to pressures with a gun pointed at its head well i cannot rule out the possibility that they not on

your whole government might actually go ahead with a unilateral strike although although that is extremely risky on all levels including how the american public might react to the scenario of israel dragging america into a confrontation i think the fundamental issue to look at the look at sorry is how bold obama could be in confronting benjamin had not on yahoo and confronting the pro israeli right in congress and as nucular talks continue it's ordinary iranians who are bearing the brunt of western imposed sanctions lack of proper medicine and food shortages are affecting thousands of people on a daily basis artie's marina portnoy reports. in an effort to stop tehran's nuclear program western countries have used an arsenal of crippling economic sanctions over the years in the interim america and its allies may have started a widespread medical crisis for the iranian people hundreds of thousands of iranians with serious illnesses such as cancer diabetes and all three of us can't

reportedly receive lifesaving medicines because of international sanctions due to banking restrictions imposed by u.s. and european governments companies and hospitals in iran say they are unable to purchase pharmaceuticals from abroad now according to reports an estimated twenty three thousand iranians with hiv or aids have had their life saving medication restricted and medicine shortages for splits since specific blood disorders have allegedly resulted in many deaths already i spoke with an iranian american who recently visited iran bringing his grandmother meds for her diabetes and all through this alex shams told me that the stock of pain relievers he packed was for a hospital the people who are the most vulnerable the people with the most special kind of cancer or illnesses they're the ones who right now are feeling the pinch the hospital that i brought medicine back there was

a cancer hospital and they're right now it's a beating that they won't have tylenol in a short in a very short period of time that they're asking people to hoard tylenol and bring it back. unfortunately that's how they're doing with tylenol i can't even begin to imagine what how their stockpiles of cancer medicine are looking right now the latest round of u.s. and european sanctions have caused iran's currency to plummet and oil revenue to slash which in turn has pushed up inflation critics say western countries have unleashed catastrophic economic warfare against ordinary iranian citizens so far producing all harm and no good they had weapons of mass destruction. now very very blunt instrument of fuse against nations sanctions the way that they are being propagated by the usa by europe and indeed to a certain degree by the un against iran are really very harmful they don't achieve

their or their objectives that penalizing the old you know the person and i think it is totally unethical and immoral that we have to be. tense which is why i think a retooling and readjustment of the sanctions in this medical area is is critical within a very short time because as this begins to spiral so too then does the black or the cheering many experts warn that if the u.s. continues leaving a path of sanction destruction against iran the circumstance can manifest into a repeat of iraq in the ninety's marina port ny r.t. new york. now it's really finds itself in a stalemate after an inconclusive general election left the country with no clear political leadership voters overwhelmingly rejected austerity policies with more than fifty percent of the electorate voting for parties opposed to austerity measures now let's take a look at some of the exact figures starting with the lower house of parliament you

can see them there the majority of seats won by the center left democratic party led by pierre luigi bersani he's closely followed by the billionaire tycoon and the former prime minister of course over by the skirling his political career is experiencing a revival despite ongoing sex scandals another unexpected development was the massive success of the anti establishment five star movement you can see there by comedian there pay grillo the party managed to gain over twenty five percent of the votes but right to the bottom the biggest loser of the day turned out to be the current prime minister mario monti and his civic choice party you can see them there they gained only about ten percent a clear snub of his or stereotyped policy it's now let's take a look at the senate where the leaders there are reversed with the risk only managing to snatch three seats more than bazzani however the majority in both houses of parliament is needed to govern which leaves italy in a political deadlock because the euro to drop rattled the global markets raising

fears that the stalemate will only worsen the already dire economic situation professor of economics load of each other he says that none of the parties have a solution to the crisis. italy is in the critical need of having that reform that reassures the markets and i don't see it in the program that the center left gave or that degree law addressed so the problem is that they're addressing some parts corruptions and honesty but they're not addressing the konami key issues the way they should be there's going to be clear worry all over default to a partial default and i would have that's why it's something that might scare the markets we could pose italy has two thousand billion euros in debt and it's a six times bigger than what greece has and they're the international economy doesn't have the you know being the salvage founds to which would take care of the

problem of these magnets. coming up for you later this hour at danger on russia's roads and a year old girl was put behind the wheel by her parents speeding on the highway at over one hundred kilometers an hour. plus controlled race control we report on the outrage in israel off the african women were subjected to potentially damaging contraceptive injections often without their consent.

welcome back to continuing the news. as the cost of living increases across britain figures show the country's middle class

a shrinking widening the division between the rich and the poor with austerity measures set to continue millions of people having to accept that the life they once enjoyed is now out of reach for the story. for a large part of her life liz hoggard has been tapping away at building a life for herself as a freelance journalist she's been part of britain's middle class clearing credit cards pay their mortgages on time and they thrived during. but then came the bust and with the decline of opportunities that were for so long a middle class perk i didn't get a contract we knew because budgets were being cut and so all those little things you have in place you always live slightly on credit you know you go into interest in anticipation get paid quite soon that got much tougher low incomes coupled with high living costs stoking fears of a shrinking middle in britain is backed up in a report by the resolution foundation think tank it looked into what the future

holds the ten million adults in the low to middle income households forecast another decade of hardship well unfortunately it's a bit of a grim prospect prices have risen faster than earning to quite some time now and what that means is that people. simmer about perhaps a little more but they can't buy as much with it a stark example of this is housing a couple of decades ago you've had to save for a couple of years maybe three or four years to get a deposit on a house if you're a low to middle income first time buyer at the moment you're looking at about twenty two years so middle class trimmings like foreign holidays meals out and home improvements are on hold for the time being as lives has found out she's having to sell off possessions to pay for centuries like dental treatment. packing up these quotes. so it's quite emotional at times and you have

a rush of memory and then you think of them for ten years and probably if there's something really important i can find online that has revolutionized it but i also think. these books are. my freshman to new ways really inching expiration catalogs that i bought back in for not very much money just just a normal price and then of course they become rare as the years go by so in some ways my stocks and shares been sitting on my shelves which i hadn't known about when you look online and i was something that was confronted so there is a sense of well at least i can pay for my newspaper also treating that. you know you have to not be a snob in something you cannot make times it can be hard to keep up appearances so i seems like the one run by the store here in is that approving so popular you bring along a designer clothes need to fix things at the credit which could be in the store.

but it was a bit of a first actually i think we're the first person to actually combine the dress exchange element with the charity. and introducing the exchange voucher system rather than buying stock in. that kind of give and take on them as more and more families look for ways to make their money go further the government's being warned that without shared growth britain risks becoming a country of two halves the rich getting richer and the middle classes increasingly losing out meanwhile lives in a generation like a facing up to the reality that the britain's middle class is the next chapter is looking pretty bleak. arcee london. now russia and the u.s. will work together to the warring sides in the syrian conflict towards dialogue that's according to foreign minister lavrov a newly appointed secretary of state john kerry they top diplomats met for the

first time in a lab rove and kerry also discussed bilateral relations going to king trying to resolve differences over child adoption on the u.s. missile defense shield in europe while america remains reluctant to openly on the syrian rebels washington has been providing the opposition with can tell it's a koan on lethal support or for i'm historian general horn believes the rebels will not send to talks with damascus as long as they enjoy such foreign backing. in the united states the washington administration believes that mr all assad is one is way out it reminds me of the last stages of the conflict in libya in two thousand and eleven when the opposition refused to negotiate with mr gadhafi because they thought he was on his way out as washington and the saudis see it they'll be able to remove mr all assad from power forcibly everyone knows that the locomotive behind the opposition is al nusra front which in gauges and terrorist tactics and

has no need or no desire for elections since they plan to shoot their way into power obviously washington is rather complacent about the participation in the syrian conflict al bruce refract so-called al-qaeda in iraq and their terrorist means including car bombings that killed women children and senior citizens just a few days ago just as they are very complacent about the rise of so-called islamic fundamentalism in north africa as a result of the overthrow of mr gadhafi they either unwittingly or wittingly or pushing those forces into power in damascus. now to other news from around the world a car bomb has killed seven people in northern mali the attack in condell was carried out by islamist militants the target is believed to have been a military checkpoint manned by a cheater group the group was originally allied with the is an arrest when they

seized control of northern mali last year but later fell out with them before backing the french led offensive to drive them out of egypt has ended all hot air balloon flights in the area near luxor where nineteen people died in a crash on tuesday tourists from britain france japan and greece and china are among those killed in a hot air balloon exploded in mid-air before falling three hundred meters the pilot survived but he said to be in a critical condition. now recent health scandal in israel is causing outrage among human rights groups it was revealed last month that authorities gave female ethiopian migrants a birth control injections often without their knowledge or consent and now there are warnings of a serious legal backlash as artie's paula slayer found out. when i first arrived at the grand transit camp i got pregnant and i gave birth he told me if you don't take the shot we won't give you a ticket so i do exist shot but i didn't know that it would prevent pregnancies i

didn't know. but more and more israeli women were becoming suspicious like one who runs a youth center in an ethiopian neighborhood in four years only one child was born here and the alarming statistic in a community where family wealth is countered by the number of children and where national figures show that the birth rate among ethiopian women in israel has dropped by fifty percent and the moment also the commonwealth ember of all i believe a few of the organizations who were responsible for bringing in the open immigrants to israel decided to administer a contraceptive to them we don't know who gave the instruction but we do know from what we were told that this treatment again and i failed them and it continued in israel where every three months immigrant ethiopian woman received a shot of the controversial depôt provera contraceptive drug but now that we said we wouldn't take the shot they said then you can see me great you all get

assistance or medical care and if so we wouldn't be able to leave so we were scared we'll know how things worked in a different country although legal the american food and drug administration has warned that the side effects of this drug could be irreversible but you must understand this was not normal contraception we're talking about contraception that has significant medical and mental effects irregular cycles vaginal bleeding osteoporosis alongside mental side effects like depression mood swings wage and more and so this is contraception which is not recommended for most women and in fact most women in israel do not use it but two thirds of ethiopian women have been taking it without being informed that they don't have to and now for the first time an israeli official has admitted or for a teeth have been administering a to them in january this year the director general of the health ministry ordered all gynecologists working for or with the health maintenance organizations not to a new any depôt prevail or prescriptions for women originating from ethiopia or for

any other woman for whom there is. concern that they do not fully understand the implications of the treatment critics say it stinks of racism i think. it's true that there are don't want poor children you can see a lot of from the west through an organisation both going to kill all in other countries local and without any given that their property there are very happy. very proud of that but the legal backlash is beginning and while nervous about coming forward human rights groups are encouraging ethiopian women to sue for damages so far no one's taken responsibility organizations involved in the immigration of ethiopians to israel are all blaming each other their defense is that they offered several different types of contraceptives to ethiopian women and that all of them participated voluntarily in family planning policy r.t.

tel aviv. now driving on russia's roads can be notoriously difficult and at times a treacherous task but imagine if there were children behind the wheel. go to at least one hundred your mother is filming here. and a two year old drive in a car my friend last year would have fainted if she saw this. posted on social networks. now you did not mishear that it's an eight year old girl driving out one hundred kilometers per hour if the reckless decision to let her do that was enough in the order you can hear the father you heard it there encouraging her to hit the gas pedal to go faster her parents said they posted the video online to show off their daughter's driving skills but their actions were condemned by out raged web users. meanwhile fed up with rude drivers who refused to give him the right of way a bus driver called alexei has developed a very uncompromising response if any car gets in his way he immediately punish the

offender by running them from behind as you can see. couple of the incidences that brutal justice from his dashboard camera caught and you can see the incidents despite having already racked up more than one hundred traffic accidents the man has amazingly. his job these are just a couple of the strange stories from russia's roads the more bizarre incident to visit. also on our web site a group known as the syrian electronic army has hearts the twitter feed of france's top news agency and filled it with what they're calling on the wires to content find out more online. plus darth vader and a squad of storm troopers attempt an assault on the one of ukraine's ministry website for the motives and some rather good pictures. now the secrets behind the life and death of shaikh of our own have always stirred up curiosity worldwide and later today r.t. will give you a unique chance to hear from the commandante his daughter is

a taste of what's coming up. first of all you should know my mother she comes from a rural area and village folk in cuba like anywhere else or summers are very sensitive about her man experiences they are very tight lipped about these things and she was brought up in that culture she's always been like that that said she was overwhelmingly in love with him it was an incredibly beautiful love story and it's one of the things that make me feel so special because i'm the daughter of a great man now i feel special because i'm the daughter of a man and a woman who we are dearly in love with each other and i'm the product of their life that's what makes me so. that's later on our table coming up and speaking of elam or here to debate in cross talk.

you know how sometimes you see a story and it seems so you think you understand it and then you glimpse something else and you hear or see some other part of it and realized everything you thought you knew you don't know i'm tom harpur welcome to the big picture. to news sigrid lumber a tour to mccurry was able to build a.