the new u.s. defense chief sparks of brow on capitol hill with some republicans wary chuck hagel foreign policies may be too soft for their liking. forcing their eight year old girl to speed at one hundred kilometers an hour on the snowy road a russian couple have caused anger in the online community with the latest viral video showcasing extreme examples of russian driving. and 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. live from moscow you're with archie where it's three pm it's twelve noon in rome but we begin in washington this hour where capitol hill has been shaken by

a major bipartisan clash over the new defense secretary chuck hagel was narrowly approved by the senate after coming under fire from fellow republicans for past criticism of the iraq war and the jewish lobby with some believing he could also be too soft on iraq cam 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 find a ball 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 to oppose seeing 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 warmongering in washington has escalated and we should the point where even the president said there's too much work 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 because chuck hagel confirmation

hearing showed quite to the contrary never too tired for war it seems one more thing it thing 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 con hallinan thinks the republican outcry over hagel nomination had more to do with p.r. than policy. what it showed was that the stranger was willing to stick with hagel on there saying 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 that 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 . driving on russia's roads can be notoriously difficult and at times a treacherous task but imagine if there were children behind the wheel. going to at least one hundred of their mothers filming here. and they can't all drive in

a car my friend nice town would have fainted and she saw that it's no use going to tell your pension at work eight year old driving back car at one hundred kilometers per hour now if the reckless decision to let her do that wasn't enough you can actually hear her father encouraging her to hit the gas and drive as fast as possible outrageous really well her parents posted this video online to show off they say their daughter's driving skills that quickly got tens of thousands of views but also rampant criticism across the web the couple in fact decided after that to take down the video from social networks they deleted their accounts that's after police have launched an investigation into this there are loads of examples of this kind of driving let's take a look at another video this is of a bus driver fed up with rude drivers there are lots of them in russia he refused to give them the right away and what he does as a punishment taking it really into his own hands is kind of rams into them and he has this dashboard camera where you can see these incidents i have to admit i have

thought about doing this just thought about it a couple of times but he actually does that on the bus driver has managed to keep his job just a few like i say of these crazy particularly in russia on the roads we have a lot of them for you on our website at our t.v. dot com also for you on our website today a group known as the syrian electronic army has hacked the twitter feed of france's top news agency and filled it with what they're calling unbiased content you can find out more at r.t. dot com. plus darth vader and a squad of storm troopers attempting to so. i want to ukraine's ministry head to our website for the motives and pictures. to italy now where the country 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 financial measures well billionaire tycoon and former prime minister silvio berlusconi again victory in the senate while the center left leader a parody we saw anyone in most seats in the lower house of parliament with no one earning enough votes to govern the deadlock sparked a drop in the value of the euro and ignited wary on global markets which are losing faith in italy's ability to deal with the financial crisis professor of economics know the veto presides he says if it really is political stalemate that will have a dire consequences for the country's bad economy. italy is in the critical need of a have been reformed to reassure the markets and i don't see it in the program that the center left gave or the agreed address so the problem is that they're addressing parts corruptions and honesty but they're not addressing the economic

issues the way the should be there's going to be clear worry of over default to a partial default and i would have that's why it's something to my scare the markets because italy has two thousand billion euros in there and it's six times bigger than what greece has and the international economy doesn't have the salvage farms to take care of a problem of this magnitude. talks between iran and six of the world's leading powers have brought no solution to the impasse over the state's nuclear program more negotiations are planned for april with tehran calling the current round of talks which concluded earlier on wednesday more realistic still iran's refused to budge on the closure of one of its plants in return for the possible easing of sanctions the west hopes the country will scale back its uranium enrichment to

twenty percent some reports suggest tehran would be open to a many nations like the u.s. are willing to give them a coma see another go israel is running out of patience threatening to use force to stop iran from building a bomb mideast expert alley risk says the main decision makers were even present during these talks. if we look at the behavior if you look at the offers which were made i understand that the lifting of sanctions but rather giving of sanctions i think the pro israeli roy and the israeli club if i could say in general still has a significant amount of control and leverage on the 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 the not on the 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 would be israel dragging america into a confrontation i think the fundamental issue to look out to look at sorry is how bold obama could be in confronting benjamin netanyahu and confronting the pro israeli right in congress. with nuclear talks set to continue its 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 reported i am 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 on able 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 author rightists 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 anticipating that they won't have tylenol

in a short in a very short period of time but 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 have weapons of mass destruction. very very blunt instrument of use against nations sanctions the way that they are being propagated by the usa by europe and indeed to a certain degree you by the un against iran really very hopeful they don't achieve their objectives that penalizing the old you know the person and i think it is

totally unethical and immoral that we have to be very very care full about what happens which is why i think a retooling and readjustment of the sanctions in this medical area is critical within a very short time because as this begins to spiral so too then does the black or. many experts warn that if the u.s. continues leaving a path of sanction destruction against iran this circumstance can manifest into a repeat of iraq in the ninety's arena porton i.r.t. new york still to come this hour here on r t birth control or race control outrage in israel as african women are subjected to a potentially damaging contraceptive injections often without their consent that's coming up.

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play i. get. your authority at live from moscow as the cost of living increases across britain

figures show the country's middle class is shrinking widening the division between rich and poor and with a starting measure set to continue millions of people are having to accept that the life they once enjoyed is now out of reach archies sarah firth has a 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 there 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 to low incomes coupled with high

living costs staking 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 earnings for 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 liz has found out she's having to sell off possessions to pay for centuries like dental treatment. packing up the

required. is quite emotional at times and you have a rush of memory and then you think 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 fast meant a new way through the inching exhibition catalogues that i bought back if 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 can 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 it's always schemes like the one run by this store here in the that's proving 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 further structure where the first person to actually combine the exchange element with the charity element. and introducing the exchange voucher system rather than buying stock in. that's the 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 shade growth britain risks becoming a country of two halves the rich getting richer and the middle classes increasingly losing out. meanwhile there isn't a generation like a facing up to the reality that the britain's middle class is next to is looking pretty for the third. john kerry may have just stepped in as the new u.s.

secretary of state but the diplomats are ready reportedly preparing a massive overhaul of washington's policy on syria according to some u.s. officials america is now considering providing the rebels with body armor military vehicles and possibly even training carry is said to be finalizing preparations for the move this week during talks with european leaders britain and france are key backers and have been calling for the international arms embargo on syria to be lifted u.s. had previously shied away from arming the rebels drawing criticism from the anti also at camp this comes as russia continues to call for a peaceful solution that would involve talks between the warring sides. or a look now at some other stories from around the world a fire at an illegal six story market in the indian city of calcutta has killed one thousand people at least eleven more being hospitalized it's thought the blaze was caused by a short circuit toxic gases were released hampering rescue efforts

a police investigation is underway. tens of thousands of worshippers have gathered in st peter's square in vatican to witness proto benedict the sixteenth final general audience on thursday his resignation will take formal the fact the pope shocked the international community with the announcement of his abdication on february eleventh becoming the first pope to voluntarily leave his post in six centuries the cardinals will elect his successor next month. a car bomb has killed seven people in northern mali the attack in kill doll was carried out by islamist militants the target is believed to have been a military checkpoint manned by a tory group the group was originally allied with the islamist when they seize control of northern mali last year but later fell out with before backing the french led offensive to drive them out. and egypt has suspended all hot air balloon flights in the area near luxor where nineteen people died in

a crash on tuesday tourists from britain france japan hungry and hong kong were among those killed in the hot air balloon exploded in mid-air before falling three hundred meters the pilot survived but is said to be in critical condition. a recent health scandal in israel is causing outrage among human rights groups it was revealed last month that authorities gave female ethiopian migrants birth control interactions often without their knowledge or consent now there are warnings of a serious legal backlash as artie's polis leader found out. when i first arrived at the grand transit camp i got pregnant and i gave birth if you told me if you don't take the shots we won't give you a ticket so i took the 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.

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 counted by the number of children and women figures show that the birth rate among ethiopian women in israel has dropped by fifty percent and the mothers of the chemical family 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 began in f.l. beer. and a 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 won't 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 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 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 it he's 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 in new any deeper 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 and think.

that they don't want poor children you can see a lot of from the west flooding organization both going to kill all in other company logo and without any given that. very have been. 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 they difference 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. coming out of america's massive defense budget where the country's security threats could be coming from next crosstalk is coming up after

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