voting for the violence pakistanis are choosing a new parliament and what has already been called the bloodiest election campaign in the country's history. the same a different tactics president bush and british prime minister cameron discuss the er approaches to peace in syria as they pave the way for an international conference on the conflict. u.s. military forces and europe are put on alert after some western diplomats are pulled out of libya over the latest surge of post revolution on the rest of. an astronaut to the international space station get ready for a space walk to fix a leak which nasa claims is serious but poses no danger to the crew.

to be on the russian capital you're watching r t with me maureen and josh welcome to the program. how the people of pakistan are voting at a crucial turning point in the country's young democracy but there's already been bloodshed continuing the wave of unprecedented violence during the election campaign was a confidence has a story. by alliance has been reported in several cities across pakistan and karachi in the country's south at least three bomb blasts went off we're hearing conflicting reports about from the authorities about the death toll but sources say that at least eleven people have been killed and at least thirty people injured those figures are likely to change throughout the day now in the city of peshawar near the tribal areas to bomb blast we're hearing went off injuring dozens killing at least five people according to sources on the ground fifteen people meanwhile were injured in a blast that took place outside of

a police station in the city of marjah dawn and in the troubles in the troubled balochistan province to bomb blast targeting the a and p. office injured five people and more than one hundred thirty people have been killed in the run up to the vote making this the bloodiest election in pakistan's history and the threat is so serious in fact that cell phones are not allowed inside the polling booths and those who refuse to give up their phones will not be allowed to vote now this election will mark the country's first successful transition from one civilian government to another more than eighty six million people are eligible to cast their ballots for candidates in both the national and the provincial assembly is the big question of course is who is going to win the caucus on people's party is campaigning for a second term but the outgoing government has been blamed for insecurity corruption as well as a broken economy and many of the voters here say that they want a change in the government the main opposition comes from the party of former prime minister no was sharif who looks set to win the most seats this could mean a return to power after fourteen years after he was ousted in

a military coup now he is pushing for a free market reforms as well as i can all my growth as one way to taco marcus on numerous political problems he has also said the pockets one should reconsider its support for the american war on terror and has suggested negotiations with the taliban hot on his heels is a moron con he is the former cricket star who has challenged the dominance of the country's two main political parties making the outcome of this election very do. michael to tell iran khan does have immense support among young voters and is calling for an end to corruption and to drone strikes not to mention an end to the reliance on western aid and now this election comes at a time of widespread despair here in pakistan the country is suffering from weak i've been on the growth rampant electricity and gas shortages and a deadly taliban insurgency and there's also the possibility that none of the major candidates here will get a clear lead which could mean a fragmented government and two weeks of haggling in order to form

a coalition government. reporting from islamabad well i'll respond to lucy confidence tweeting updates from pakistan during its historic election and she describes have to scenes of people lining up to cast their votes despite taliban threats and bombings across the country. now putting in iran's two u.s. drone strikes was a major slogan on pakistan's election campaign trail the strikes were recently declared illegal by pakistan's high court anti-war activist so eugene for a year believes the frustration with america's drone policy is reaching a tipping point i think it's a message that certainly will be considered across the atlantic it's a sign of the growing opposition inside of pakistan and to a lesser degree in yemen and in fact even inside of the united states against the u.s. drone policy and certainly to have such a high court say the u.s. drone strikes should end immediately just continues to fuel to the fire that is raging around the world about this secretive illegal and criminal campaign being

waged by the united states government now obviously they have no intention of stopping their drone campaign but certainly i think this has to be. an item of interest for them. well we want to know your verdict on the outcome of pakistan's historic first democratic transition and more than half say at this point out of ballots won't change a thing at is just a spectacle for the benefit of the west well just over twenty two percent twenty percent i should say as you see here on the charts believe the election will trigger a muslim rage across the country slightly fewer than that are convinced the poll will provide the basis for functional democracy and the remainder say it will only bring more dysfunction in the government will do let us know what you think on the issue by logging on to our website r.t. dot com.

today. these are the images the world is seeing from the streets of canada. showing operation to rule the day. now in afghanistan the nato pullout of twenty fourteen won't be the end of the story for america's military presence phyllis bennis was a middle east and you want to shoot activist believes that keeping a foothold in a volatile state is crucial for washington we know that the agreement signed between the u.s. and afghanistan allows for some number of u.s. troops to remain after the end of two thousand and fourteen the numbers have varied there's been estimates of as low as eight thousand and as many as twenty two thousand that the obama administration would like to keep in afghanistan after the read the withdrawal of so-called combat troops this has everything to do with the

neighborhood where afghanistan is located afghanistan doesn't have on its own but it has a large territory in the midst of a very crucial neighborhood in terms of oil and in terms of the expansion of power the u.s. wanted for example to keep permanent bases in iraq that it could use as a base from which it could attack iran the iraqis said no the afghans will be asked the same thing will they allow those bases even if it's only nine of them to be used potentially to attack other countries in the neighborhood that's one of the things the u.s. is very eager for on a permanent basis it's not so much about the immediacy of the taliban everyone knows that the presence of u.s. troops in afghanistan is making it much more difficult not easier for there to be serious peace negotiations between the various factions in afghanistan whether it be the taliban whether it be the afghan government whether it be a host of other factions that are all competing for power. now russia and the u.k. have agreed to a new limit of cooperation between their security services after

a seven year low but the main focus of talks between president putin and prime minister david cameron in the russian resort of sochi was the escalating crisis in syria while the two leaders stress they still differ on how to bring about peace they did cement agreement on common goals both moscow and london one the bloodshed to and and a unified syrian people to choose their new government while being free from violent extremism an international conference in syria is expected later this month but there was no mention during the meeting of britain's strong support for the rebels or its intention to star directly arming them but little rider john white says the west is desperate to push its own interests in the conflict zone. no seen the city national army enjoying some significant success in the last few weeks. and thinking back. years of the country and i think this is deduced

a panic actually in washington london which is frankly the company's been smoking to fly. into the conflict is not who we the it were hoping to destroy the assad regime and we need to weakening the axis of existence in the time comprising city has blow up and iran and selling not working and not only because politically of russia's political opposition to western military intervention but let's be clear the west is already intervening militarily if you shoot through the gulf states said he quit talking to jordan funneling weapons funneling money to the rebels but even so the city national army is managing to maintain control of a significant part of the country on monday to enjoy some success he's on the ground there is no doubt that despite the propaganda counting the ways that against this out he still enjoys significant support with and so there itself and that is key. well the u.s.

has put its military forces in europe on alert over escalating tensions in libya washington and the u.k. have already pulled some of their diplomatic staff from the country fearing an outbreak of violence the latest wave of unrest was sparked by a new law barring gadhafi era officials from taking office armed militia fighters have laid siege to ministry buildings and the capitol demanding the resignation of the country's prime minister splinter groups in parliament have been calling for the premier's dismissal international relations professor mark almond says the western powers who held oust gadhafi are responsible for the prolonged turmoil. we're seeing is deep divisions among the libyan revolutionaries who britain or the nato partners who supported there's a power struggle over who should control the libyan state to control libya's oil and gas if colonel gadhafi had suppressed still positions him when it was opened in the streets of last two thousand people would regard or perhaps as many as thirty

thousand have died since and the country is in a state to disorder uncertainty new life for most europeans is worse than it was on the commodore her of course kind of the where she was supposed by the western countries to be the second paragraph she anything must be russia we were told well i've heard say we see that it's not necessarily so clear after all they had bombing libya which occurred a situation where groups came to power and so they have a local organization and there are of course. groups who may have been welcomed right obama's but quite serious and he wants to muslim fundamentalist groups who have been sending parts also to syria so they don't necessarily continued presence of western embassies the british french or the americans as being wholly something about seeing in a number of tubes they would see maybe a. well after telling countries to keep coming back germany is finding that struggling europeans are now knocking at its door. the main forms which you have

to bring to. the state of germany you have to make children. as very poor and soon there is no warm welcome from that you use richest state for the increasing numbers of economic migrants who are accused of abusing germany's welfare system plus. you think that people i don't have a horse to go to going to see my son sprayed him. you don't want to get close to this machine as it sprays nauseating what wastes water on palestinian villagers to say it's collective punishment can stand by israel foreign debt just. well. it's technology innovations all the developments

around russia we've got this huge you're covered. 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 realized everything you thought you knew. i'm target market is a big. download the official application to you so choose your language stream quality and enjoy your favorite. if you're away from your television well it just doesn't matter now with your mobile device you can watch r.t. anytime anywhere.

welcome back you're watching r.t. coming to you live from moscow now in a couple of hours two nasa astronauts will conduct an urgent spacewalk to fix the omonia leak on the international space station the situation is being described by the american agency as serious but not critical my colleague to balance a spoke to our guest on barton he says such emergencies at the isis are quite common this spacewalk is going to take place the leak going back till thursday that's when it was first noticed his command chris hadfield talking with the ground stablish what exactly was going on as i think we can hear now a very steady stream of. got out of the common carrier and i wrote it in towards the florida. trust rotating service later i think there are we getting it out of the jam so to crew members going out outside the

international space station to try and identify first of all exactly where this ammonia leak. from the cooling system is coming from and perhaps if they can to try and fix it even if they really they have to shut off one of the power sections the power channels that come from those solar panels there's eight of them they can still operate on seven without many problems is that what spokesman say at the moment it is as they characterize it a serious problem but more of an annoyance rather than anything particularly dangerous they also say that three crew due to come back to earth monday at the moment that seems to be going ahead of schedule of you know it all watching from home we always think being at the eye and says is so exciting it's been the ice has been orbiting for the last twelve years or on earth it's been quite a lot of cosmic work hard there isn't it that really has that's that's a good way of putting it i mean obviously some people would say it's getting on a bit this station but it's sort of to miss the point

a bit of how the whole works in two thousand and seven there was another leak just like this one in roughly the same place in two thousand and ten one of the cooling systems really had quite apparent problem they had to sort out and in two thousand and twelve more works were done on this very cooling system again so the think the whole point of this is that there is a constantly evolving space station there's bits being taken away new bits being brought up it's very likely say nasa spokesman that that spirit of space junk it might be in very small hit this particular point of the space station and what have been slowly looking for a long time and that they could let it go became a bigger leak but at the moment it's sort of things are going on their life is going on there and it seems that the mission and the space station at the moment are ok. well there is a race on to be a red planet pioneer over seventy eight thousand people have applied for a one way ticket to be among the first humans to settle on mars with plans to start

colonization by twenty twenty three more and that online plus. could this be the the u.s. allows the use of pesticides lengths to wiping out hives chemicals recently banned in europe for their possible catastrophic ramifications r.t. dot com reports on the state of this tale. israel is planning to build nearly three hundred housing units in territories which the palestinians insist belong to them that's despite the fact that washington's already war in the country the moves are counterproductive this could also hamper the efforts of u.s. secretary of state john kerry to restart negotiations between the bitter rivals israeli settlements are considered illegal under international law with the palestinians insisting building must be frozen before any talks recommends meanwhile gangs of palestinian youths continue to protest the decades long

occupation but israel's dishing the dirt in a whole new way against even peaceful demonstrators spotlessly are now explains. it was the bullets then the tickets and. it's probably the worst smelling substance you will ever smell in your entire life but. you stink you bad people i don't have a home it stinks you made it smell i have nowhere to go i can even see my son you sprayed him. developed by israeli security forces this foul smelling liquid is used to disperse palestinian demonstrations and it's proving to be pretty effective if it hits you in the eyes it could be painful and it could cause redness and if swallowed it can cause stomach problems it's important to. state that this material has never been used against israeli jews in only jewish demonstrations it's the on

thirty years old search by the israeli military for an alternative to tear gas to control crowds the skunk is an anti-riot means that we employ in order to live up to our philosophy of containing rights at a safe distance while also ensuring the safety of everyone involved but those on the receiving end claim it's been used as collective punishment it's sprayed not at stone throwers but generally simply people participating in nonviolent marches and very often is that the skunk a spray that holmes gardens at people who are not participating at all in any going inspiration take a tele to me for example he shows me the damage to his house from the so-called skunk his wife was forced to throw the two old daughter from an absolute safety below after the windows of her bedroom shattered if the israeli forces come from this side and the sewage car stops it starts crying while at the same time the soldiers throw the tear gas on their houses. if we friday it's usual to see clashes

here in the west bank village of now be said between israeli soldiers and palestinian demonstrators villages came a nearby israeli settlement is being built on their land as you enter not be silent this is the sign that welcomes you dozens of tear gas canisters that have been collected just over the past few months a stark reminder of the excessive force the israeli army uses against the small village but it remains unclear what's actually inside the liquid i. mean this water is very dirty and has a very bad smell once we left the house for three weeks because of it it's water based and has various ingredients that create a very pungent smell but it is household ingredients as well whatever it is one thing both sides agree on you would not want to be sprayed with there's. not be sunday in the west bank. now take a look at some other stories from around the world on the retrial of egypt's

deposed president hosni mubarak is underway in cairo these are the latest pictures from the courtroom in which the ailing former president was brought in on a stretcher a barque along with his interior minister and six security chiefs are facing court for their part in the deaths of anti-government protesters in two thousand and eleven egyptian former amir received a life sentence last june but was granted a wee trial in january because of a number of trial irregularities barred was ousted as president in february two thousand and eleven following an uprising that left hundreds of activists killed. d.n.a. tests have confirmed that the man accused of kidnapping and holding three women hostage for a decade in ohio is the father of the six year old girl also discovered at his house ariel castro who is fifty two is charged with rape and kidnapping he would also face execution if he's also charged with aggravated murder after one of the victims claims she was systematically guten to induce miscarriages the women who

were rescued from his house on monday after one victim managed to escape. well one of the e.u.'s most recent member slovenia was once the rising star of the blocks economic success but its years in the euro have seen its slump into recession unemployment double seen since twenty years since two thousand and eight and its banks are on the verge of going under trying to sort itself out without brussels help but that's proving to be tough the editor in chief of the financial magazine trance told us that all the indebted countries went through the same stage everybody who has been in trouble in the eurozone in the last years as in the first phase of the crisis always refused to admit that they are really in trouble and that of course is first of all some kind of psychological game they're trying to play with the markets and with the public at large. but that. being said.

it's also been quite clear that all the countries that came into the danger zone eventually had to ask for help which is something national governments don't like because then obviously to at least a certain degree there have to hansard two and two or day two foreign powers be the european central bank do you appreciate you being commission the i.m.f. or the tree together in the famous troika now the other end of the years well scale germany has got problems of its own immigration is at a twenty year high as a financial class mire of manny e.u. states feels a flow of people escaping problems at home our correspondent in berlin peter oliver asked some germans what they think of the newcomers. those coming to germany in

search of a new life might find one of their biggest challenges in the shape of the german people a bertelsmann foundation poll shows two thirds of people hear a few new comers as a burden on society one of those is karl schmidt he says he knows families who come from outside of the e.u. as many as five children who live off the state presently. the main performance which you have to bring to stay in germany you have to make children if you have no drop in germany and normal social threat of hundred square meters in five children you get another three thousand euros that month social eight call runs a motor scooter hire company in berlin and claims to represent many upset at what they see as a free ride given to migrants. if i would live in africa and i hear that when i see that my friend of mine of

a relative of mine is already in bali and shows me via facebook how he's living then i would say oh well i go to bernie and as soon as possible immigration here is a twenty year high with a further two million expected to arrive within the next three years along with traditional settlers from turkey the bulk of that number will come from within in you as the jobless countries like spain and greece look for better opportunities in the much wealthy in north as the mediterranean situation worsens wealthier countries like germany are a magnet to provide work for their fellow e.u. citizens but even those who weren't even born in germany worry about the influx. i came here in one thousand nine hundred four and now there are so many immigrants in germany who are not working not doing anything this leads to problems they live better than those who work. but those in the turkish community insist it's not easy

. sometimes having immigrant status is not stickle to get a good job which leads to a lack of prospects and in some cases people turn to crime but this is not the majority how to handle surging immigration numbers or even the perception that they're draining society is going to prove harder for leaders to avoid there's a general election here just five months peter all of her r.t. . well when we come back a look at what lies behind the best intentions in charity diplomacy and business on r t.

more news today violence is once again flared up. these are the images quote world has been seeing from the streets of canada. giant corporations are only day.

according to the law usaid is allowed to procure up to seventy five percent american products and transport them only on american ships. and that means that the shippers have a lot of interest in food aid policy and have been an incredibly effective lobby to fight for the status quo of sourcing in and shipping from the united states the u.s. government is the only government in the world that hasn't made substantial movements in the direction of enabling local procurement of food aid in developing countries in order to respond faster and more cheaply to food emergencies as they arise. so even today the food must first be balt then loaded on a ship in american harbor and then travel for several months in order to reach

africa. that would be approximately four to six months from when it has been termed that we want to participate in in a particular appeal and so when the food arrives. the g.a.o. where mr alito works issued a report which presented the problem to congress president bush tried to change the system so that a portion of the food would be procured from local markets and arrive. and cost less. they failed and they failed because of the lobbying efforts the highly successful and very sophisticated lobbying efforts of those who benefit from the status quo and u.s. food aid programs from the american taxpayers' money only forty percent goes for the purchase of food aid for the starving people in africa there are maining sixty percent goes to the shipping come.