the top story a massive kills at least fifteen people including children outside a hospital in the libyan city of benghazi. police in the u.s. are hunting for a group of gunman who went on a shooting rampage during a mother's day parade in new orleans injuring nineteen people. support for the opposition leaders of britain and the u.s. present their vision for the country's civil. activists. we hear from a rights campaigner. being deployed in the country on top stories

this hour. international news. in. a car bomb has exploded in libya's second largest city benghazi the blast went off in a crowded area outside a hospital. has more on this. as many as seventeen people have been killed and dozens wounded including children there are of course fears of the death toll will further rise what we do understand is that the car bomb exploded in that call pocket of the main emergency out jalil hospital in the eastern libyan city of the ghazi according to the libyan deputy interior minister

totally destroyed a restaurant and seriously damaged nearby buildings now doctors inside that hospital say that it is there was only one body that arrived in texas and that makes it almost impossible to immediately establish than establish the number of people who have been killed i witness or say that people were hysterical beggars running about people were literally kicking body parts up off the streets now people are angry and there's a lot of calls within the social media for libyans to take to the streets and express their anger and march and demonstrate but they're almost just as many calls for libyans to stay at home because the situation outside is not safe at all what libyans are also tweeting is that while we have seen a string of attacks on local police stations over the past few days in benghazi this is something completely different to attacking embalming a crowded hospital which is of course a public place now the security situation in libya has remained precarious ever since the former libyan leader moammar gadhafi was overthrown on sunday they were

two bombs targeting bengazi police stations there have also been a five attacks in total over the last month on benghazi police stations this comes amid an increase in foreign stocks withdrawals on sunday the b.p. oil giant announced that it was pulling all non essential stuff from its libyan operations and this was based on the advice of the u.k. foreign office on friday evening washington announce that it was pulling some of its nonessential indices staff out of the country and it was also pushing e.u. based rapid intervention troops who are currently based in germany on high alert the u.k. foreign office is also announced that its removal. some nonessential diplomatic staff because of security concerns and political uncertainty over the last few weeks what we have seen is that in the cities both incredibly and also libyan ministries has been blocked by militia who have been demanding a law banning gadhafi era officials from government poulos live there and as we just heard a spate of attacks and growing instability continues to plague libya geo political

analyst patrick henningsen from twenty first century wired dot com says the u.s. strategy to ally itself with radical groups is backfiring there in libya and across the region. i have read them out of two but by western intelligence agencies. out there are you know of course that culminated with what we saw last fall when the us going to eliminate some but potential leadership in the. libyan government is so broken off the militias basically. some of those groups over the last two years so it's a recipe for chaos and it's really sad because. it's going to. challenge or. have some semblance of law and order in the government and. the whole

north african region is awash with various islamist radical groups and i'm sorry to say that this is a u.s. administration that is allied itself with the islamicists and they're having trouble taming the monsters to be created. and you can track all the latest developments in benghazi on our website auntie dot com we've got video footage there an eyewitness accounts from the scene of the blast. police in louisiana are hunting down several gunman who opened fire on a crowd during mother's day celebrations nineteen people were injured in the broad daylight attack during a street parade in new orleans reporting has the details so far they have been no arrests announce but we do know that the new orleans police department has released grainy surveillance video they released that early monday morning showing a possible suspect in connection to the mother's day parade shooting in the footage

you can see the crowd suddenly scattering in all directions with some falling to the ground it appears as though parade goers are running from a man who turns and runs out of the picture and the person is wearing a white t. shirt and it's. pant's the image isn't very clear but police are still hoping that someone will recognize the perpetrator and notify investigators police posted a series of still images from that grainy video on you tube as well there's also been a ten thousand dollars reward offered for information leading to the arrest and indictments in this case now law enforcement officials believe that more than one gone was fired sunday afternoon now by sunday evening a law enforcement officials were speculating that at least three people were connected possibly to the mother's day parade shooting and f.b.i. spokesperson characterized the shooting as street violence with no connection to terrorism now the victims from this shooting includes ten men seven and

a girl both ten years old children were reportedly grazed by a bullet but they are said to be in good condition at least three victims however were seriously wounded if this is connected to the ongoing debate in the united states over gun control a debate that has this country essentially divided look what u.s. president barack obama wanted to do with his legislation that failed in the senate was that he wanted to force tougher background checks on people that were attempting to buy a weapon now if investigators in new orleans ultimately find the weapons that were responsible for the shooting and they find out that those weapons were not registered were not were not sold to the people that use them or the people that use them got them illegally that. the gun control debate that goes back to what many want to do in strengthening access to firearms is have the proper procedures for people who want to buy a firearm so it's not clear yet if these crimes that were used were illegally

obtained but if they were that speaks to the debate that is ongoing in the united states that is sensually still getting a lot of attention but not much traction when it comes to enforcing more gun control. the leaders of britain and the united states are vowing to step up the pressure on president assad in syria. support for the opposition the syrian civil war has been the main focus of prime minister david cameron's meeting with president obama in washington cameron said the u.k. will double its normal lethal aid to the rebels and push for the e.u. imposed embargo to be lifted what is going to go on has been following the talks. the u.k. prime minister is in washington as well powers are gearing up for a conference on syria that would bring representatives of the syrian government and the syrian opposition to the negotiating table president obama david cameron spoke about their hopes for syria they reiterated they want bashar assad gone and they want a transitional government to be put in place and in david cameron's words they want

to shape that transitional government they want to shape the opposition david cameron is here after talks with the russian president last friday at russia's black sea resort of sochi here's what he said about this new round of international efforts to mediate a solution we will come and president putin's agreement to join in efforts to achieve a political solution to the challenges remain but we have an urgent window of opportunity before the worst fears are realized there is no more urgent international talks in this we need to get syrians to the table to agree to a transitional government that can win the consent of the syrian people but there will be no political progress unless the opposition is able to withstand the street and put pressure on assad so he is not a military victory so we will also increase our efforts to support and to shape the moderate opposition probably kid difference between moscow's approach to the political solution in syria and out of the u.k. and the u.s. has been insistent that it's up to the syrians to shape their government to and

that it's not up to russia or the u.s. to say whether assad should stay or go that was the basis for the peace plan major world powers including russia agreed on a year ago the so-called geneva communique it calls for the syrian government and rebels to agree on a transitional government leading to elections it was kind of strange to hear from mr cameron that russia has just joined these efforts to reach to bring about a political solution where it has supported exactly that all the way moscow and washington announced last week that they would be working to bring about together to bring everyone together to find a political solution. to the syrian crisis is based on a plan but the success of the conference much depends on whether everyone will be pushing in the same direction that hasn't been the case so far the u.k. prime minister is pushing to lift the e.u. arms embargo two weeks ago the us said he was considering arming the rebels

directly so far the us sort of with a silent nod has been watching its allies among the gulf states as they supplied arms to the rebels the prospect of a political solution could be undermined on several fronts probably the most important of which is that the syrian opposition has not come out in favor of such a transition plan that would be negotiated with the syrian government and that's what war powers are now trying to mediate meanwhile experts agree that the alternative is a political solution is the prospect of a political vacuum in the event of the government all the while under the rise of islamic extremist groups. the government in bahrain has used civilian software from the u.k. based company to spy on the leading rights activist that's according to documents filed in the london high court by one of the firm dissolve the rights group bahrain watch the manufacture say the program is designed for use in criminal investigations previously campaign is concerned that the technology is being widely abused well geez put it boycotting us live from london so how exactly does. a

work. well this is surveillance software said the way that it works is that it gets into a mobile device or a computer by user clicking on a link in an e-mail it's often disguised as an update for a program and then it effectively fin spy or fin fish as it's also known it hijacks that device so it can then download the contents of your hard drive it can listen into your calls listen into skype conversations it can record anything that you type and turn the microphone on and off as it pleases sounds hardly. surprising then it's causing quite a stir. well it's used it sorry it was created by a u.k. company this is a company that's based in the u.k. and a number of human rights campaigners are very concerned about this technology potentially

falling into the wrong hands so being used by oppressive political regimes to spying on people that it deems could be political dissidents so the danger is that it's being used in a repressive manner rather than to catch criminals which is a it's a stated intention. that it is being targeted by people who are being suppressed who exactly. you think been targeted by. well research is looking into finance by often fresh air as i said as it's known have identified it being used in at least thirty five countries now this particular thins by technology not of notoriety when the dissidents in egypt raided the offices of the egyptian secret police shortly after the overthrow of president mubarak and they claim to have discovered a contract between gamma international and the egyptian government r.t.

has been reporting just today on the case of a bahraini political activist who also claims that she's been spied on with this technology at the behest of the bahraini government now she spoke to r.c. a little earlier today let's take a listen to what she said around this time last year our received four consecutive e-mails that looked suspicious the first of those e-mails i actually did not suspect i tried to open for my phone from my laptop and when i do see that the attachment was opening i forwarded it on to a friend who told me that i had sent them a virus so i was very astonished we discovered there was a company called gamma international which sells this software to foreign governments we also know that the servers. receive this information from the software is actually based in bahrain so the servers are currently in battery and they're being updated in bahrain which means that this is further evidence that.

any so if god's in place to make sure that this technology doesn't get in to the wrong hands. well you just you know that it does exist but it doesn't surprisingly enough up until now the sale of this sort of spy ware has been largely unregulated and it's likely to come under closer scrutiny now that these revelations have come about but international themselves they've remained tight lipped about who they sell the technology to they refused to comment when i asked to speak to them today we have seen them trying to defend their reputation in the cress recently by saying that they do only sell to governments with the intention of catching criminals be it paedophiles or terrorists but judging by these revelations it looks like some governments are abusing that and defining criminal in very different ways now so far as human rights groups have had difficulty ascertaining from the british

government why it's allowing for these sales to take place privacy international is one campaign that we spoke to today that have been trying to hold the british government to account over this issue this is what they told us let's take a lesson. international provided an almost two hundred page dossier of evidence more than six months ago to him r.c. asking them that question asking them what they're going to be doing asking them if grammar international will be prosecuted and how to account unfortunately we spent the first three months without hearing anything we wrote them another letter this time representing one of the victims a british bahraini who'd been targeted by. at that point they still refused to tell us what they were doing so alternately last month we followed traditional review of their failure to provide any information about the state of any investigation into fin fisher. so as you just had absolutely no reassurance from the british government that they're looking into this issue at all and meanwhile the calls for

sorting this out and really looking at the problem of getting much. loud a very recently the german foreign minister called for and why defined on the sale of this sort of spy website knowledge and to any political regimes that could be potentially abusing the technology so it looks like the brits are going to come under increasing pressure to police the area much more heavily bill probably thanks very much indeed for that that's all to put aboard to live in london thanks a lot. this is all tea leaves here mostly within twenty four hours a day more news after the break stay with us if you can.

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continues here in r.t. the idea that britain would be better off outside the european union is gaining ground within prime minister david cameron's government both the defense and education secretary have now said they would vote for the u.k. to leave the bloc if a referendum was held right now. reports from the. this is going to look to many like the prime minister struggling to maintain control of discipline amongst his own party a the e.u. if you know he seemed very senior figures within his own party and education minister michael go to come out and say that he feels that there could be benefits to leaving the event that sentiment echoed by the defense secretary philip hammond he said that he'd vote to leave if the referendum were on the basis of our relationship in britain with the e.u.

as it stands today you know rather embarrassing for the prime minister of course because he's in the us at the present time to press for a trade deal between the e.u. and the us that he claims could bring ten billion pounds that the new benefit to britain now they become and the prime minister's actually had a statement where he's when he's responded to these statements from senior figures and he said that he does seem to think there's a swing in the town even before the negotiation has started now this is in reference of course to his the speech at the beginning of the year where he promised that if the party were they to do with a majority in the twenty fifteen general election that there was them to be in out referendum by twenty seventy also if there was a renegotiation of britain's relationship with the remember a lot of people amongst his own party included want to see a substantial repatch relation of powers from the e.u.

but of course there are many unanswered questions predominate they would actually be considered a failure because of course there's no guarantee whatsoever that person would i get that renegotiation of a relationship that's going to be a lot of questions about the prime minister's only or thirty within his own party this isn't any problem the split of the new issue is an old problem for the conservative party if you can imagine that the other parties right now are going to be absolutely gleeful so this whole family squabble is that once again being played out so publicly. british financial analyst christopher clark believes the country should take steps to avoid being dragged into the euro zone's economic troubles i think that we run you know approximately thirty to fifty billion pound trade deficit with europe and i think the idea that the e.u. would impose tariffs and taxes upon our goods is absolute nonsense i mean why would you want to hurt your biggest customer so i actually think you know it would create

british jobs it would create demand and it would create a lot more prosperity if we were to leave he now that's the economic facts of the matter and he is having a crisis and it's not it's not doing the right things i mean you know it's their responsibility to sort things out the government in this country has implied to them continuously over the last few years that they need to sort their problems out and how to do it but unfortunately you know the euro crisis in brussels is doing absolutely nothing but they should be doing to sort their problems out and it's really not britain's problem and i think britain is right not to be dragged into the mire with the rest of europe the cat is out of the bag about the true cost of being partly you to the people of this country people are voicing their opinion and they want something done about it now now either because served as well at now or they risk being out. now for some other news making headlines across the world at this stage of the day first to afghanistan where a roadside bomb blast has claimed the lives of ten civilians and many others

injured in the southern region of kandahar the victims including three children were in a truck which hit an improvised explosive device they were on the way to a funeral of two others who died in another explosion last week no group has claimed responsibility so far however in april the taliban threatened renewed violence in what they call their annual spring offensive. meanwhile in bog area opposition protesters armed with torches and clashed with security forces and broken through police lines during post election riots in the capital severe election was overshadowed by widespread allegations of ballot fraud members of the opposition are contesting the results which gave the former prime minister's party victory he stepped down amid corruption allegations amounting economic turmoil just two months ago. europe's finance ministers signed off billions of euros of bailout funds today heavily indebted greece and cyprus received huge loans to prop up their ailing economies cyprus got the green light for the first three billion euro installment bailout agreed in march after tense

negotiations with international lenders greece has been relying on cash injections for the past three years and it will now get another a tranche worth four point two billion euros and also a further installment of three point three billion euros later this year despite the greek government's claim that the money is putting the economy back on track many believe the country is paying too high a price for that help. over reports. has been three years says greece was granted its massive bailout by international lenders since then the harshest areas he measures have driven the economy into the ground but some claim that the risk hope on the horizon for grace and that it's about to turn a corner let's see now how greece's economy ferrous today compared to what it looked like in the last full year before it needed for eschewing starting with the country's output g.d.p. an indicator of the standard of living that's plummeted almost fifty billion euros

in the last three years while government data has thursday by forty five percent so where do the optimists sounds while the good news these measures have improved the country's budget deficit of three point eight percent to put that in perspective it's now very close to the sets by the european union but for the greek people though of the most alarming trend is the unemployment rate that stopped twenty seven percent mostly the country's youth and that's going to get worse four thousand civil servants are being laid off this year alone with the number is set to triple by the end of the next year one expert says no matter how the number is set up now the money will still have to be repaid the greek government trying to image. it budget deficits by simply slicing the public investment and continuing continuously delaying.

statements about his directions so in reality if if the greek states. were ever money well as with most of. this it's so that's why they insist that this i mean listen it is an attempt to remain within the norm in the. agreements and not to really prove that. so there are real aspects of. government's economic policy or of policy as to what is the recession the very big question the elephant is a room over the size of this. as you know bailouts or agreements ireland in reality they have in greece. greek debt and during an astonishing six years of recession is also having a harrowing consequence so is science in greece which used to be the lowest rate in

europe are rising rapidly mostly among the middle class troublingly people have taking their lives in public hanging or shooting themselves or even self-immolation while politicians and economists shuffle the figures as the people of greece being the price with their livelihoods and their futures the health care sector is one of the worst hit by the recession in greece the national health budget has been slashed by forty percent of the last four years largely to meet targets what he's told barton has been finding out what patients are having to cope with. busy at the counter but pharmacists in greece these days are facing serious shortages of medicine and they're worried. critical this year on. the role what's going to be the. next day price controls and tight cash flows mean many drug companies won't supply them greasers health industry is denied profits

and patients their medicines so for example if you came into the pharmacy with high blood pressure many doctors like to prescribe this medication but dealy says doesn't have enough of it so he has to give this instead and this issue ation is replicated with hundreds of medicines in hundreds of pharmacies across the country . but the charity doctors of the world in thessaloniki patients are in an even more desperate situation not have seen the doctor or him or now what i'm really afraid about the future because i have two small children no insurance and i just lost my job i don't i don't is quite as you know i came here because i don't have insurance and the money to pay for my parents some force to come and the situation will only get worse yes. i went to the pharmacy to buy injections for my baby but i couldn't find any so now that i am unemployed i came here. forty five volunteer doctors a week battle with as many as two thousand monthly visits in this crowded space

they rely on donations of medicine donations that are running from people who are very. very serious health problems as they don't logical problems they have to get their medicine. every month every day it's very serious for them not to have their medicine if they do not they could die greeks aren't surprised at any of this anymore they've seen crisis and austerity reach throughout society this new think and makes things even here even more difficult than to put. in even more strain on because the real strain of greece's economy on greek workers and now on greeks help worsening scars of a crisis that seems to cut ever deeper thomasin are to. these situations becoming increasingly desperate at guantanamo bay where prisoners have been on a hunger strike for more than three months off the one hundred sixty six inmates at

the u.s. facility in cuba were cleared for release years ago but have been given no indication of when they could be set free to strike as a protest against prisoner abuse an indefinite detention without charge guards at the camp or feeding several of the inmates against their will to keep them alive practiced at the un human rights offices described as torture but despite all the international criticism lawyers for the captors as well as the rights activists say that washington has yet to take any real steps to solve the situation. i think it's such a sham that we hear the president say that guantanamo should be closed he is the most powerful man in the entire world why can't he close guantanamo will he can the question really is why doesn't he call close guantanamo he is lacking the moral courage he is lacking the political will he blames congress but really he has the

power to release those prisoners who have already been cleared for release demand a speedy and fair trial for the other ones and bring them into the united states and close down the shameful prison the prison of. the force feeding seems to be a situation that is analogous to torture and this has been said by the american medical association and human rights experts they say that the way in which this is being done is so painful to the prisoners and those prisoners who have had a chance to get messages out to their lawyers have described the terrible situation that they are in being strapped down for several hours having these tubes stuffed down their nose and into their stomach and it says they say it feels like a razor going down their bodies so this is another form of torture and these prisoners have already endured years of torture in the prison in guantanamo.

bay but with a new team with more news when just on the whole phenomenon the meantime the tensions here with the business of the u.s. preserve the plan to do with quantitative easing which is of course the printing of money so how will the markets reacting to the well the market's not going to like it i mean it's been a major tailwind for the equities for the past several years so there's going to be a lot of uncertainty all the details of this program thanks in such. the illusion of safety trumping you're right seems to be the main political theme of post nine eleven america and no one is pushing the keep you safe at any cost and lot more than new york billionaire mayor michael bloomberg who recently had to defend his stop and frisk strategy after giving a speech to police brass stop and frisk is the practice of just being able to

search anyone in new york at any time for any reason with your hands this gestapo style practice has been in place since two thousand and two but thankfully was finally recently found to be unconstitutional by a federal judge you know the fourth amendment all the talk about no unlawful search and seizure seems pretty clear to me why did this take so long to figure out bloomberg despite that silly constitution thing stands firm with this policy to occur and if you end street stops looking for guns they will be more guns on the street and more people will be killed it's just that simple well to that i would say if you stop nazi style first kings of random innocent people there will be more freedom on the streets it's just that simple but that's just my opinion. almost thirty four minutes past ten pm here in moscow welcome to business with me

that the show hanscom the u.s. federal reserve last week said it was ready to gradually phase out is bond buying program also known as quantitative easing the u.s. economy has been showing signs of recovery grew two and a half percent year on year in the first quarter and the unemployment rate is actually edging down over all the regulator bought two point seven trillion dollars worth of bonds since the launch the program that's about eighty five billion dollars worth of bonds in equities a month the fed plans to and the program in a very gradual careful manner as to not spook the markets earlier i asked shocks a dickey of the tax capital in london if the markets are so used to the easy money that they might suffer from the withdrawal syndrome. right now markets liquidity fix junkies is probably the best way to say that so they're addicted to this bout of stimulus that we've seen not only from the fed but from all central banks across

the web but. you can central bank bank of england also now the bank of japan so when it comes to the fed which is the major player the major activist in the central bank using that we've seen over the past few years. it has said to the markets at the moment we are kind of trying to analyze what this means the fact is that the fed does need to withdraw at some point. whether it's going cold turkey or if it's a gradual slow process of winding can be a systemic event but the fact is that. an open ended q.e. program for a prolonged period of course collateral damage the u.s. economy we're going to see quality price inflation and as price bubbles especially for the housing market and it can threaten to do you roll the recovery that we've seen in the u.s. a lot is dependent on u.s. economic growth if we continue seeing good growth in the u.s. would oversee suggest that. the fed can take off the training wheels of the u.s.

economy and start letting the u.s. go at it alone without some without the help of the fed for really i mean it's a little bit it's a bit of a double edged sword it's been pretty. favorable for stock market since q e three was announced back in september and we can see a bit of a correction i mean i'm not looking at anything to major too dramatic but we could possibly see something about twenty percent to the downside in the months ahead. well you just compared the markets to a stimuli junkie that is that the result the fed was looking to achieve when it launched the program do you think the program in general was a success. yet i think when it comes to if the fed tried making the market junkies probably that was not their intention they had a target. target inflation and get the unemployment level down to a sustainable point which is around about six point five percent now when it comes

to how successful this program has been employment is still stubbornly high it's true it's at seven point eight percent of the moment so there's still a long way to go before the fed can really start easing back from from quantitative easing. we have seen a gradual recovery in housing market that's when very positive mortgage approvals are running high at the moment we're also seeing a pickup in consumer spending u.s. g.d.p. is running around about two point five percent so this this country is nowhere near a recession or threat of recession of the u.s. is growing so it has been a positive effect more so on a market perspective less so on the real economy because as i said if the fed did not look at tempering down to you at some point we are going to see a big asset price bubble in the u.s. economy what are the chances that other regulators in other countries worldwide will see it. yeah i think it's a good question again much as the person on the growth we know that in in europe in

the eurozone we're not going to see much growth for quite some time possibly. with european leaders pointing towards growth and at the end of the year. the e.c.b. has got a bond buying program and the place to keep rates at ultra low levels they're cutting rates we saw that recently in the also talked about negative deposit rate so they've got their foot on the accommodative easing stance very strongly when it comes to the bank of england they also have an open door policy to quantitative easing in the future we have a new governor coming in and he may look to shake things up as well and as the came same case with japan we had a new government place and then aggressive to stimulating quite aggressively so there's no i don't feel that after the fed looks to temper down there is the most program of the banks of the central banks will follow suit i think there's enough out there enough activism by central. it's up there to keep the risk turned quite favorable for markets. cyprus this week is expecting the eurozone finance ministers

to ok the first four billion dollar bailout package agreed to earlier in the year in the meantime the island nation is continuing its talks with the russian government it wants to ease the terms of the three point two billion dollars loan russia gave back in two thousand and eleven in march the cypriots asked most go for a new loan but failed to reach an agreement as a result of became the first eurozone country to shut down its banks for two weeks it also had to introduce strict capital controls to make sure its banking sector doesn't collapse but that in turn meant that its depositors many of whom are russian nationals lost out. let's now do a quick run through the markets on wall street where trade is in full swing it's a very choppy situation u.s. retail sales for march are strong but traders are really worried about the fed's plan to scale back its support program here's an interesting number from bloomberg the s. and p.

five hundred has gained twenty six percent annually including dividends since march two thousand and nine and that's roughly the same as during the last two years of the dot com bubble definitely something to think about now moving on to a europe across the ocean shares ended the day flight to positive with the banking shares weighing on both the footsie and the doc the dax knocking them off their five year highs germany's second largest bank commerzbank was the biggest loser on the dax it shed four point seven percent on the news that it will sell new shares as part of its three point three billion dollars capital increase here in moscow the indices ended their first post polities session in the red as you can see the my sex and the r.t.s. both lost but. actually some major losses for some companies but energy majors loop oil and nova tech managed to outperform the market they closed in the block now

moving on to the currency market the ruble gained value against both the dollar and the euro and that when it comes to the euro dollar pair actually the dollar strengthen as it did against most of its major counterparts. now with the main holidays finally over the russians are back at work this week but not for long russia's more official days off then almost any other country in the world except perhaps for argentina and mexico this year the russians can count on almost a one hundred twenty days of we can's a public holidays and that's a major drag on the economy according to some estimates each day off amounts to losses of two point two billion dollars that's two hundred sixty billion dollars a year which is roughly ten percent of russia's two trillion dollar economy.

and that's all the latest from the business game for now join me in just under two hours for our next update and up next here in our t.v. interview a man. who believes the german province should go it alone. that's . manufacturing consent for determining a foreign policy consensus who in washington in the halls of power in western capitals drive foreign policy decisions particularly when it comes to iran and israel and syria is american foreign policy in the country's own interest choose your language. holy week over the influential some of the. treatments that the consensus can't. choose the opinions that you think are great to. choose the stories could impact your life choose the access to

your. live. the goodspeed. you will. be misleading good.

luck to me very little. download the official application to choose your language stream quality and enjoy your favorite. if you're away from your television or it just doesn't matter now with your mobile device you can watch on t.v. anytime anywhere. today we're talking about the future of geminis i'm joined by the author come pain at full bavarian independence wilfred shine them thank you very much for talking to us. why should the fair yet go it alone. this senate this year

because bavaria is a free state by virtue of its history. economic power population size and constitutional set up ever since the federal republic of germany was established in one thousand nine hundred forty nine out of area has lost considerably and independent authority and competencies just as the european union was assuming more and more powers i would like to change that what would be the benefits of an independent with area. also spoke with its population of twelve and a half million varia is germany's second most populated state after north rhine-westphalia because it also has the strongest economy and boasts outstanding progress in science and technology so why can't a state like that and take charge of its own future if we look at the european union twenty out of its twenty seven member states are in farias above area in terms of population economic power and efficiency why can't we have more control of

our political and economic standing in europe. how do you see bavaria going about trying to achieve independence. as a brilliant democratic solution for that the people should decide the bavarian constitution attributes and especially high status to any referendum and there being referendums in bavaria in history certainly i would never agree to an independent variable that would not be conscious about its responsibilities as part of germany and as part of europe but the various should have more say as regards its political and economic status this is all the more important since brussels as well as berlin have been continuously taking on new competencies in the past decades case in point as far as finance is concerned is the german inheritance tax which is levied in all of the states by the federal government even on fiscal

matters it isn't the states who get to make decisions but the federal policy makers in berlin this cannot last forever have. did independence campaigns in other parts of the world i'm thinking particularly scottish independence or catalonian independence and try to learn something from what they are achieving then. what we can learn from history is that political maps are not set in stone nations can have their boundaries altered through a peaceful process based on the will of the people that take the form czechoslovakia which was dissolved peacefully forming two independent states the czech republic and the slovak republic but there are many more examples scotland will be holding an independence referendum in twenty four team and a similar initiative is currently being debated in catalonia there are movements with a similar agenda in many european countries which i'm especially critical of the usurping competencies within the e.u. itself the capital of a nation whose actual existence is questionable as belgium appears to be divided

more than it is united would an independent variable remain within the e.u. would it keep the single currency suppressed and it would be good to definitely and we could have our own representation in brussels as an independent state same as the scottish who also wish to remain in the european union in case they seen historically very has always been an integral force in europe and it was becoming ever deeper involved with the rest of europe up until eight hundred seventy one when a single centralized german reich was established cemented by prussian military might and a sense this was a failure if anything the german reich was ill omened by virtue of its very origins as a state that was set up by the height of a war the franco-prussian war and proclaimed in an enemy capital in the palace of a society in paris that was not a promising start as far as the prospect of a peaceful germany was concerned to the emergence of the german reich upset the

balance in europe and pushed history a long a disastrous route there. is a long history of the varian independence campaigns but why do you think this needs to happen now. patience is running out the very is part of the german transfer union and under the present fiscal equalisation policy we contribute more than the other states germany must have an odd notion of fiscal equality because in twenty twelve we had three of the german states submitting their money while the remaining thirteen were strictly on the receiving end you see the same kind of mis balance within the european union germany is a major contributor to the e.u. budget and yet we don't have the voting power that would correspond to our sham in fact on a number of issues we have very little power germany share and the european central bank has thirty percent and yet we have as much voting power as representatives of multiple cyprus maintaining such an unequal relationship on

a permanent basis is inconsistent with democracy remember america's war of independence started with the slogan no taxation without representation and with them sets no taxation without representation code to vary in existence need to eventually the complete break up of what we now know is federal germany. i don't think this is a decision that could be made any day it has to develop incrementally and it's the kind of issue where you have to consult the people should the people vote in favor of secession we can get down to launching the process but if the people say no then secession is not what we need up until now they've been no parties no groups no unions and no churches in bavaria that would call for independence from the federation nevertheless a recent independent survey shows that thirty nine percent of the variance would like the various to have more civil competences and twenty four percent would like

it to become a fully independent state one could argue this is not that large a share of the populace but i would say it is at least. no considering that there is no party or group promoting the notion of the varian independence it is a grassroots sentiment. what effect do you think it would have other states in germany should vary in length. even if one day it ever gets to the point where bavaria separates itself from the rest of germany and i don't know if this will ever happen i think but the area would always show solidarity with germany but see it would be a different kind of solidarity but very and sometimes say we are for solidarity but we're not stupid mistake financial equalization for example sometimes we get the impression that we have to pay for almost everybody else we pay two billion is part of the equalization program we pay two billion more than other states to the health

care five very always donates more than of the states but it doesn't seem much gratitude in return but on the contrary others criticize in ridiculous for years we've been asking for talks on fiscal regulation but they've been virtually no talks with the states is it fair to say that the very if you use some of the poorest states in germany in a very similar way that germany views many of the poorer countries in the you. very it has always shown solidarity and we continue to show solidarity even during the european crisis we bear a large share of the burden but i'd like to ask the e.u. has provided the first bailout for greece the second bailout for greece third bailout greece billions billions and billions if i asked the german people whether they believe they will ever get even one euro back they will all say no the politicians are aware of that and they just pretend like they're not but the worst

part of it is that millions and millions of greeks are really between a rock and a hard place that you don't benefit one bit from all these bailouts. i don't know anybody who's ever say anything from that and there's greeks who don't have jobs you don't have any income because you don't know how to provide for their families their situation does not improve this means something's wrong with the system it has to become one more thought about greece that politicians say that greece is only two point five percent of the e.u. economy so my question for my fellow politicians is how can two point five percent bring the entire one hundred percent to ruin is there a very in national character and is that something that's driving the independence movement up the same. i think it's because bavaria and bavarians a special variants have a different mentality but variants a more focused on themselves on life but very ends up by no means arrogant or disrespectful to others but they are confident in their strength but varia is

a wonderful state it was not a stablished in one thousand nine hundred five by decision of the occupation forces is retained its face since one thousand nine hundred when the kingdom of the very it was formed but there is very important people in it together they confident in their abilities in the past but very it was underdeveloped it was a poor agrarian nation but because of proper policies diligence and the work ethic of the variance he became the leader of germany and the entire europe we have regions in bavaria which ikey regions for the whole world no other state in germany has that of course but variants of very proud of this they love their land and i think these feelings the stronger and the varia than in other states if the area was to be granted independence to morrow what changes do you think you'd see over the next ten years that wouldn't be able to happen if it remains as part of germany . this is a purely hypothetical question i can't imagine this happening tomorrow nothing will

happen tomorrow if there's to be a discussion over the ideas i've set forth it would be a long. recess with many stages it will require a lot of effort and i'm very happy that my party has set a goal to achieve greater competence greater jurisdiction than brussels of berlin because this is the first step this is the beginning of a long journey towards a new different stronger but very an identity if this is what my book is about what do you think the reaction from the rest of germany would be to bavaria gaining independence. i think this would be a good example for other states bottom virgin birth is a large and well developed state north rhine-westphalia is also a large state as it is actually quite strong but i think it is being we can judge a bad policy but all the states may consider their strength of germany is based on the principle of federalism the republic was set up in one nine hundred forty nine

not as a unitary state but as a federal state a union of strong states that's why we have been distracted which is historically established as the various initiative of cuba prior to the establishment of the federal republic of germany states were independent but very adult in its constitution on december the first one hundred forty six when the country had not yet recovered from the war still bavaria held a referendum and adopted the constitution and then in three years the federal republic of germany was set up project that there were separate states this historical fact should be taken into account and of course every state has the right to consider magic. thank you very much for talking to me pleasure to speak to you ok it was a pleasure for me. modern

russia was built on coal. fuel for its factories. coke for its steel to mark gold is it hot and heat for its people. join me james brown to meet them in to spend their lives underground and work in one of the world's most dangerous professions. for. oh let's see you. hearts of coal on l.t. . real damage and complexity of this oil spill was not something you can grasp just by looking at dirty birds we have between four to five million people in this directly affected area of the coast and it's pretty clear why it's not being reported because b.p. can't afford to have a reported all along the gulf coast are clean they are safe and they're open for

business if b.p. is the single largest oil contributor to the pentagon the us war machine is heavily reliant upon b.p. and their oil this is a huge step backwards for the marker c. it's a step forward for oligarchy carex it is toxic is a look a lot like spraying in vietnam it was it was not a picture that either the government or b.p. really wanted to have out there i don't want dispersants to be the agent. this boils. down to the. science technology innovation all the means developments from around russia we've got the future covered.

more news today violence again flared up. and these are the images the world has been seeing from the streets of canada. operations the day. wealthy british style it's time to. market why not. find out what's really happening to the global economy cause a report on. the

top story this hour a massive blast kills at least fifteen people including children at a hospital in the libyan city of benghazi. police in the u.s. are hunting for a group of gunman he went on a shooting rampage during a mother's day parade in new orleans injuring nineteen. putting the pressure on the syrian government and boosting support for the opposition leaders of britain and the u.s. present vision for ending the country's civil. spyware made by a british firm has allegedly been used to snoop on activists in bahrain we hear from a rights campaigner who is raising the alarm over the intrusive surveillance methods being deployed in the country up top stories this hour.