worldwide news live from moscow you with r.t. russia is a stepping up efforts to help nato struggling campaign in afghanistan it's agreed to allow the alliance's armored vehicles through its territory to afghanistan in reducing their were alliance on the volatile pakistan while confirmation came from the russian foreign minister sort of a lot off during talks with his afghan counterpart here in moscow. also pledged to keep up the battle against the drugs flow as antti is alexy reports. the two foreign ministers meeting today in moscow or c. seem to be pretty happy about the way the corporation is going this cooperation in the fight against drug trafficking has been very strong of late we know that russia has donated twenty thousand kalashnikov rifles to afghanistan to the interior troops in afghanistan to fight the spread of drugs as well as the recent joint u.s. russian operation in afghanistan after which almost one ton of herion was destroyed

and several drug labs were shut down in the country so obviously the two ministers said that now the cooperation is going well and it will expand in the future according to mr lavrov so that we just launched in the cooperation between russia and the united states in combat in drug trafficking will continue and the creation of relevant international laws is of crucial importance as the u.n. security council resolution adopted this october has already qualified drugs coming in from afghanistan as a threat to international safety and stability the war against narcotics remains one of the biggest problems in the ties between the two countries that's why that was something underlined by president veda and president karzai during their last meeting at the summit of nathan lisbon where president have said that as long as the drugs are being transported through the russian territory from afghanistan into europe this problem has to be dealt with and has to be dealt with now well we heard from mr lavrov that there's been

a certain problem coming from the nato side on the transportation of russian helicopters the ones which russia is donating to afghanistan and this problem has to be dealt with and obviously it will be dealt with in the nearest future other than that we know that this cooperation will also expand we know that russia is allowing nato to transport its war toys through its territory into afghanistan russia will supply the nato troops stationed in afghanistan with electricity and mr lavrov also spoke about further steps in that direction the nation russia and nato agreed continued cooperation towards a. afghan settlement program to train pilots and other security forces will be expanded with the aim of boosting security in the country and finding the drug flow easier conditions for transit across the border will be extended to armored vehicles clearly all that issues will be discussed between the russian president dmitry medvedev and he's afghan counterpart mr karzai when he comes to moscow in january twentieth levon and this visit of the afghan foreign minister in moscow is

preparing that president's visit in the upcoming january. well for more on the efforts to resolve the problems in afghanistan let's now talk to a political expert from the paris by u.s. institute of democracy and cooperation john laughlin so the u.s. has a recently admitted that things aren't exactly going its way in afghanistan now russia might think it's helping with today's announcement by clearing transit ways for nato but surely military hardware we're talking guns and troops wouldn't that be more useful would not help the situation. but. you might say that on the other hand my basic view is that the war is completely unwinnable russia may be making friendly noises towards nato now because of as we know there's a rapprochement between the alliance and russia but in my view it's basically formal in other words these are gestures that they're. meant well i don't think

russia is playing a double game i'm not trying to say that i'm simply saying that the war cannot be won the soviet union learned that lesson in the one nine hundred eighty s. the british learnt it in the nineteenth century and the americans are in the process of learning it although it seems that they haven't learned yet so i don't believe that a military solution could in other words the shipment of arms could pacify afghanistan. or it was something there are some of the call afghanistan is that the graveyard of empires but let's focus in our attention on the issue of opium and heroin exports from afghanistan russia is one of the worst affected countries from such drug flows now it's all very easy to point the finger of blame at afghanistan but where does the responsibility lie with western countries including russia itself are they doing enough. well again these are intractable problems and i'm not sure that they are best solved in fact i'm convinced they can't be solved by military intervention at best they are police

problems at worst they are cultural issues they're police problems because we're dealing here with trying to control cultivation over a vast country which is famously inaccessible and difficult to control and their cultural problems because obviously the heroin trade is driven by heroin consumption there wouldn't be heroin production if people weren't buying it and we also know of course from latin america that wars against drugs can go on for decades without producing the desired results so as on this as on the overall security situation in afghanistan i mean strongly skeptical of course russia has an interest in trying to prevent the heroin flow that's for certain because particularly if it transit through transit through russia as it does but ultimately i think that the rise of heroin production post states the overthrow of the taliban there was far less of it under the taliban then there is now and ultimately these problems cannot be solved by military intervention now moments ago you were

suggesting that possibly moscow and washington are selling are showing closer relations because of the recent reset in relations the warming in relations let's talk about this is russia simply courting the west with its willingness to cooperate on afghanistan discuss other possible motives if you will. well no i mean i think yes i think that is part of the motive i think yes rusher is doing it essentially for form's sake i assume i get i have no privileged information but i assume that russia knows very well the current russian government knows very well that russia that afghanistan is and is a lost cause an ungovernable country but on the other hand i'm not accusing moscow of duplicity of course moscow has an interest in a stable and friendly afghan regime that's for sure i'm just saying that they must know that it is an extremely difficult if not intractable situation so for the time being they are maintaining a formal support for the nato position but in

a sense that's as meaningful as you know formal support for other intractable problems around the world like i don't know cyprus or something like that these are the kinds of positions that foreign ministries traditionally take they keep repeating them is not a necessarily any duplicity involved but ultimately russia knows better than most other countries that the war there cannot be won now let's talk about the end game here you're painting rather gloomy picture but nato leaders have mapped out the withdrawal of its troops from afghanistan in the next four years do you think the afghan government will be able to control the country after the pullout what if it fails can it stand on its own two feet here. definitely not but on the other hand i don't think that there is going to be a pullout i mean it's like iraq isn't it it's there was the iraq withdrawal of combat troops from iraq was announced a couple of months ago and we all know that in fact there are still fifty or sixty thousand american troops in iraq engaging in combat operations so whatever face

saving formula they pull out of a hat for two thousand and fourteen ultimately it will come down to the same thing that is to say the country will i assume at any rate remain under occupation at the moment the american troops leave i expect the afghan government will fall but even that for the present afghan government even that although not a desirable outcome is still not i don't think totally disastrous because my fundamental opinion on this is that when you have a dangerous regime or a regime that doesn't do what you like the best way to treat it and to deal with it is defensively in other words you ring fence it off and i mean quite literally you close your border with it you prevent heroin and so on coming through in the case of russia they would obviously involve the border mainly but you adopt principally defensive measures i don't think that these all these issues can be solved by going into a country and trying to govern it which is what we're doing now who are going to political expert from the para space into of democracy and cooperation live from

the french capital thank you. all meanwhile the violence in afghanistan has reached an all time high during the nine year u.s. led war that's according to the latest pentagon report american military chiefs admit the progress across the country is an eva with just modest gains against the taliban are to use policy a look south the mass relocation of american forces the latest attempt to break the desert. i will quote time in iraq is coming to an end he's part of the american forces who stayed behind to train assist and equal. iraqi security forces sure their own wants to go home that's for sure no one knows whether want to stay here but in its largest movement of troops and equipment since world war two the u.s. army is moving its supplies from iraq to afghanistan certain equipment such as are en route. mine resistant vehicles our humvees are

those types of equipment a lot of our rolling vehicles rolling stock of vehicles and some generation that equipment yes will be dedicated towards the mission in afghanistan but critics warn that moving troops won't help much that. we're not going people see u.s. forces inside their country it brings antagonism and makes them turn to terrorism and al qaeda so as more american troops come here from iraq it will just make things worse i don't believe the americans will live for another fifty years they have two of the main military bases here and then building the americans leaving iraq also sends the wrong message to insurgents the afghans seeing the americans withdrawing from iraq and they think themselves ok they're going to withdraw in a year or two we had a hold on things will take control in

a year or two it doesn't matter i will to quote she's already been told he'll be going from iraq back to afghanistan it'll be his second time there and he's not looking forward to it i would definitely say that afghanistan is a lot more difficult so the terrain is a lot more heavier in the mountainous region we have to do a lot more walking there and whether the beefed up presence in afghanistan will help troops meet mixtures deadline to pull out or make it more difficult it's still unclear the guy isn't just come back from a patrol everything went out of the next one. to baghdad. ality is coming to you live from moscow and thousands of people have gathered in front of the georgian parliament demanding out with the old in with the new and the opposition's also joined the rally calling for the resignation of president mikhail saakashvili sarah ferguson more. we had a gathering today outside the parliament building in tbilisi and it's a movement has been organized by group known as the people's gathering now this is

a great this headed by public figures and they've been joined by a number of opposition party saying that the main aim according to democratic elections and eventually the resignation of president saakashvili and his government the main goal of this. joint and international community. is the government really did. georgina. proceed with the movement say they were a few place to hold this assembly can see they've taken it to the streets there really is a huge amounts of people here today thousands of people have joined in the main aim today is to bring together these different opposition parties the people and members of the public and to the stars the policies that they feel and most important to me is the country full of calling this

a verdict of distrust they do not feel that the government of the moment do what they should and they really want to show you today the power and the well to change things that i've been the traditional month when these rallies are pals and all day the the. people here say there's lots of support for the people who is speak a peaceful mavin the people will remember that the two thousand and seven when a peaceful protest rally that was violently inserted by the place take gas and rubber bullets we certainly there's not a huge evidence of police presence here today there are some around the main focus as we said here today it's really for these opposition parties to come together discuss the policy that everyone here will be really high paying that they will be a catalyst for real change in the country. sorry for the reporting that well there are plenty more stories to be discovered on our website that's r.t. dot com and here's

a taste of what you can find waiting for you online right now could the u.s. be about to see her a comeback sarah pailin may have lost out and have bid to become vice president but issue now setting our sights on the top job in two thousand and twelve. and it may sound like a hollywood blockbuster but this is a very real and titanic effort to save the world's biggest wildcat leonardo dicaprio get star praise from the russian prime minister. there are fears belgium could be next on the growing list of the eurozone countries teetering on the edge of economic collapse international bond investors are sounding the alarm after the country's debt level equaled its annual national income and it comes hot on the heels of islands monumental bailout and a mass strike in portugal where the country is on its knees well hundreds of greeks have also taken to the streets to protest tough austerity measures workers of organized a three hour strike which disrupted public transport and some state sector services

but this march is morphed by those seen in the spring which were march marred by violent clashes with police in may the e.u. and the i.m.f. approached approved rather a survival package for the debt ridden nation in return for which the government slashed pensions and salaries all of out of from the e.u. referendum campaign believes it's all signaling an end to the euro a lot of economists there's no school in the works is today the same that top school is almost certainly going to need bailing out and the big problem of course is staying because it's a huge country and it's not really as easy to bail out to somewhere like. you know it's a huge country structure slightly different there so we could seriously see in a collapse of the euro and a lot of people would say. not before time but if you look at it our campaign the e.u. referendum campaign we've got thousands and thousands of people now signed up pledge

says he you referendum campaign dot com signed up pledge demand in the government give us an in out referendum on our membership in the e.u. and that is growing and so it's things like that you know anyone can go on at home and sign up when they're on facebook for example it's things like that people are starting say actually we're not happy with what's going on we want change and we want to have our say we're not going to listen to the government anymore with this sort of we know better than you attitude meantime british conservative m.e.p. knowledge diva says it's the political at leat that wants to maintain the european union while ordinary people have no use for it. tried to create a country where the people who created the country for have no more particular desire to have a country called europe created so the elites want

a country called europe created and their t.v. on ahead with it but the people not carrying the people and one day there will be such a train wreck. over this whole issue and when you start trying that what to whom it will stop functioning and then there will be a slow or realisation but it stopped working and then it really stopped working and the crisis comes like we have recently had a financial crisis we saw that was no european response it was the germans bailing out the greeks or somebody else coming in to bail out somebody else but it was not an e.u. taking and now we are told of the chinese coming to bail out the greeks and save the euro zone. where's europe in all of this.

and you can watch the whole interview with knowledge dever in just about fifteen minutes time right here on r.t. . tackling terrorism and extremism the main issues on the plate for the members of the shanghai cooperation organization they have come together in the capital for the c.e.o.'s and you will summit the group unites russia china and four central asian nations representing over one and a half billion people iran india pakistan and mongolia are the associate members russia's prime minister vladimir putin came to me to discuss ways to smooth economic relations and keep massive borders of its members secure the participants in the summit also focused on developing agricultural trade and humanitarian cooperation as well as fighting the consequences of the global financial crisis the c.e.o. it's not a military alliance and its top priority is the regional security of its member states. just now turning twenty minutes past the hour here in moscow you are with

r.t. of let's check out some other stories now making headlines around the world this hour south korea's defense minister has resigned in the aftermath of a firefight with north korea on tuesday to south koreans were killed during the years change of fire they've now been returned to the mainland china has publicly called for calm from both sides while the u.s. condemned the actions sending an aircraft carrier to the region tensions are still high on the peninsula which sold beefing up its defenses and pyongyang threatening to retaliate against any provocation. iraqi president jalal talabani has given the country's prime minister the green light to form a new government the official request will pave the way to end an eight month deadlock following inconclusive march elections which led to a power vacuum and an upsurge in sectarian violence nouri al maliki now has the task of forming a cabinet within the next thirty days that is expected to include all of iraq's

rival factions. cambodia is holding a national day of mourning for the more than three hundred and fifty victims killed in a stampede in the capital and government officials were among those who lined up to offer flowers and incense in memory of the dead the tragedy happened on monday the crowds gathered on the bridge to celebrate the end of the annual water festival mass panic broke out when the bridge began to sway and many were crushed all suffocated. alright and coming up next it's business update with show now. well welcome to our business program on sharana qian later in the program a new russian european joint venture that hopes to become one of europe's top ten travel companies but first our top story this hour we start with an exclusive to r.t. rolls royce engines say it's gearing up to become

a founder member of russia's titanium valley gladney absolutes in science decree next week to create a vast technology have been the euro's around the world's top titanium supplier the s. and p. o. of this month the british engines giant is hammering out a deal with top officials for a new special economic zone which will enjoy tax breaks and cost of free trade. to tame valley initiative skolkovo yes they have meetings with the ministry of economic development and they're setting up special zones if the numbers look right and we like the part as we're able to work closely together there's absolutely no reason why we shouldn't be very very involved if the research and development operation is successful rules rules shift production here as well what we haven't been doing in russia is he's manufacturing engineering supply chain and research and development. and that's the area that i think we're interested in in

exploring you know developing new technologies for gas turbines. new forms of engines i mean we haven't had. that many major technological shifts in the aerospace industry you know in the hundred or so years that we've been flying. the world is ready for some new new developments rosalee dmitri medvedev says fighting corruption is his number one priority have you received in your surety is that you will be spared red tape if for example you're into staying in bali we know there's a commitment to changing business practices in russia and we welcome that. and we can already see some of the practical effects of that there are some very dynamic private sector entrepreneurs who are aware because they operate all over the world they're aware of how russia compares with the center.

and now let's look at how the markets are performing wall street has been given a lift after reports show unemployment fell to the lowest in two years while consumer spending rose boosting optimism in the economic recovery the dow jones is up one point thirty seven percent and the nasdaq is also up on the day trading just under two percent. in europe stocks are also gaining footsie is off point thirty five percent boosted by gains for the mining sector shares in extra are up over two percent newspaper publisher daily mail and general trust dropped two point four percent after reporting its annual results thomas cloyd group rose over one point five percent after a green a joint venture in russia more on that in a moment. and here in russia both the r.t.s. and my stocks closed in the black on thursday boosted by energy majors most of the blue chips gained with gas palm and also nickel up just one just under two percent on the r.t.s. bucking the trend bt lost more than a half percent on the my sax despite upgrading its profit forecast.

meanwhile russia's second biggest bank expects its two thousand and ten net profits to be twenty percent more than previously expected bt was projecting a total of one point six billion dollars but it almost reached that target in the first ten months it's now up to its full year expectations to one point nine billion dollars last year the bank recorded a loss in annual results. and russia's leading travel company interest in europe second largest tour operator thomas cook have announced a new joint venture our chief correspondent medina has the details of the deal. one of the global tourist company thomas cook assigned a deal to form a joint venture with a one of the russia's biggest tour operator interests as we were told today after the press conference by companies representatives thomas cook will oh fifty point one percent of the future form company however is the company do have some kind of

a very clear strategy for the nearest future how to acquire the remaining shares thomas cook told us today that they paid forty five million dollars for thirty point one shares but do hope in the nearest future maximum till twenty fifty to acquire the rest of this year's set as we were told today of by of the general director of thomas cook at the been chasing for this deal for the last three years and it was a fantastic deal for this company to befall bruce going to as you do through to borrow the whole organization one hundred percent of the company in the meantime in those intervening for. shareholders more to continue to grow the business to grow. but to grow in the us in terms of time however as the future of form to companies still hasn't hasn't got its own name they might work under the brand of interests

all mine in the future work out their own brand meanwhile of the role of interest to give some sort of a market knowledge and brand recognition for thomas cook as interest has quite a strong brand recognition within the russian tourists markets meanwhile the russian tourists market is growing quite tremendously and some analysts see a perspective for some significant growth in the nearest future however there are some challenges like a lack of proper infrastructure and services that many russian two operators are facing and trying to overcome. and russia's out of the canadian dollar to its international reserve to diversify them and reduce risks posed by the us dollar before the change the reserve comprised forty seven percent us dollars forty one percent euros ten percent british pounds two percent japanese yen and a small amount in swiss francs the deputy chairman of the central bank says the

initial holding a canadian dollars is small but russia may increase it within a few months international reserve currently totals four hundred ninety billion u.s. dollars. and that's all the update we have for you at the moment but will be back in less than one hour so be sure to stay with us meanwhile you can always log on to our web site for more stories that's our two dot com slash business.

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the headlines now. support for. change. calling for the resignation. could soon follow.