By their good afternoon just turned 4 pm this saturday 4th january live than from the other to International World new center seasons greetings its kevin owen here with this hours update. Thousands of mourners have been holding funeral processions in the iraqi capital baghdad to one of those killed in a u. S. Air strike on friday morning including irans top general money the crowds have been waving their National Flag and the flags of various to ramberg shia militia groups the remains of the commanders body will be repatriated to iran for burial on sunday considered the 2nd most powerful figure in the Islamic Republic he was among 10 People Killed in the Early Morning raids following a direct order from the us President Donald Trump has defended the assassination saying it was necessary to prevent an imminent attack on american personnel and another possible war in the middle east but its cause profound in iran and beyond. Solemn 80 has been perpetrating acts of terror to destabilize the middle east for the last 20 years what the United States did yesterday should have been done long ago we took action last july just stop. A war. We did not take action to start a war that. This was an obvious terrorist move a move that entirely shouted cowardice in every respect we will not fall for the propaganda and blackmail by the americans in whatever manner and whenever we deem appropriate we will give the proper response the killing of irans general solomin the smart protests among his supporters in the middle east as mentioned than him further afield members of indias Kashmiri Shia community marched with images of him shouting anti american slogans while in pakistan protesters wrapped coffins with the u. S. Flag and set them alight in iran itself 3 days of mourning are underway and thousands have turned out in cities nationwide to one of the general. U. S. Leadership has been saying on almost every platform they can find that they are working to deescalate tensions with the Islamic Republic of iran that was the time to take this action so that we could disrupt this plot deter further aggression from qassam solo bombing in the Iranian Regime as well as to attempt to deescalate the situation its not an easy case to make killing the countrys 2nd most powerful person most well known military leader and commander of the elite could force of the revolutionary guards doesnt look like deescalation however washington insists its actions were a defensive measure at the direction of the president the u. S. Military has taken decisive defensive action to protect u. S. Personnel abroad to by killing costume soleimani this strike was aimed at deterring future iranian attack plans the iranians are already promising revenge the Supreme NationalSecurity Council of iran held an emergency meeting on friday and announced that they had made difficult decisions at the right time and place the vengeance will be extracted its not through aggression by the us i mean they should they should expect anything as it is a lot of this this aggression the International Community is now gripped by fear that we could be on the brink of war there is no justification under International Law and moral law our constitution is just aggravation and the fact they were there in a way as a guest and have an embassy there weve never had been given any authority to do what we did i think its morally wrong and if theyre doing this to make us safer they said that we had they had to do this to make american safe complete nonsense i feel less safe because there will be retaliation and expansion and who knows what is going to lead to. Washington says its an ally of the iraq again. Government and its working in iraqs best interest however baghdad is completely on the happy with this move the assassination of an Iraqi Military commander is an aggression on iraq as a State Government and people its a flagrant violation of iraqs sovereignty and dangerous escalation that triggers a destructive war in iraq the region and the world it violates the conditions authorizing the presence of u. S. Troops on iraqi soil the iraqis dont consider this to be a particularly friendly gesture they want to restart the su war again among the shia who dont want this to happen what has happened is a blatant violation of iraqi sovereignty the fact that hes a high state official in a government that were not at war with weve crossed the rubicon not only in tehran but in moscow beijing pyongyang caracas they all have to sit there and say to themselves all right the americans dell feel entitled to kill anybody and our government because of what over what disagreements over syria or whatever else. The International Response has been vocal china says it is concerned turkey is angry and syria accuse the United States of spreading instability its a pity to see. The great but what if the United States used. To kid somebody. The way gangs do it but not everyone agrees though israel says Job Well Done president roh deserves all the credit for acting swiftly forcefully decisively israel sternes with the United States in this just struggle for Peace Security and so forth and americas nato allies are not thrilled at all we have woken up to more dangerous world the us action did not make it any easier to reduce tensions we had all parties to deescalate for the conflict is in none of our interests. It didnt exactly go over well at home either American Media has accurate all sorts of allegations about solomonic most americans had never heard of before saying he is the new face of terrorism and evil but democrats say that trump is rushing the country to war without congressional approval the risk of a much longer military engagement in the middle east is acute. And immediate. This action may well have brought our nation closer to another endless war exactly the kind of endless war the president promised he would not drag us into now donald trump is defending is he says he saved lives and that hes protecting the country however in some of his responses hes actually said that solomonic should have been killed years ago so why now is perhaps donald trump trying to play the card of being a National Savior in the lead up to an election i dont foresee. Making a rash choice because they understand the neo cons who are behind shawns policy and trump him so funny iran they dont want anything more than to have iran do a very who are high profile strike back the us Propaganda Machine is in high gear demonizing stolen money who 99. 9 percent of americans had never heard of 2 days ago. Worse than hitler killing americans left and right none of this is true none of this is supported by facts but the Propaganda Machine is on high high high alert and americans are being prepared for another war so i dont see the iranians taking the bait. Elsewhere the day Senior British Police chief as well the levels of Child Exploitation in the country are at their highest in over a century shown sawyer whose leads britains modern slavery policing if it says the drug gangs of the Main Driving Force of the sturdy policies also have been affected. For these children they are almost back to victorian times and to being criminally exploited these kids looking for family and security for understandable reasons of austerity stay Youth Services have been vacated this gap of youth provision between the school and family is the void of the exploited filling them Office Figures say that in england alone there were more than 80. 00 to 1. 00 half 1000 suspected child victims in the past year thats an increase of more than 73 percent on the Previous Year she calls for sawyer also pointed the finger at government cuts to Youth Services but the home office insists its doing all it can to stop Child Exploitation cheryl felix spoke to us from the anti Discrimination Group the black child agenda she says its almost impossible for youngsters to escape once theyve been dragged in there was like of criminality. These children a lot of people fail to see them as the victims of whats going on and then they become criminalized and once you become criminalized at such a young age its almost impossible to get yourself back on track a lot of these young people that we find as part of these drug caton gangs as theyre called have been permanently excluded have been rejected from society so i think we need to go back a few steps and even jilt deal with our young people from a primary age level because as they get into secondary school which i can guarantee when they go back next week my phone will be ringing in constantly with children being kicked out of school for have a natural hair not having the right tie on or maybe their shoes so if we start stop doing this you know sledgehammer approach to what we are talking about as children then they wouldnt find themselves in these gangs in the 1st place but no ones actually listening or doing any think about the exclusion matter and the high rates and the issues that we have with young people in the care system as well who if there was another study done youd actually find that majority of these children have come through the care system are actually being exploited also in the sexual airiness in areas as well as just being on gangs and you know getting involved in county lines which a lot of them dont actually know what theyre doing so it is a much Bigger Picture its not as simple as whats been said. But in another country or in revelations about Vulnerable Children in armenia too we can report it we discovered that for over 20 years a criminal network forced mothers to give up their newborns against their will so that they could be sold abroad for adoption reporting on the roof and. This is a story with many children involved but it is not one of these typical happy ending tales a team might expect to hear during Holiday Season an investigation is on to go in now in armenia into an alleged black market Adoption Network believed to have been operating for years to citizens of the republic of armenia using their contacts in one of the republican obstetrical institutions organized the adoption of more than 3 dozen children more than 30 babies to italy and there were also cases of adoption by u. S. Couples one of the victims has been trying to achieve justice for almost 2 decades already her name is susana she says 20 years ago doctors pressured her to give up her daughter stella threatening to report her case of a 16 year old mother to police and her father she signed papers refusing her rights. Because i held my baby in my arms after he was born but that i stayed in the hospital for another 2 days or so but i didnt see him ever again they told me that he was born prematurely and didnt survive i was given some peoples to sign but it was too weak to understand what i was signing in december they are mean and authorities detained the countrys chief ops attrition who says on the accuses of threatening her and other officials as part of the probe it does make a better man was released several days later due to lack of evidence a spark public outrage. A lawyer who has represented susanna since 2013 has hes explanation for 7 long years we were shouting about it at every corner this is a mafia that is stronger and more powerful than the one controlling drug traffic i can say there were relatives of the rulers involved. In 2017 Human Rights Watch released 102 page report titled when will i get to go home documenting thousands of cases of children in armenia needlessly often forcefully isolated separated from their families and placed to institutions more than 90 percent of them have at least one living parent and said they International Ngo then tried to draw attention to disturb in inaction by authorities the government of armenia has made some bold commitments to reduce the number of children in institutions but needs to make sure this promise is backed by serious sustained action 2 years later last september the authorities noticed that 4 times as many children went to foreigners rather than to locals and started investigation all adoptions have since been suspended in armenia which might be a good news though changes little for those who believe their kids were wrongfully given away years ago and then there must be a legal solution so that we could do validate they dont have the child its about selling children i will do everything i will not back down there must be a fair trial. Live from our church is not what should the latest news roy and let me tell you about whats on the way in the stories you got coming up here black rock theyre rewarded for pushing painful reforms what is anger in france over awarding a top gong to america boss thats linked with civic make some connections after the break the countrys divisive pension change. Theres a lot of here is the economy where china has caught up or surpassed us you know the mobile payments markets 50 times the size of the us or over here still writing checks our Banking System is not innovated 5 g. We kind of recently walking up the last couple years and go wow we dont even have a company that can make 5 g. Equipment its been a win win for china and its been a lose lose for the u. S. And france has revealed the nominees for its highest state award the legion of honor but some of the names are causing more than a little consternation including the head of the French Branch of an American AssetManagement Firm linked to the countrys controversial Pension Reforms blackrock is one of the Worlds LargestAsset Management firms and has been in front since 2006 indeed now last summer though it privately pushed for privatizing part of the french Pension System with a us style format its accused of trying to take advantage that of the countrys deeply divisive reforms which have seen weeks of crippling strikes shelob in scale looks at whether or not the company could cash in potentially if these reforms do get through. To be awarded frances a legion of own a medal is to receive the countrys highest award so no doubt this years recipients were pleased as punch to know that theyd been given the nords it when the list was announced one name provoked rather than appreciation it was that of the. Head of the French Branch of the American ManagementCompany Black rock. Well critics accused of trying to cash in on the controversial Pension Changes that are currently being pushed through by the french government. Directly benefit from the pension reform. The jets to honor the lead of blackrock france is nothing but an anecdote blackrock is simply the dark side of the pension reform john transource you believe president of blackrock france is promoted to officer of the legion of warner on january the 1st as a reward for pillaging of our pay as you go passions the presentation of the legion of honor it is on france was to release a provocation it reveals the close ties that exist between the graun and the world of finance hes selling the retirement system to american Pension Funds its a big deal strikes against pension reform and now into this week its the longest running strike in half a century across problems people have taken to the streets to let the government know that plans to merge 42 different Pension Plans into one with you the system at the same time is raising the age of retirement or not welcome. On pension reform and everything and the next issue is Social Security and social protection and. We are not at all in favor of the status quo we are in favor if you prove ing the system but its not tearing it down and we will go on it until it is withdrawn and improved but has already come under fire off it was accused of attacking french pensions now its alleged to have provided recommendations to the government in regards to reform and way and it will benefit from any privatization of frances redistributive pay as you go Pension Schemes something the government and but cork is at pains to deny in no way have to exert and influence on the current Pension System citron what dispatches the French Market is a box of trees from blair clan to stop talking nonsense. And there is a big but in an internal document unveiled by french t. V. In many t. V. Last month that books of. Streets is a lot bigger than the secretary of state to my time do you believe it outlines the high market value in france and how black orchid wanted a piece of the pie critics say bestowing