space of a couple of hours. i never thought fire could spread that fast but the wind was very strong it was like. police told us to leave they knew too it's dangerous to stay here it was only thanks to them where i live and who thing god it wasn't because then there would have been much more victims. one elderly man desperately trying to leave his burning house got struck by. the electric shock. friends and neighbors have around and there were many tales of courage. if i didn't come back on time my neighbor would have been burnt alive because she didn't see the fire approaching from both sides she could have been trapped in the middle at the last moment she ran out in her gown and slippers she's left without her identification and any of her documents the devastation wasn't just restricted to property. i buried my rottweiler he was near the house when it caught fire. and didn't want anyone approaching him.

it was a good dog people are now coming to terms of how everything that was being lost but they are help is coming from many. who have come here to one of the temporary refuge centers where people have been turning up in their hundreds bringing in clothes and offering help to those who lost everything in the fire with so many people left homeless the government has promised immediate help and that new houses will be built. in the meantime if it is like. reeling from fire damage left trying to pick up the pieces is a magic substance was the first really struggled with this to put them out prime minister speaking about the help you fight like a hundred thousand dollars. house we can hear more from him now he's just. not everything. it's been done to fight the fires but it's not the right time to

place blame so now we need to consolidate to fight the disaster that was the first thing you see here already we've heard it's running into millions and millions of dollars. and the bill is just very anxious to take its place. other news now here in r.t. thousands of barrels containing highly toxic chemicals swept into a river in china by floods could be carried into russia within days the chinese authorities are desperately trying to intercept the poisonous containers and the paying locals a reward for every container they retrieve bodies you got this kind of explains what could happen if they reach russia. river is one of the biggest sources of freshwater in russia's far east and in the city as well water standing now and it's ecology is still under up attentional threats because china is just several dozen kilometers away from here and so is this a river which joins the where the place where this emergency happened to the

chinese authorities do say that they've managed to extract several variables which have been previously washed into the river as a result of the biggest flood in a decade the china has experienced several more thousand barrels are still in the water in the sun for river and or en route towards the end towards russia china has built eight barriers in order to prevent them from getting here but there are several factors suggesting that anything could happen for example out of the seven thousand barrels which of initially got into the water three thousand of them contain toxic substances including acids which make it cause harm to humans and animals and it's not clear how many of these so far extracted barrels actually contain these toxic substances there are also reports that some of the barrels may have sunk to the bottom which makes them a potential future of threat for the ecology and also obviously makes it much more difficult to extract them to the surface this is not the first time that china has

experienced such problems back in two thousand and five a huge chemical spill has left millions of chinese without the supplies of fresh water and the authorities on both science are monitoring the situation at the emergencies ministry here is already monitoring the quality of the water so far they haven't reported any abnormalities but they do see that there are already planning ways to distribute fresh water to the local population in case of contamination does happen of course we'll be monitoring the situation and we will report on this story as it continues to develop. this is artsy in moscow and a little later in the program the close up to this it's the type of skinny kaluga region of russia for the architecture become a canvas for contemporary art and so to record cuttings. estonian veterans who sided with the nazis during world war two against the soviets

a gathering in the north east of the baltic states it has sparked outrage over why the country's authorities are welcoming fascist sympathizers and some of those who wanted to oppose the meeting i've been barred from entering. not says in one of the most feared movements the world has it countered yet there are those who glorify it today. on the border. there were two liberation wars in the world one began in one nine hundred fourteen the other in one nine hundred thirty nine soon there will be a third war and it will start here gaining momentum and giving the world true freedom. the estonian waffen s.s. were created by german forces in one thousand nine hundred four and sent to battle the anti hitler coalition forces thousands of civilians died at the hands of those soldiers get their glorified as the true heroes of a stone. rallies like these take place every year with full support from the

government people turn up in full regalia wearing nazi symbols and selling german war souvenirs a bitter pill for those who are trying to stop naziism in the baltics from rearing its ugly head. they to hold rallies but few managed to take part as the authorities in a stone you did everything in their power to stop them your son. i'm not going myself because a stunning or thirty's in two thousand and seven put the latvian anti fascist committee on the blacklist we all received explanatory notes my note contained a hardly credible statement that the latvian anti fascist committee posted a threat to a stunning statehood and civil order. blacklists with no explanations sudden inability to speak anything but estonian our crew witnessed all these tricks the empty fascist organizations however say nothing will stop them from calling the world's attention to this because the pain is too raw even sixty five years on so.

i put on these clothes for a second time and came up to the barbed wire and all of a sudden i imagined that excuse me please. thank. this standoff between welcomed neo nazis an unwelcome anti fascists is almost absurd authorities go as far as to ask the anti nazi activists to turn down their microphones as the sound interferes with the s.s. veterans rally. and as they lay flowers and light candles at the graves of soviet soldiers and a stone new labor camp victims they can but wonder how can the rest of the world tolerate such a glorification of naziism the entire world mourns the victims of the nazi killing machine here in a stony however those who participated in the murders are viewed as heroes and are given more glory than many believe they ever deserve the anti fascist movements

here in the baltic states however do say that they will put in every effort to prevent this attempt to rewrite history as much for the future generations as for the memories of those who lost their lives in the second world war castro's r r t a stone. the wiki leaks website exposes have more than seventy five thousand classified u.s. documents on the afghanistan war has enraged the one tells while suggesting a cover up in the deaths of hundreds of afghan civilians but artie's spoke to a source the man who started the controversial whistleblowing project four years ago. the taliban is part of the will of the people and. the united states and other forces need to recognize understand that that is part of the afghan people and if you're shooting taliban you are shooting people.

and i stay with us to see the rest of that interview with we can leaks founder julian assange right here on r.t. well time now to have a quick look at other stories making headlines around the world at this stage of the day the death toll from the worst floods in pakistan decades has reached eight hundred million people are being affected by the waters triggered by monsoon rains with some one hundred thousand stranded in remote villages daily to roads and bridges and hampered rescue efforts a state of emergency has been. expected to continue throughout the weekend. hundreds of protesters an indian administered kashmir killing two and injuring five demonstrators tried to set police camps on fire and threw stones at officers for other activists were shot dead during protests against indian rule on friday over the last six weeks twenty three being killed by government forces muslim separatists in kashmir or been fighting for an independent state or to merge with pakistan for more than twenty years now. but of course has rocked southeastern iran

a day after another quake in the country's northeast left over two hundred injured there are no reports of anyone hurt in the latest earthquake but there is extensive damage around is located on seismic fault lines and is prone to quakes experiences tremors almost daily. moral services being held in germany remember those who died in the stampede at the love parade techno music festival last saturday chancellor angela merkel broke off from her summer holiday to attend the service in the western city of duisburg pretty one people died and five hundred were injured during the mass panic and crush the other seven foreigners were among the dead. close-up team travels around russia so you can see some of the country's lesser known areas in this time we're going to take you to the kaluga region.

lives just eighty kilometers from moscow and has existed since the thirteenth century the picturesque town has many hillside churches however it's not all about traditional religious architecture its houses have become a canvas for contemporary art as katrina discovered. where else so close to moscow would you hear church bells ringing so often every fifteen minutes at a dozen churches similar tenuously this beautiful chime can be heard in the provincial town of bor of school located just eighty kilometers away from moscow and it's the closest cause of the kaluga region to the capital it takes so while defenders hilltop position thanks to the architects who started to build the town in the early fourteenth sanctuary morris comprises of several unique churches like the christian old believe us church also legendary that the monastery adds to the towers must see list but more of it is not only about traditional architecture and

golden dome scent crosses it's hauser's are canvas for contemporary art to self-taught artist but cheney is recording the history of his hometown through his paintings but his art his service comes that applies. to the charm of the russian provence to which nothing it seems could be added at. every time the construction engineer has turned a whole town into a giant canvas of rock and his native born collect food culture and splashed images of churches historical figures and still live on its walls in all one hundred new rules for good ninety four percent of people you know town don't visit on galleries and museums are too and they can take in the outdoors.

exhibition perhaps is not the greatest art of all time but still this is art the tell is near like to images until the muralist turned into a satirical commentator after the artist made a wall sized political cartoon featuring a local governor he became persona non grata. there were three paintings on this one is left to others will white washed under the pretext of this house being repaired the mayor has already destroyed ten of my works the biggest nero decorated a local bakery now that it's been whitewashed some locals haven't claimed the bread tastes wars well side is too holy for a chain it comes brush including walls opposite the mayor's office this painting for example depicts historical figures space travel. while based on your own right opposite the mayor's window is typical soviet satire well done cucumber.

the mayor didn't appreciate the humor of was fined several times and even faced court charges a local newspaper criticized him as a moral especially after he painted a controversial image of a religious martyr in a town where every second citizen is a regular churchgoer but surprisingly the biggest local ministry doesn't think the artist touched a raw nerve to go to the words we say i can painting is the bible in colors the same could be said about these paintings there the history of our town and colors it's especially good for the young people who were raised without knowing their roots. monk maxime turn to religion at the time of year is truly can russia images of abandoned church isn't widely watched icons are still strong in his memory he's convinced that the artist should not give up and should continue with

his dream of painting all of the border of squid he's anywhere else to talk more about why the provincial town of bor of schizo favorite of so many tourists and historians are now joined by expert in russian history and all the texture professor william brumfield hello and thank you very much for joining me so dr elders welcome you told me that the town of bor of held a deep place for you why is that what is so special about this i think part of it is the landscape the river that runs through the town creates a park but it also creates ravines and yells that played an important part in the history of the town and that's preserved today the other thing is that the town is off the main road there's no railroad so that the architectural heritage here of the old pals of. i've been remarkably well for free for some call the set up of most of ministry would concede from here for the town of or do you agree i certainly do in terms of its history its architecture its spiritual heritage it has

seventeenth century fresco. the main cathedral is the late sixteenth century it's a monastery of many dramatic historic events in fact in a monastery one of the main figures by jadine models that was incarcerated and ultimately died here then later of course its role in. the repel and various invasions and are probably on it invasion of the second world war so that it's always been very much a part of the history of russians are the first time you visited bored of it was about twenty years ago wasn't it how has the tone changed since that i think it's changed a remarkably and for the better they haven't destroyed what was left in the past all from the problem prosperity comes to a place let's hope that the town will remain just as well preserved historically for the next generations to thank you very much but that all sides of your west we don't brownfield expert in russian architecture and history from the town of four

of sc in a color good region. well i'll be back with headlines in a few minutes for you but first one of the biggest leaks in u.s. in a tree history a week ago the whistle blowing web site wiki leaks published of a ninety thousand classified documents some of them suggest a cover up of hundreds of afghan civilian deaths the white house claims are false threaten national security what is more and it's made up with a song of the phone bill of the web site that made the secrets public and you can hear what he has to say in just a few minutes from now. i'm

here in london talking to julian assaults the founder of the whistle blowing website wiki leaks which this week released a huge still say of documents relating to the afghan war which mr s. solves describes as detailing the every day squalor of war june that's almost like you very much for talking to r.t. now you've had a wide range of responses to this publication ranging from praise right down to criticism is that what you were expecting you know we knew this was serious material it covers a six year period of war and ninety two thousand reports and almost every incident serious incident that the u.s. military i was involved in together with the times and locations number of people killed except for. so we knew that it's in great importance as a historical document and as a primary resource to be used for further investigations and we also know from

those sorts of cases that we've dealt with previously that we always get pushback i whenever we repeal abuse by some of what i say should we always get that organization or its friends pushing back to try and steer the message away from you know occasions that have been raised and one of the main criticisms has been leveled at you is that you have published the villages the names and some cases. g.p.s. coordinates of people afghans who cooperated with the u.s. military and you even come under some criticism from human rights organizations for that and a u.s. official has called it a potential hit list for the taliban what's your response to that you know it's a piece of the mostly be media beat up i mean where we're looking at these you seriously to see whether that is true we did hold back people being thousand reports for for the through the review because they had this sort of classification that suggested maybe they contain that sort of material we approached the white

house to ask them for assistance in reviewing material before we published the white house we don't accept that request at this stage we're looking at this is mostly a media beat up of course we are very concerned to make sure innocents are protected so we're very happy to receive any evidence or which report is possibly revealing information about someone who is who is innocent there's also been a suggestion that the release of this information will make it harder for allied forces to get afghans this is to cooperate with them while what we reveal and that's what we've been doing for the path for us is the truth about how when i was ations actually behave you know if afghans don't like how those organizations actually behave then of course it is their right to engage with them or not engage with them it's not so much that there is a i think it's the potential danger that they might be in now that such a huge body of information in the public to may once again that is an allegation by

the london times of a publication who is in a oppositional relationship to the guardian the paper that we collaborated with the printed fourteen pages on monday elation to this issue the times of london printed zero or pages in relation to this issue on monday so they are now in an adversary relationship because they weren't invited to the party that washington says that these documents are out day says is there any truth to. well it depends what you're talking about if you're talking about how the war has progressed of course they're not at the war has been going since two thousand and one that's nine years this material covers the last six years with the exception of the last seven months now the exception is in jordan to some degree it means that the tool is not all tactical. significance of its doesn't talk about troops or about just about to do

something which means it is over a century no threat to. u.s. military forces but is deeply important for understanding the purpose of the war now that the white house say that while the material only goes up to december rain december we released obama's new policy on the war but obama's new policy on the war was in fact a continuation the previous policy except more troops so why should the war change so dramatically just because it's reality money policy changes being put in place the white house's rhetorical trick was to. say suggests that there was in fact no overlap between obama's policy and this material in fact obama's policy came to center for us and this material carries through in fact to the end of the year you've said that the under reporting of civilian casualties starts at the boats and with this sort of common soldiery and that really no policy change at the top is

going to filter down into that what do you think could make a difference it's the extreme we hard situation the answer is not. for all western forces well i said for members to. go in tomorrow. because that would lead to a power vacuum and so on but i mean the answer is probably a staged withdrawal. making agreements between the taliban and the afghan government as that stage was drawn continues and i predict there will be a continuation of the civil war and why he wants forces have to stop the some kind of equilibrium that we will see an increase towards peace i'm sure stands to gain from the release of all this information with the afghan people i mean that is their country and this is the history of their country and if they are to effectively manage and control their own destiny they need this information to

understand what is happening to their country but we can also say you know it's people united states. u.k. strayer and others in the coalition who are actually paying for all this war and he was sending its soldiers to be killed in this war and those people also have the rights to understand what is actually happening but here you can probably not benefit but it is all those military companies. who are making extraordinary profits by providing service services to troops weapons or. clothing and so on but isn't the taliban the afghan insurgency likely to gain from this as well because you have inadvertently maybe exposed the weaknesses of the allied forces we have to be careful there remember this is a civil war. everyone says tell about it but in fact the taliban are goddess this

is a civil war that is going on and the taliban pot all the will of the afghan people and they're also part of the will perhaps of the i.s.i. the pakistani secret intelligence service and of course perhaps that part of the will of saudi arabia who is giving some money to this but in terms of the bodies on the ground people actually doing the work the taliban is part of the will of the afghan people and. the united states and other forces need to recognize and understand that that is part of the afghan people and if you're shooting taliban you are shooting the afghan people this material doesn't paint the behavior of any military group in a nice light there's blood on all sides due to the sauce thank you very much.

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from the russian capital twenty four hours a day this is our top stories this small rings raging forest fires claimed at least twenty eight lives and needs of people when this is central russia suffers its worst heat wave in over one hundred years. supplies of russia's far east under threat as chinese authorities struggle to stop thousands of chemical waste barrels lost in the flooding from reaching russia. i understand you know four of these bar empty nazi protesters but a lot of former soldiers who fought for the nazis to gather for a commemoration in the country. has continued so and that's the whole thing i would like you to shove out of in the meantime especially report from kind of a stand in central asia where ethnic tension dating back to the nine hundred thirty s. recently turned violent hundreds of lives that's next on our team. best

has long been kurdistan's national color at one point the word scared and rather even meant the same. on the national flag it symbolizes valor courage. the golden sun and the sun to represents one asked for eternal life. signifies a product of all the people living. but if those two decades could distance flag has served as a banner of christie. every leader average government that told this country promise freedom and a better life. but so far.