it was supposed to be a new beginning instead it was a fiery end just one day after giving birth to baby victoria queen or an alexander killer's house was burnt to the ground it was one of the many inverted nish destroyed by the fierce fire that tool three peoples' homes leaving devastation in its wake move. we've lived here for five years and now this is all that remains of a home now they have to stay in a refuge center one of two in the city that has been set up to help those are being left homeless. when interviewed toria which means victory so i think we'll recover from the fire. i think everything will be all right we've got enough help and our life has just started we've been hit way continuing and fires still burning throughout central russia many towns villages and homes remain at risk emergency services have been battling to gain control of the situation. now the situation is

under control at least eighty houses down during the fire at least one person died in this village probably when the man desperately trying to leave his burning house was struck by falling one of the electric shock killed. whilst many have lost their houses to the fire kareena and alexandra remain great knowing that like they could have lost a lot more now the country's leaders also promised to provide assistance to these people we've heard prime minister payton say that the families that have lost homes will be receiving up to one hundred thousand dollars and hopefully this will be used to rebuild their homes by october now but obviously the people having to deal with the situation that they've been left in now those two verses. and we've seen a huge amount of volunteers coming forward in bringing clothes and food and just offering general assistance to these people that have been left in this situation.

i was at work when my son called me and said there is a for clues to our home i rushed home but in fifteen minutes he called back and said everything is burned down and there are no firefighters here when i tried to come closer to the homes there was panicking everyone helped people from the hospital which was in flames. with anyone in them to let me see my children were there when a friend with my children their faces were black they were frightened and shocked. and i've also heard from the russian paycheck well has expressed his condolences to some of these people. everyone not to fooling to destroy this is a natural disaster and we can't control it but we can control. pastors and to pray for people affected by the following. now the timing of those condolences very appropriate because in the russian orthodox church calendar. second of august

is the day of the light of the controls the rain and thunderstorms will certainly help a lot of people hoping for some the thought over the next couple of weeks because at the moment there's no sign of this heat wave they say and of course you can see behind me the destruction that these fires are causing everyone really very concerned and the situation and ensure that more damage isn't done. still to come. resident gathers opinions on whether it was right for the web site wiki leaks to release u.s. military files. sordid details of politicians i don't think we need to know but information that's in the public. should know everything. indiscriminate shooting by u.s. soldiers and civilians is nothing unusual that's the view of veterans you spoke to they regret their actions. desperately trying to intercept thousands of barrels containing toxic chemicals which are floating towards russia

severe floods washed the drums into a river on wednesday. in office in russia's far east looking into unconfirmed reports that some barrels already leaking poisonous contents. base either just around fifty years ago the water in the arm or was so clean it was possible to drink it straight from the river obviously over the years the situation has changed but the ecology here is now under threat of becoming even worse chinese authorities now say that they've managed to extract several thousand barrels which had been washed into the river last wednesday as a result of the biggest flood china has experienced in a decade but that means that several more thousand barrels are still in the water and since the river joins the. chinese located just several dozen kilometers away from here these barrels are clearly en route to words russia chinese authorities eight beers to prevent these barrels from reaching here however there are signs

suggesting that the ecology is still under threat first of all out of the seven thousand barrels which have got into the water three thousand of them contain chemical substances including acids which may be harmful to the environment and there have been reports that some of these barrels have leaked these chemicals into the water and the old we also be en route. towards the also been reports that some of the barrels may have sunk into the water and that creates a potential future of threat to be environment and also makes it much more difficult to extract them to surface and since the river is a major source of fresh water in the city. and in russia's far east in general media locals here are very concerned about the situation. they say they're trying to intercept them but i still think some will eventually end up here some say they're leaking and the chemicals will come anyway. it's not the first time we've

had problems like this in the winter there was a big chemical spill and we had to use what's a filters china has to find a way to prevent the steam or we won't be able to drink this water at all of course the authorities in russia are very concerned about the situation as well and the russian consulate and embassy are cooperating with authorities in china nevertheless the officials here are already planning ways to distribute fresh water to the local population in case a contamination does occur but thankfully so far the emergencies ministry which is monitoring the quality of the water by taking samples at least twice a day they see that so far they haven't found any abnormalities. this week the u.s. added thirty seven billion dollars to its war budget after congress approved further funding for the afghan troops capitol hill was unmoved by the whistle blowing web site wiki leaks which published ninety thousand classified documents detailing civilian deaths at the hands of nato personnel the pentagon is

investigating the source of the leaks and one soldier has been charged with releasing online a classified video of a military operation the white house has requested to stop posting top secret documents but the founder and editor in chief of the website julian assange says they've tried to cooperate with the white house but have received no response. we're looking at these you seriously to see whether that is true we did hold back between thousand reports for the 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 to be built except that request. in april wiki leaks released a video apparently showing u.s. soldiers in iraq shooting civilians from a helicopter as i can find out soldiers who served on the frontline say it was not out of the ordinary occurrence. something that any military tries to keep under

wraps civilians killed during an operation this april the pentagon saw one of its skeletons walk out of the closet a secret video of american soldiers opening with looks like indiscriminate fire in a baghdad suburb three years ago more than a dozen people were recruited dan including two reuters news staff also two children were wounded visitant was investigated and the u.s. military concluded that the actions of the soldiers were in accordance with the law of armed conflict and its own rules of engagement so while the u.s. military is ok with causing some collateral damage it's when civilians die in the course of action a number of soldiers who were involved in those killings now speak out and say this shouldn't be a norm of warfare you can see in the eastern mccord a soldier with the unit that's shown in the video said it hadn't been

a one time experience he went as far as to say soldiers in his unit were ordered to kill civilians in certain circumstances mccord said the message they got from their commander was if someone in your line gets hit with an improvised explosive device three sixty rotational fire you kill everyone on the street. chastity bers served in the same unit as ethan mccord he refused to talk about the order because of as he said the threats and warnings that he'd received from his former army fellows but the secret video of how they come to killings seemed nothing unusual to him and from our experiences what was shown in that video was no uncommon and happened on a fairly regular basis just as the training they'd gone through did not angry much sensitivity either he remembers one of the songs soldiers were made to sing the

more intense on going is because i went down to the market where all the children were a woman shot or i was shoddy and i began to chop josh and a group of other former soldiers are now touring the u.s. and telling people of their experiences and their regret for me it was when i was finally able to kind of put myself in the shoes of of all the people. really start to imagine how what are your three. storms in people's homes sometimes in the middle of. and children's faces. some blame the type of war the us was finding for the psychological trauma so many american soldiers are now going through it was a very disorienting and destabilizing condition of warfare for most american

soldiers to try to separate the but nine populus from the insurgents who wanted to kill them that were absolutely indistinguishable from regular civilians. rather. eason mccord and josh stieber signed a letter of apology to the mother of the children hurt during the operation and pledged to change from the inside out again is chicken art team washington d.c. and brian becker from the american antiwar coalition says someone within the military leaked the documents. i know there's a current argument that the u.s. military may have leaked this in order to blame pakistan or to blame others i don't think that's really what's going on i think that there are wars has within the u.s. military just as they were doing in vietnam who have become disillusioned with the war and are releasing these documents to paint a picture that tells something quite different from the official version with the

hope that the american people will as they did during vietnam become opponents of the war and help change the policy. and you can watch the full version of the interview with the antiwar activist and director of the answer coalition brownback next hour here on r.t. and artie's resident laurie healthiness it's the streets of new york together opinions on the we can leak story. should they be releasing such sensitive information this week let's talk about that i'm a journalist and i think freedom you get the people need to know what's happening and i think it's great is there anything that the public shouldn't know. i don't want sordid details of politicians i don't think we need to know that but information that's in the same public domain just such a should know everything is there any information that should never be published by

a watchdog oh yeah i mean if this thing which is going to endanger troops or something which is really going to hurt us or hurt the people who are really trying to the right thing in afghanistan that should absolutely not be shared out of ninety one thousand reports and it is possible i'm sure there's a bunch in there that's bad stuff i believe that you know america should know a lot of things but also america should be kept in the dark about other things and they compared to the pentagon papers this was released without a lot of. explaining what it all mean it's just a lot of information without a lot of explanation and that leads to can you know anyone could take it and use it how they want to use it should they have done it no but is the i'm a she should the information been classified in the first place that's another question i mean some of that information is pretty basic is it really a serious risk to national security and the fact that the information was published it doesn't look like it but it's not a good idea to be leaking classified information whether or not you think this kind

of government information should be released to the public the bottom line is that now it's out there for the whole world to access so let's just hope it doesn't fall into the wrong hands. here with live in moscow a lot more coming your way this hour including. this as a baby box if a mother wanted to meet her child should have to do would be to pull on this humble . it's designed to save infants critics say it's encouraging women to give up the children. even south korea. or us live report the plane. more ship in march. in a few minutes from here on the. u.s. state of arizona has enforced new illegal immigration legislation this week but the most disputed pullets of the bill was struck just before it was enacted it means

immigrants will be safe from random police checks which some claimed were racial profiling but those against the bill say it's a bittersweet victory has the fate of illegals in the u.s. remains precarious. as it. doesn't sound like your typical immigration protest today i feel great. everybody was so excited. because just one day before the law was to be enacted i. harshest provisions. to be removed a celebration over one hundred long hot days in the me. that

would break. my neck. every. night but it wasn't always. some of our summer. day twenty four as this is taking over. and right now this is the only issue we can work because there's so much demand. here were directly in the thick of it right on the front lines of what is a national struggle and whenever there's a national struggle money has to be made here. now. where anyone can be a patriot belong to god. and stand in solidarity with america's immigrant population but although venture an activist jonah clary is busy these days he's not very optimistic about the future of the hispanic community

a lot of the emerge that are coming here are coming here to escape the political and economic systems that we created in their country they're coming here for the ability to live to have crewed to have children to have what they need to take care of their families and they can't have that where they came from largely as a result of united states imperialism in their country a sentiment that was echoed by native born add naturalized citizens alike blaming the very nation they would do anything to stay in this country is so criminal and its actions all over the world it has no right to tell one group of people not to cross borders when it's crossing illegally crossing borders and all over the world to bomb innocent people but most of these folks want to drop a different kind of bomb and i demand that the u.s. government listen to them they say oh you. all have come here for a better future at least the first step we have to continue making your voice heard

in our presence you know dina go soft archie phoenix arizona. north korea has demanded its experts be enough to examine the scene where a south korean warship sank the vessel went down in march killing forty six sailors a south korean newspaper leaked findings from a new russian led inquiry that suggest that by getting to see mine although these have not been confirmed by moscow and now the international investigation accuse the north of carrying out a tank and u.s. sixty of state hillary clinton said there was overwhelming evidence and was to blame north korea has always denied its involvement in the sinking foreign policy and stephen gallant says the results of the first report raise doubts even within south korea. the lead government is not a government that is interested in peaceful coexistence with north korea it's a is to see the collapse of north korea and its absorption into the south. it's also suspicious that the south korean government's report was released on the eve

of gubernatorial and local elections there's also the case of. the idea that the north korean submarine could have been operating in the shallow waters in which the cheering and saying is incredible but one could make the argument that the entire point of this incident in the blaming of it on north korea was to provide a pretext to escalate tensions there is a large opposition within south korea to the idea that in fact north korea is responsible for the sinking of the ship. when after some other international news this hour here in r.t. greek truck drivers have announced ending their weeklong strike and entering into talks with the governor to return to work on monday but one of possible further action comes after some drivers abate a government order to return to work fearing prosecution the strike caused a major fuel shortage with military vehicles being forced to deliver. the truckers walked out over government plans to open up their sector to help tackle the country's financial crisis. and the red cross and the pope of all praised the

global treaty banning the production and use of cluster bombs weapons contain hundreds of small explosive some of which failed to detonate on impact and remain a lethal threat they've long been compared to learn mines for the recently host to civilians more than one hundred countries have endorsed the agreement however the us russia china and israel are yet to sign up. abandoned babies are often found in strange and unsafe places sometimes even discarded like rubbish in the czech republic though it's five years since a special facility was set up for women to give away their children but the so-called baby box has many opponents. there all around the czech republic at first sight they're just nondescript metal doors on the sides of hospitals and government buildings but they've already helped to save dozens of lives this is a baby box every mother wanted to leave her child or should have to do would be to

pull on the handle and put the child inside now it doesn't just a metal container an infant would be able to survive here for several hours but usually they're rescued within several minutes by those on the other side the first one was placed in this private hospital it's still the most popular with nearly fifteen children left here in five years. maybe books as soon as the babies placed inside the door locks on the outside and in the lama settle i remember running to the box for the first time to see the baby inside and showing it to the doctor to be examined like that special i think it is an amazing invention. the baby books and learned is not a doctor but a writer and horse breeder but his idea was not immediately well received with protests from some clergyman and even doctors. though the baby box is high tech with three hundred twenty eight parts special places to leave unwanted children existed even in ancient times. but the government was wary of the baby books and

didn't provide funding as if i was encouraging people to get rid of their children now the perception has changed. but it is life and christina have dated for two years and run a hostel in prague although they can have children of their own don't also like to adopt the baby box child. come from the. family i have four brothers and three forty presidents. usually with me so i like children they do not know where or when but sure enough it is a matter of time before someone don't want that child will become a welcome addition to their family. r.t. prague this week marks ten years since the international space station first became habitable a decade ago russian life support systems were installed which meant cosmonauts could spend more time in orbit while to celebrate the anniversary the current crew sent

a message from space. square to be working here in our space office is the best window of you know traffic jams on the way to work though there are not many people around and space aliens haven't visited us yet we're never bored and luckily we are far away from the heat. well arty's sean thomas was lucky enough to get a close up look at the workings of the s.s. but with his feet firmly on the ground. it circles the globe about three hundred fifty kilometers from the earth's surface it is the largest construction in space it is a marvel of modern engineering which is approaching a crucial milestone. the i.s.a.'s is a major contemporary space project it involves a big number of program participants including the united states canada european countries and japan and the station is being used as a big scientific laboratory though it is a prime example of international cooperation now the roots of the station stem from

the apollo soyuz program thirty five years ago when two rival space programs of the u.s. and soviet union integrated technology for the first time twenty years later russia and the u.s. expanded on that shared experience with the goal of creating a permanent space presence. we were part of right similes operation of both the mir orbital station and preparation for the. i remember those years the most interesting period of strenuous work which finally did to this great result this is the mark up of the capsule which is where astronauts and cosmonauts come to train at star city who are traveling to the international space station and it is in here that you get a sense of the significance of this capsule in one thousand nine hundred ninety eight the zarya and the unity capsules world watch but it wasn't until ten years ago when the capsule was attached that the space station became livable.

but made it possible for their crew to stay in the station it would be impossible to build the station at the pace it was constructed that without the special part of the infrastructure was now in place it was up to the station's first crew to get everything in motion. the first two weeks were critical since a lot of the systems were being activated for the first time some russian system segments were merged with us systems those machines had never seen each other in earth and that was the. they would work together. ten years on the i s s is approaching the record for a structure being continuously inhabited in space and on a currently held by russia's mir project and while it was originally only supposed to be in service until two thousand and fifteen it looks like a bright future for the international space station which i think a part of my assessment was decided to prolong the station's use until twenty twenty one possibly even longer if the technical state of the station is good ensuring a continued international presence in space for many more years to come john thomas

archie moscow. that happens up to take the money back with a recap of the headlines in a couple of minutes from now stay with us here on alt. this

is r t live here in the russian capital top stories now. for alarm blaze is caused

by record breaking heat in russia have spread into new areas of wildfires have claimed at least thirty lives and destroyed thousands of homes. wiki leak secrets the u.s. congress approved billions more for the afghan military campaign despite documents put online detailing cover ups of civilian deaths and a failing american war effort. trying to turn the tide water supplies in russia's far east are under threat as thousands of barrels containing toxic chemicals flowed down a chinese river towards the country's border. the sting is taken out of arizona's tough immigration law and just before it's an active activists say the fight is not over. when in a few moments from now the story the men behind bars looking to literally ride their way out of captivity our special report on how a prison radio is the only hope for freedom for some convicts that's next here.

the prisons may be filling up but the schools certainly are not louisiana has the worst high school dropout rate in the u.s. and loses around forty students every day something your courage is i've not been able to stop. my greatest concern is what happens to the ones that are eleven and twelve and thirteen and fourteen fifteen years old that are in the pipeline on their way to angola and as you can see in i was system we have a huge pipeline. we treat our children. who are worst of any state in the country overall way of the worst.