all. thank. you and. moscow is once again shrouded in small despite firefighters winning back almost three quarters of the areas of

russia previously engulfed by wildfires. in. japan marks in the sixty fifth anniversary of america's atomic bombing of the japanese city of nagasaki with the impact still being felt today by the victims. spies in the skies the european union considers a controversial new surveillance system monitoring airline passenger behavior during flights as an anti terror measure but critics say it breaches of the fundamental right to privacy. it is seven o'clock in the morning in moscow this is where we're proud to bring you the top stories from around the world now firefighters have further cut the area

affected by wildfires in russia but thick smog has returned to the capital blazes are now covering only a little more than a quarter of the territories they did a week ago. but the relentless flames have devoured entire villages and towns in their path leaving more than three thousand people homeless the record heat wave in central areas triggered blazes across more than twenty regions while firefighters have been enjoying recent successes they're still battling in the. region neighboring moscow. poisonous to return to the capital after a few days of clear skies. explains the consequences. of this summer's wildfires different from those in previous years the disaster was not only widespread but highly visible especially in the capital a blanket of smoke for several weeks so too did it envelop the country's economy. to its sure the situation is very severe as about

a quarter of all grain fields in the country have dried up as a result of the drought unfortunately many firms are now on the verge of bankruptcy the government has already agreed to provide financial help to agricultural producers who are faced with times the government responded by banning wheat exports until beyond of the year it sent world grain prices to their highest for two years the danger is that given we have been through two thousand and seven two thousand and eight and we saw prices precede rises in other prices of commodities the danger is that financial markets start to anticipate price growth in other commodities and that's actually what causes a more general food price spike the short term effects of the wildfires have been quickly reflected in the price tags of some essential food and while customers can already feel how much their wallets have become this summer the long term effects of the catastrophe cost it. over fifty people died in the farmers while the death

rate in other small shrouded regions has double what at its height in moscow alone . soon some seven hundred people were dying each day the long term effect on the health of august want to be known for years when you have forest fires not only do you have the smog but you've also got carbon monoxide and you've got small particles which are in just a dent alarms and cause problems breathing the country's ecological lungs are badly damaged to eight hundred thousand hectares of forest fire in an area the size of cypress morton and yes they can be planted but it will take time for them to grow it will take several decades to make up for this loss we've lost the lungs of the moscow region i mean the woods contributing to air purification and oxygen production but which is a considerable blow against the environment of the metropolis. what took decades to grow has been obliterated in one long hot summer now russians are wondering whether

the unusually high temperatures are just a freak of nature or if the herald a time when most won't be just known for its freezing winters but for its scorching summer as is while you sit in the church of r.t.e. . now more than one hundred sixty thousand firefighters army personnel and volunteers are trying to defeat russia's wildfires but not all of them are fighting on the ground artes and he said now in joint one of the emergency teams operating in the skies above one of the worst affected regions. this is how it all starts with a small flame that can quickly and golf the entire forest making this a very fierce battle for emergencies workers and volunteers. one of the biggest operations in fighting these fires happened from the air port an airport in the resign region one of the worst hit by these fires and the emergency services has invited our two to come along for

a ride and it ill seventy six. the . other day and. if you want to drop over the past. service. down below our first. flight. and it's like if you look. at it. as you can see helicopters are also working to put out these flames it was quite a ride we took the mike i said to the world kate major and that's in fact why prime

minister vladimir putin chose to come here to fly on one of those planes we just flew on and see the process himself of course it's not only authorities and volunteers trying to contain these flames ordinary people citizens are doing what they can to help gathering whatever items they can food water clothes to help those who have lost everything and we're terribly hoping that this crisis will soon come to an end and he's in our way our teeth design region. a little bit later this hour we'll look at whether the u.s. can really. stick to its deadline to get out of iraq and analysts say the promise is more to appease people at home rather than a fair assessment of whether the rocks are ready to go it alone. and if we look at why so few female murder convicts governors parole in california despite being cleared for release by prison borders. japan has

marked the sixty fifth anniversary of america's atomic bombing of nagasaki a tragedy which left around one hundred forty thousand people dead and shocked the world i had the opportunity to travel to japan and talk to some of those who survived the disaster. sixty five years ago sumi taro was enjoying a simple morning bicycle ride when in a tragic instant his life was changed forever. i was thrown to the ground and i didn't eat piecing sound i thought i had been killed but i encouraged myself not to deny that it was important to go on living. at first noticed his bicycle had been twisted and bent out of shape but as he started to move he began to realize the severity of his own condition. on my left arm and shoulder my skin was dripping and i had severe. eleven year old yoshi he was at home with his twin brother just two kilometers from the blast center on that

fateful morning. at eleven o two i saw that and give to the floor to cover my hand eyes and ears there was a wave in our entire house crashed over us. go and his brothers crawled from the rubble and went into the city to look for their father who worked at the mitsubishi munitions plant close to the heart of the explosion on their way they found countless charred bodies and a terrifying scene you have. the river you were drawn to a woman who was walking with what looked like a wide belt cloth trailing behind her but when we took a closer look it was her intestines coming out of her stomach there was nothing we could do. this is the hyper center of the bomb which means sixty five years ago it exploded five hundred meters above this exact spot and the people who suffered that horrific event well their stories are truly amazing but what they didn't know back

then and just as disturbing is the long term effects of that radiation the effect is continuing. sixty five years. so. true that. radiation is affecting human bodies for sixty five years. has had continuous surgeries throughout his life to remove tumors on his back caused by the radiation now he declares that the war did not end in one thousand nine hundred five but rather the effects continue to this day and even though. he wasn't as severely injured initially as an adult he has endured liver disease and two types of cancer attributed to the bomb as well as the psychological damage of the event. the atomic bomb was extremely cruel america should never have a drop of the bombs and human be on the test in new mexico should have been the end of nuclear weapons once the power of these weapons was known. but having

experienced the wrath of the world's most devastating weapon these two survivors have one shared message. people use that would deter and but i do not believe that human beings can co-exist with nuclear weapons a reason why the a bombs survivors of hiroshima and nagasaki are pushing for peace and complete global nuclear disarmament nagasaki and hiroshima are the only two cities in the world ever to have been attacked by nuclear weapons now sixty five years later they embrace a message of peace their citizens determined that their cities will be the last ever to experience such horror. ten years ago saw the sinking of one of the russian navy's most advanced nuclear submarines cursed with the loss of all one hundred eighteen lives on board memorial services have been held throughout russia families of the crew who perished and fleet commanders it's in the barents sea where the vessel went down during naval war exercises be official investigation concluded

that fuel leakage from a torpedo sparked an explosion leading to a chain reaction of detonations and catastrophe occurs tragedy remains the worst naval disaster in russia post soviet history. the e.u. is facing flak for a new scheme which could see every day passengers monitored on commercial flights it's designed to detect irregular behavior patterns that might unmasked potential terrorists but civil liberties campaigners have denounced the idea as a violation of the democratic right to privacy or amid reports. off for a week in the sun but if the european union project goes ahead these people could have conversations and movements monitored while they're flying the plan has a law on civil liberties campaigners who fear further growth in the surveillance state but at passengers a divided yelling as this because it's like a private personal you wouldn't i don't know this is

a lie you keep pushing and pushing it with like the regulations and i think it's so prevalent already. with this expected you watch t.v. you watch t.v. you'll be surveilled. here there's a more in me but nothing to hide so i wouldn't worry me personally. the e.u. project is aimed at tackling terrorism by analyzing the way passengers behaved in a bid to isolate potential bombers or hijackers when they're already on board at the moment surveillance on planes is mainly limited to a c.c.t.v. camera near the cockpit persons are the most watched people in the world with more c.c.t.v. cameras per capita than any other nation there are cameras almost always in train stations and in at ports and it's here at the university of reading that the new in-flight surveillance system is being developed it won't just include cameras they'll also be microphones and special systems for monitoring unusual behavior

behavior the system will eventually be able to pick up include sweating moving around the cabin in an erratic way and repeated visits to the toilet dr james ferryman insists it will distinguish between potential terrorists and nervous flyers now one way to do that is to look very carefully at the types of cues that we take. someone may be nervously anxious lee sweating in our solution because it doesn't say anything. but it could be a terrorist but we only know that this information with other sources of information took place. a lot to think of it as not big brother watching but big brother looking after you not everyone sees it that way campaigners say previous is one of the litmus tests for democracy and mass surveillance erodes it enormously treats. she. continued.

apart from the civil rights money question the. terrorist isn't cool. they say by the time of. belt tightening that stamford bridge. is giving. following the.

first nuclear power plant next week the russian nuclear agency building. nuclear fuel on the twenty first the plant's likely to go. under strict monitoring to. dog. supply fuel and remove the waste for reprocessing recently imposed strict sanctions against iran. abandon its uranium enrichment program but russia says western fears that the plant can help to iran make

a nuclear bomb are groundless. you cannot any power use nuclear power plant in your hypothetical meaning. you give bob bland it's just literally right that you just said. is true that there i am. we call that double double purpose is recently spent fuel. rods this elements weaken our holes in your responsibility because we are going to supply with nuclear fuel sure nuclear bombs one for all the life time and them goes to get spent fuel back to the process of the russian area. in a few minutes why india as a band class structure is proving hard to cast off parents children from schools where food is shared by people seemed to be from a lower order. now the united states says it's sticking

to its target to end all combat operations in iraq by the end of august and to withdraw almost all troops by the end of next year currently there are over sixty thousand u.s. troops in iraq but that's expected to drop to fifty thousand in the next few weeks however iraq's top military officials warn that american troops could be needed there for up to a decade more until the country's security forces are ready to fully take over veteran investigative journalist john pilger told r.t. that the media aren't asking enough questions about this proposed withdraw. this announcement by obama. would be the end of the combat mission next two years nonsense and that's another example of the of the media simply taking at face value something that told by authority. in fact there's going to be something like ninety four bases left and sixty thousand troops

and sort of cold that is an increase in the number of mercenaries they call them contractors so far from getting out there was a great expression by a great irish investigative journalist cold clawed koeppen never believe in a thing until it's officially denied we should apply the tools statements like that meanwhile in afghanistan the new coalition commander has admitted president obama's two thousand and eleven target date to start withdrawing troops may not be possible u.s. general david petraeus says forces will be pulled out only if as he put it conditions permit the security situation continues to deteriorate despite the heavy military presence for american troops july was the deadliest month since the campaign began almost nine years ago what's more a united nations report says civilian casualties rose by twenty five percent in the first half of two thousand and ten compared to the same period last year the number

of children killed soared buying more than half the white house says thirty thousand more soldiers will be deployed by the end of august. american women who have been jailed for murdering their abusive partners are apparently being denied parole because of political ambitions rather than serving justice campaigners argue the prisoners killed only through fearing for their own lives but as christina explains state governors are keeping them under lock and key to secure future votes . meet norma when i first came here my son wasn't even a year old and i think that he. kind of sees me and the other women that he's met here at the visiting room he kind of sees like women that have. gone through a lot and ended up you know still standing on our feet now forty years old she's been behind bars since one thousand nine hundred ninety two people convicted of killing her abusive boyfriend during a violent attack one of many in their relationship this is somebody who doesn't

belong behind bars somebody who made a terrible mistake and readily admits that she made a terrible mistake by picking up a gun in the first place in two thousand and nine she was found to be suitable for parole by the california parole board that decision was overturned by california governor arnold schwarzenegger's our reality shared by many women here at the california institution for women in los angeles most have long histories of abuse from the person for whom they are convicted of killing down the road the university of southern california law school has taken up the cause of many of these women in a program called the post conviction justice project professor michael brennan is one of the founders are clients for the most part have committed a single serious crime in their life and that's a crime that they're serving their sentence for they are represented by law students like andy martin i'm representing their assault garcia who was at the age

of thirteen trafficked into the united states and sold to a man who for six years physically emotionally and sexually abused her garcia was forced at gunpoint to help with that man drag and bury the body of the man he had shot then convicted of aiding and abetting so far she has served seventeen years in march she too was deemed suitable for parole the parole process is really the beginning of a long legal battle for the convicted it's not the end of the. story it turns out it's not even the end of this chapter parole for both garcia and could be in was just reversed by california governor arnold schwarzenegger of the four thousand cases that go before the board each year just about seventeen percent are found suitable for parole and of those governor's fortune egger has overturned more than sixty percent previous governors reversed ninety percent so why why this

obsession with incarceration because most governors in california certainly at some point in their career feel that they may have. possibility of running for president they're concerned about granting parole to inmates who might go out and commit a serious crime but many of these women's records show they would not be a danger to society that they were young and scared for their lives or for the lives of their children. that. ok the crime or the number we. were promised to be on the one. end of the line for many is here. in prison for life despite their sentence you can't turn parole boy if sentences into. what we call l.-wop sentences life without possibility of parole simply because.

victim rights groups or others think that if you've been convicted of murder you should never be paroled a broken system chance is given then taken away and still hope the system will change for campian that she'll be reunited with her son it will work out in the end if if you really truly love somebody like the way that i love him i want him to be the best like even if i have to stay here forever i just want him to be. the best in los angeles christine for south r.t. now let's run through some other headlines around the world right now during a visit to flood the ravaged pakistan united nations secretary-general ban ki moon has called for an unprecedented response from the world at least fifteen hundred have been killed in the country's worst ever natural disaster survivors face

starvation and illness as emergency crews struggled to reach the worst affected areas of least one case of cholera has been confirmed spreading fears of a wider outbreak pakistan's prime minister said twenty million people are currently home with. flags were at half mast across china on sunday as the country declared a day of national mourning for the twelve hundred victims of last weekend's landslides around five hundred are still missing after massive avalanches of mud and rocks all public entertainment has been suspended emergency services are working to help those still trapped under the debris and are trying to prevent further flooding. attempts to bring equality to india by eliminating the centuries old hindu caste system are proving tough to enforce and though such discrimination has been banned for more than fifty years it's still a force in the indian world seeing explains. it's a problem that's been simmering but now so many davey sees it's fast reaching

boiling point she's a newly appointed cook in this primary school and johnny board here to prepare the government funded midday meal but despite sony's best intentions some of the students turned their noses up many creations because she's a doll it or untouchable in traditional hindu society on the upper caste books. community minos maybe even now in some upper class children don't want to try me by me their parents consider the food polluted by my time church what can i do i'm here to make lunch in the school and treat the children here just like my own kids one hundred twenty million children across india receive a me every working day in the largest school lunch program in the world but when the education ministry decided to send it cooks schools where the majority of upper caste hindus many found to hard to swallow. the media

a meal can entice poor parents to send their children to school the kids look forward to it but there are some parents who don't want their children to eat food made by low caste people have removed their children from here and also threaten us as well. meet the same family a member of the upper caste raj board community they refused to allow their ten year old son to continue studying in a school which they felt didn't respect their customs and pulled him out immediately and look we are upper caste we believe strongly in the cost system we cannot eat food made touched by somebody from a lower caste that's why we're moved to child from this government school and take him into a party activist said this kind of reaction demonstrates the difficulty in a ready getting the caste system discrimination on the basis. of cost is illegal in india but the practice is still entrenched in brutal areas where the kind of work

you do and who you can meet with is largely divided along class lines how can we hold much love we know past people are treated like at the upper castes or just about they tell us stay on one side watch the utensils that anything to humiliate test they want to assume a new low and never rise up and if the government says legal action will be taken against villagers who are poor cooks in schools the earlier this is done the better after all this attempt to get children of all costs to eat together irrespective of who's made the food is a small but important step in the country's journey to bridge social divisions got unseeing r.t. but. stay tuned for peter lavelle's cross talk debate show which is a few minutes away right here on our team.