in moscow a major crackdown on terror is in full swing in the north caucuses where security forces say they've killed over forty militants in august alone the home village of the leader of russia's chechen republic has become the latest target of government artie's north caucuses correspondent because she has more. during the operation twelve militants were killed because of skin cells headed their own to terrorist operation actually his kids were asleep in a house just a couple of blocks from the street where the operation was going on and this is how could their himself describes what happened and how would happen if you did the gunman came in to do is joining the night live to mentor as a group because this was the most convenient place to destroy them was surrounded them and shot at them and then with you hand grenades here's where it all ended we had been expected to lose our officers but it was inevitable but no students were injured kitchen authorities have already promised

a round so to style than dollars in compensation for the family is that lost their relatives during the counter terrorist operation five offices are were killed and many more injured terrorists a couple of houses on fire and they burned down several cars and drums on cause they're also promised that these will be arranged tourist no the situation in chechnya is calm and stable but the chechen president runs on could do of things that militants will continue their attempts their terror attacks and this is the reason why. the government's abusers are brute people like bin laden who want to destabilize the situation in russia that's one of them keep sending them here who says we'll keep shooting and blowing things up and we could destroy them and preventing them from achieving their goals. this is not the first response and a terrorist operation in the north caucuses just a couple of days ago ten militants were killed and i just on and covered as you

know bill carter overall war to militants were eliminated in the north caucuses it's just an organist and russian federal sources say that now they have proof that the killed militants have links with al qaida and they must remind. find the more school board these smart mohammed. was also killed in one of these operations during their moscow metro bombings forty people were killed and many more injured these were the two blasts did work carried out by suicide bombers ortiz works on an issue of a reporting from the capital of russia's chechen republic. a string of violence attacks on hispanic immigrants in new york has prompted fears of a new wave of racial hatred the victims say they've been targeted by african-americans who want to clear mexican people from their neighborhoods ortiz lorna's to reports manhole frustrations are boiling over. the

united states has always been a country of immigrants but they're not always welcome we've seen mexicans targeted in the western state of arizona which passed a tough law targeting undocumented immigrants there's many many people that come to this country and they go through the proper channels to do the proper thing and and the people that don't do that they're broken the law despite a backlash. now we're seeing more signs this sentiment is making ripples across the country far from the mexican border in one area of new york city. where. there has been a string of a dozen attacks on hispanic residents in recent months like ruhi leo the infidel you can literally find them simply walking through the neighborhood and the suspects unfortunately most of the most recent in the acts against which according to these victims they were targeted by teens while minding their own business it

was registered in the back of my head. and then they hit my arm which entry point for no other reason than being mexican they were appears to be a divide between the minorities sharing this poor area of new york despite this when you go through these statistics you want education and trying to bring the bottom of the blacks and hispanics which over here for one common good we don't have a problem but here the rift appears to be growing with the influx of hispanic immigrants city blocks that used to be vacant are now flourishing appearing to leave behind he she a lot of them that you're working you know that's working you know this is the main thoroughfare of this neighborhood it's where many of the mexican shops and markets like this one have popped up it's also where many of the anti mexican attacks have occurred now the police presence across the street as a result is new but residents say the issues are not. or was he just such

a he's up to forty. years. when i was in high school i was really getting think so because i was mexican some argue now blacks are unfairly targeted by all the attention that blacks feel slighted they feel mexican share in the blame too and i hear legally. they commit crimes here is an argument being made from this talk to a new york town to the streets in arizona so in a country of immigrants does this point to a pecking order that has always been really new and the latest of why we always have supposed to go through it the tension among races simply evolving to a new era like the ones used to think that there was a period now is that wise and can we do more secure and has america always been a melting pot where someone's getting burned we leave. lauren lyster our t.

new york. well coming up later in the program here in our driving force the russian prime minister took time out during his road trip of russia's far east to discuss foreign policy. more u.s. troops are preparing to leave iraq despite a recent wave of fonts in the country american soldiers are almost at the end of their combat mission off to seven years of fighting to have about fifty thousand remain in iraq to provide training and support for the security services and president obama highlighted as fulfilling his promise of some antiwar activists to convince this troop withdrawal means an end to the will. we see a rebranding of the occupation if you leave fifty thousand heavily armed soldiers backed by all sorts of aircraft the latest high tech aircraft of course all of the naval destroyers the submarines the aircraft carriers that are all throughout the region that have cruise missiles and all sorts of means by which to intervene in iraq we see now the end of an occupation by

a certain diminishing of the occupation in terms of some of the troop numbers but are we branding of the occupation so that instead of calling it combat troops they call it advisory troops they still have guns they still shoot those guns when they're shot at in their head they die it won't be sufficient to tell iraqis on september first or second or american families who have g.i.'s and loved ones there who may perish after the so-called end of the war that their loved ones indeed are not dead because the war has been officially ended i believe the occupation of iraq will go on for many years you have got a president who has renewed his criticism of coalition forces he said the counter terror operation in the region was ineffective and only cause civilian deaths and that military analysts believe the afghan leader was trying to block u.s. efforts to the corruption and drug production in this standoff between. general betray us. president has scored again. in

his incipient battle against the american anti-corruption efforts first time scored when he completely blocked and stalled the investigation all his chief of the national security council and the second time just recently when he consolidated he has momentum again the american anti-corruption drive in afghanistan and he not only if voided the american pressure but in a way he could go to democratic and soon again and stand then instead of reversing his decision against the branded. corrupted officials instead he fired one of the senior prosecutors in afghanistan demonstrating to evidence to americans and to the whole world that he is in charge not only of drug production but corruption as well right now this standoff is coming to

a head again it's opened up an opportunity to brush off an old idea which i erred one year ago that is to regain the initiative and momentum fighting the corruption in afghanistan general petraeus has to be appointed as a governor general again a stand. so he could introduce the martial law and to disband their presidential institution in a van or stand once and for all and to call for the loya jirga to postpone the constitution and to disband the presidential institution all together so he could exit he would be a pellet school and to appoint himself as a governor general this is the only way to arrest the runaway for a ground corruption that threatens to implode the whole social fabric of afghanistan corruption and drug production in afghanistan the actual of the two

parts of a binary weapon that threatens to implode the evidence society and totally and completely discredit any notion of democracy in afghanistan to remember you can check out our website for more stories any time you want and here's a taste of what's online for you right now or so. dot com roma immigrants in germany are told developed state they're welcome but they're afraid of what awaits them back in kosovo. and the spectacle of speed and luxury the world's latest cars attract thousands to an international motor show in the russian capital that's in plenty more for you at all to dot com online all the time.

u.s. president barack obama seems sincere in his desire to improve relations with moscow but u.s. policies could be telling the opposite well that's the view of russia's prime minister vladimir putin gave an interview to the newspaper in unusual circumstances he was driving at the time in the country's far east for more and that his. a very interesting interview these time around is that it's extremely rare these days for journalists to get a chance to chaffetz body made to one on one and these interview was very unusual not only in a way too was conducted with body new put in sitting at the wheel of a car driving through russia stories but also in the questions in the questions that he was asked now a trickle last week of commish sons reporter who was sitting at a passenger seat is known for his sort of tongue in cheek style and many of the questions he asked her posed in a joking way but at the same time they were very very serious for example he asked

not to be put in a box by their own not he believes in the use in time chanst to reset relations with russia and he said that personally he would very much like to believe but he also sad that the actions of the current administration were inconsistent with some of its declarations imagine for example years continues africa to arm georgia and the regime of me feels that this really shows assad that if the united states wasn't soundings up and to georgia there were a bit south us to chair in two thousand and eight that would have happened he also mentioned use continues to have plans. sad that its missile defense system in europe or as another store in the south so to speak at moscow's side but at the same time he mansion that personally speaking he thought that the rocket bomb was in town sions were sincere ingenue but at the same time keep these said that the

white house was not doing what it preaches but many years political parties and political opposition in russia have been accusing largely or put it off stifling political freedoms and denying about the right to gather peacefully both in moscow and in hotter russian cities but it wouldn't brushed of their these criticisms saying that. everybody is free to you i gather as long as they have the best sanctions from the local authorities he deep sidestep the fact that it was extremely difficult for political opposition to gather any sort of thirty station from local authorities just and he defended that having handed police action to disperse these protesters in fact he said that. as long as they have permission it was ok but to be gone without permission they'll take the bait and to have it very straightforward isn't it and i was speaking about one of

the most prominent opposition figures in russia me policy for his current case santa is still serving his sentence on tax evasion charges he's sad that he's personally if i didn't put in. had nothing against what are called teeth that he was surprised to hear that prosecutors opened the second case against him that many critics favor open on the very same charges that he was already serving his time and song but he did say that as soon as. mikhail khodorkovsky a settles his problems with the lawyer he will be able to work as a free man of his works in a book or reporting from moscow and by the way can find out more of what vladimir putin had to say by simply looking onto a web site it's all a t.v. dot com. before the nursing home in central russia was killed nine people in the two injured it's thought the blaze was started by an elderly residents who committed suicide by setting himself emergency crews managed to evacuate almost

five hundred people from the home while at the station bevan's reports now from the to van region. or early morning panic strikes the central russian nursing home as firing golfs a third floor apartment killing nine and sending hundreds more on a dash to safety but nobody we woke up and heard somebody screaming burn fire at first we didn't even believe it but then i saw smoke coming into our room i started to cough i opened the door to the corridor but because of the smoke i couldn't see anything there. i followed the smell of smoke it was spreading down the corridor and i heard the residents groan i opened the door and saw the whole room on fire i was instantly surrounded by smoke a man was lying on the floor all charred and he was burning like a torch i attempted to grab him but there was nothing to get hold of he was burning all over the alleged arsonist was nicholai due to an eighty six year old world war two veteran and

a resident of the home it's believed that he was trying to set himself on fire in an attempt to commit suicide if that was his aim he succeeded he died in the blaze but so too did two of his physically disabled roommates the flames were confined to the apartment but the toxic fumes were not six others died due to smoke inhalation the motivation behind didn't the parent actions are not known at initial reports indicated anger over having to wait for government housing may have affected him but a social worker affiliated with the home says dieudonne had no plans to move described as a man of difficult character didn't call this third floor apartment home for four years however during that time it's reported that he made no friends and was a stranger his family still despite his social struggles monday's death and destruction come as a surprise. is to deny the medical nurse on duty made the round of all the wards and everything was normal if someone heard anything amiss he would have been given

additional attention for us it's unexpected. russia has had several high profile nursing home fires in recent years and march two thousand and seven more than sixty elderly residents died when they could not escape the flames and the smoke and a facility with a record of substandard safety procedures and more than twenty people were killed by a fire in january of last year and a home in the country's northwest the common denominator and both incidents was poor fire safety planning and slow emergency response last year as deaths pushed president medvedev to call for sweeping reforms and for the firing of all regional nursing home officers the difference between then and the now was in preparation and response that's according to fire investigators this home past a march safety inspection and firefighters arrived to the scene three minutes after they got the call rescuing four hundred eighty people officials believe the handling of this incident shows signs of visible progress compared to previous

cases even so investigators will continue to see if yet more improvements are needed stacy didn't r.t. . when out of some other world news in brief this a gunman has opened random far on the streets of slovakia's capital but it's another killing at least seven people and injuring dozens including a three year old child after the attack the fifty year old man committed suicide when he was surrounded by police it's believed six of the victims were members of one family. to chile now where thirty three miners have been trapped in a collapse for over three weeks have had their first telephone contact with relatives it's reported to the spirits of the men on the ground one of them even decided to marry his long term girlfriend the latest phase of the rescue effort is expected to take months and is due to begin shortly a plan is to drill a hole wide enough to pull trapped miners to the surface. but a study emergency officials say water levels there are beginning to recede but

that's the danger of further flooding remains high drenching rains over the weekend submerged a number of towns but most residents managed to flee in time the worst of the flooding the country's affects about seventeen million people and left more than one thousand six hundred dead. but i'll be back top stories in about ten minutes from now in the meantime we talked to. a political scientist and president of the moscow based policy foundation and he gives his assessment of iran's russian built nuclear power plant that's coming your way next here on r.t. after a short break. today

we're. mr vyacheslav nikonov he is a political scientist and he's also the founder and president of the polity foundation thank you very much for joining us. now the first question i'd like to ask is iran has now launched its first nuclear program it's a first in the middle east and russian engineers were a big part of that now what is the implication on russian earing and relationships and how can russia be sure that they're really pursuing this for peaceful purposes actually russia provided a. nuclear reactor the same to americans who are supposed to provide to north korea to prevent them from having nuclear weapons this is a light water reactor which is not capable of providing any uranium weapons grade uranium. and all the fuel will be provided by russia and all the

waste fuel will be taken away by russia so it is safe facility which is very important which is the first nuclear power station in that part of the world which i think is extremely important. as you may know russia was the first to build a nuclear power station which was the first to build nuclear power station in in the middle east which i think is so important. if you follow the reactions of the major countries. opening we should by the way is not yet their station will produce electricity only. december the reaction is quite neutral or even positive the only country which reacted negatively was israel but to whatever happens in relations with iran any

other country since they are for isolating iran i don't think russia's. position. the russian government saying. with iran diplomacy. still can work so all the controversy with that we've been hearing in the past few months with major west europe reacting to iran sat. wanting to build nuclear power stations all this is unfounded if you're saying that technically speaking it will not be possible to produce nuclear weapons no absolutely not this station isn't capable of producing weapons grade uranium iranian nuclear program which worries americans and europeans and russians is not about to share it's about some other facilities which are on this. look to stress that.

russia being very critical of iran north korea only following all the procedures of international atomic agency still does not agree on whatever is in washington and london or paris or berlin as far as iran is concerned because russia has its own agenda with iran which is somewhat sometimes different and sometimes not related to nuclear energy at all russia and iran. difficult history over lation ship. same to have quite a while agenda. economic agenda including. the development of the riches of the caspian sea. we have some common strategic interests as far as international terrorism is concerned. is very.

the us is. an ally in certain aspects of. fighting terrorism so we have some interests in common we of course in russia not supportive of your rainy and nuclear military program at the same time there are also though it's whether iran is really up to a bomb. or just a capability which of course is a big difference. say germany or japan countries with nuclear weapons capabilities they just do not have any bombs and that is their choice so as far as i read the situation iran is not in a suicidal mood and i don't think they really want to bomb they want to keep

ability and a capability is harmless the capability is harmless if the government is responsible. depends on whether these government really. wants to. keep peace with the neighbors or has some aggressive inks things for we are not quite sure about the instincts of the iranian leadership so we should be cautious of course but at the same time iran is an important country it's a country with great history it's a civilization in itself persian civilization. with self-esteem which with growing economy. and they or russia's partner for quite

a few issues moscow has said that it will ensure that iran does not pursue. peaceful means how those russia intend to do that in terms of will share there is no way it can be perceived for non peaceful means in terms of general policies over on the russian proposal is quiet clear we are not against iran developing peaceful nuclear program that's their right including their rights in the nonproliferation treaty to reach their member. of course it is very important to. make sure that iranian program is peaceful one of the ways to do it is to go ahead with. quite well known russian and french proposals to provide. low enriched uranium to iran or even higher enrich the uranium to iran for their research

purposes but that all this enrich uranium should be under control and should be returned to the countries france russia so there could be a proposal which could really engage those two purposes let iran develop their nuclear program and to make it peaceful. coming into the future. from middlemarch one car what makes a mechanical engineer an automotive pioneer open a book in research world's most innovators to choose the checkered flag. here on.

comes alive from the russian capital twenty four hours a day this is our two top stories now the security forces have claimed a number of victories in russia's troubled north caucasus killing of a forty militants in august alone and the news of the leader of the chechen republic has become the latest target of gun. a series of attacks on hispanic immigrants as raise fresh racial fears in new york the victims say will be targeted by african-americans. a far as the central russian nursing homes killed nine people and the two severely injured investigators say could have been started by a man who set himself a light to commit suicide. but i'll be back with more news in less than half an

hour from now in the meantime.