the announcements of the russian officials who predicted some gains to the ruble. and i should update for this hour we can always find more stories on our website r.t. dot com slash business. show

biz that and sixty minutes of sensel tributes in these presentations high production the success of its graphics. all of this is a way to sort of focus people's attention by using techniques that are sensitive since now during this war we had nearly a million serry entertainment. news today volunteers once again flared up. and these are the images the world has been seeing from the streets of canada from giant corporations are all today.

welcome back you're watching live from moscow let's now take a look at our top stories as the war in afghanistan anders its hands here today public support for the campaign is rapidly dropping u.s. troops aren't helping matters either and many have been uploading videos of the your questionable behavior while chi and the taliban are using the material against them. to have us overseas broadcasting is seeking to pump its influence to combat the rise of what he called autocratic t.v. stations the list includes our t.v. we explore why washington doesn't seem to accept freedom of speech coming from

russia iran venezuela or china. and in kyrgyzstan of investigations underway into a fresh wave of violence just days ahead of the parliamentary vote on wednesday a mob stormed the hamp waters of a leading political party after a protest age by relatives of those killed in april's riots. but we have lines here in our team may be the ninth anniversary of the war in afghanistan but the long and bloody years of conflict have come with little reward while the u.s. might claim it's not only fighting against the taliban but also fighting for democracy and freedom afghans have seen little signs of success in any of those author and journalist and jones shared her thoughts on the decade old war. r.t. is sitting down with journalist and author ann jones her most recent book is called

war is not over when it's over and thank you very much for sitting down to speak with art it's my pleasure i'd like to be in by asking you about your time on a u.s. military base in afghanistan and to tell me what you saw and experienced well i was at a forward operating base on the border with pakistan and. it was a strange experience for me but i think there the foremost thing i learned there was from the base commander when i talked to him about the counterinsurgency strategy in afghanistan and he said i'm not fighting counterinsurgency here i'm fighting conventional war since his battalion had taken over this base only a few weeks before he'd lost a lot of man. he was right there on the border of pakistan and there was

a lot of activity and of course all the news that was being reported here was about the build up to the great assault in khandahar and all the journalists who were in the south and i apparently was the first american journalist to go to that base and they were really fighting for their lives at at the same time it was very bizarre because the base itself is very cushy it's very much like home you can go to the chow hall and have lobster tails not not very well cooked but they are loves details. so on the one hand there's this great effort to separate the troops from the war to make things seem as much like her. home as possible and on the other hand every time they go outside the wire they were they were in danger of losing people and they had lost

a lot so there's this disconnect between the base and what's out there. and they go out in their enormous armored vehicles and patrol and get ambushed or run into bombs while the afghans and the taliban are out there running around in their little cotton. you know fighting the war their style. and when these american troops are fighting in an area that is particularly destitute and when they go outside the wire they have to see that this civilians surrounding them are terribly poor and struggling people i don't i couldn't figure out how the soldiers computed what they were being asked to do and why they were doing it and how the commander was

officially fighting one kind of war but actually fighting quite desperately another kind of war and and why he was the folks in the in the eastern part of the country were just kind of on their own wall all attention was concentrated in the south in the east they didn't even have enough military helicopters to evacuate the wounded you mention the taliban and i want to also ask you about something you recently wrote an article about afghan women being abandoned you said the taliban do terrible things that the problem with demonizing them is that it diverts attention away from other equally unpleasant and threatening facts let's not make the common mistake of thinking that the devil we see is the only want. as i continued reading your article i made the assumption that. another devil you were referring to as also those that are in charge and the government that is backed and

supported by the united states thanks actually the us the devil in afghanistan well the us is yeah i think you could say that in a way because we are supporting an administration that is not only corrupt but of course as fundamentalist in many ways as the taliban. not just the executive branch and the cabinet but the parliament as well they're all controlled by former mujahideen. islamic extremists that the u.s. the bush administration put in power and so we're on the one hand talking about spreading democracy and equal rights for women and all of those nice things and on the other hand in many ways there's not a dime's worth of difference between the government we're supporting and the taliban were fighting against and now of course where we keep talking about having

negotiations cars i want wanted to negotiate for years in the us opposed it but now seems to be supporting it as a way out but you can be sure that if these negotiations go forward with the taliban and the karzai government. it's afghan women and minorities who are going to suffer in the long run based on what you saw when you were in afghanistan what does the u.s. fundamentally want with afghanistan at this point in the position there and what is victory or what is stabilization what is spreading democracy and what does the u.s. lot i have no idea i can't answer that question. and and many of the soldiers i talked to couldn't answer that question many officers couldn't answer that question certainly there are a lot of people in our political system who couldn't answer that question i think

they're struggling with that in the white house as well. of a friend of mine just contacted me from kabul this morning complaining that last night. in kabul general petraeus was on the news broadcast on the one hand saying that negotiations with the taliban were going forward very well and on the other hand saying that the united states was gathering all its forces to fight the taliban to the death and she said in a very desperate way. what does this mean please make up your mind we afghans are suffering who benefits from hundreds of thousands of americans being there i mean the soldiers many of them it's been reported in some of come out on the record saying they don't want to be there clearly the afghans never asked for america to invade and occupy their country who benefits from all this that's

happening more contractors a lot of money is being made off the war. the armament suppliers the contractors who are supposedly providing the security. for the people who supposedly are developing the country. there are many reports of the u.s. paying the taliban so that the taliban shoot at their convoys so that they can supply their troops so that they can go out and battle against the taliban. if you're on the ground there you see all kinds of catch twenty two like that doesn't make any sense. people are making money off it and some of. those people are afghans and some of those people are americans and and others but the generality of afghan people are suffering

enormously you know we've been we've been at this since we went in the late seventy's to try to lure the the soviets to come in we've been meddling in those affairs and we've consistently backed the wrong people who have blown back to haunt us and i think that the this snarl that we've made for ourselves in afghanistan now is is so entangled so complex. i don't know how the united states could extricate itself with some sort of honor and consideration for the afghan people you know when you look back in history when it comes to war and conflict uprising we've seen a soviet union fail we've seen britain falle we've seen those like china is caught

on alexander the great succeed but they had to exterminate majority of people any chance the u.s. would use that type of measure go to that extent i really have no idea that there's a possibility i think that today so much of the planning and even so much of what's being carried out in afghanistan is secret from us just as our operations there against the soviets in that proxy war were kept secret from the american public so i think there's too much that we don't know that we have no way of knowing to make any kind of educated guess about that the thing that's troubling. is that obama has said consistently that he wants to begin withdrawing troops he doesn't really want to be there but at the same time the

generals are offering him. no range of options at all they're just wanting to remain wanting to increase the number of troops and this raises i think a very troubling constitutional crisis because the president is the commander in chief and as we see his generals boxing him into a corner what does that say about who's running the government in this country when it comes to our military affairs and foreign policy it's very problematic and with respect to the people of this pantry americans do you think a day will come where this war will follow us home and americans chip you know the public will be suffering the backlash the blowback of all the years that the u.s. has spent in afghanistan and all the death squads well we've already suffered that

that's what nine eleven was it was a blowback for our interference in that part of the world and now it comes back to us in many other ways. obama himself said he hasn't ruled out the possibility of another similar terrorist attack that would be blowback for our continuing involvement there but also it comes back in what's happening to our own country in. as our soldiers come home in a terrible condition with. appalling physical and mental injuries and casualties and of course in what it costs this country to fight the. illegal unnecessary wars and what it's costing us at home now in the deterioration of our own structures and our

our own constitutional structures and jones thank you very much for your time thank you. imagine your life's a big city. this. crystal clear water. or galaxy. living in harmony with nature. sounds impossible.

some people have already chosen. a place of. monarchy. as a born again a standards a stance here today public support for the campaign is rapidly dropping u.s. troops aren't helping matters either and many have been uploading videos of their questionable behavior while hiding and the taliban are using the material against them. out of us overseas broadcasting is seeking to pump its influence to combat the rise of what he called autocratic t.v. stations the list includes our team mates or why washington doesn't seem to accept freedom of speech coming from russia iran venezuela or china. and kyrgyzstan. and investigations underway into a fresh wave of violence just days ahead of the parliamentary vote on wednesday in mob stormed waters of a leading political party after a protest staged by relatives of those killed in those riots. those are the

headlines here in r.t. time now for a sports update with owner farmer. and we're hearing there are more problems at the car of games in delhi commonwealth games a a number of swimmers now in delhi have come down with a stomach bug and it's thought it could be the result of a contaminated of contaminated water in the main paula plus a bit of history that was made on the ice last night all that coming up. hello there welcome to the sport and we'll start with a quick look at the headlines. of the league's the phoenix teams down. in the latest clash between n.h.l. and k h l sorry its. class is this the new world number one currently most near ski could top the women's rankings today with victory in beijing. and rowing back the

years how russia aims to revive the sport and form a glories by renewing historic links with britain. stop the ice hockey there were an historic match has taken place in riga latvia. played host to the finnish tease from the n.h.l. the home side lost three one but it was a win win affair for both. explains why. following a successful premiere of the cage they sell for the russians latvia takes up the baton to claim its place in the history books. of the phoenix coyotes in what's seen as a revival of a tradition that ended roughly twenty years ago elevated interest for such a game would be an understatement as fans stormed the ticket offices long before the start of the match as much as i saw the last game with. it was very good so i hope it will be the same here that's what everyone wants to see

a good game the importance of the standoff between the n.h.l. and k show clubs varies greatly on either side of the two continents while the two games held in russia are considered a historical milestone in those countries the united states and canada are so cautious on solving about the significance of such exhibition matches for their teams the phoenix this is a intriguing experience you know you've got a massive time zone difference and it's also the start of the season right now it's football season basketball camp start of the playoffs now it's arrived in major league baseball so there's all kinds of competition for the entertainment dollar and for everyone's attention so right now it's a little bit of a climb it's going up the escalator of the top where you guys are yeah but i would imagine if this were a little bit later on getting. the story reka and the hall have some of the most dedicated and noises bats in the kontinental hockey game it's no wonder since a local outfit is the base of the country's national team and bills the packers

alone were considered strong enough to trample the visiting n.h.l. side phoenix. however the first period resembled nothing of that sort most of the enthusiasm appeared to be in the stands as the two teams played with caution at best scored soo of their goals in the dying moments of period one and two adding another one in the third. does mark cards again even the score in the seconds that was all the last inside could do despise a multitude of opportunities all in all the game or lack the intensity of the first exhibit in st petersburg but both sides were evidently satisfied with the outcome always there a little bit quicker you know there every time we had a turnover they took advantage and create a lot of opportunities our goal he kept us in a goal from and it was a lot of fun out there so it is fun i think for both teams. played all right it's

our last game before before the regular season starts so different situation for us were playing two hours and getting her. playing on a wreck that is much bigger there would be so good experience for our players. for . their i was i was glad to see our team when we came to win but i thought it was a very good game so the latest episode of the n.h.l. k shell's down leads us and a draw five three to the home side in st petersburg and three once at the visitors in latvia it's impossible to state that those results resemble the state of hockey on either continent but it's safe to say that the russians and lesbians are happy to witness the revival of a tradition and they hope it will not be a one off affair. artsy riga latvia. good stuff in the. nets on penalties to pick up their fourth straight win by

staying from behind with alex on the goal of in time the game or two with just a minute to go but the forward went from here and in the shootout as he failed to base a big being. running mate had a saying can call the all important goal for the elsewhere. run away in the second pairing to transfer more five to. six in tennis venus williams will miss the rest of the season with knee problems and it means the. world number one will not feature in the fed cup final or deputy a championships a thirty year old hasn't played since losing the semifinals of the usa in say she's continuing to receive treatment therapy for her name i am still hoping to try to take up arms against issue next month and have a good chance of qualifying for the season ending to a championship. team on denmark's caroline wozniacki could become the women's new number one today if she beach petra give it in the quarters of the china open and should replace famous sister serena at the top of the rankings if she does serina

hasn't played since having foot surgery in july was nasty to beat italy saw it on and to make the last eight in beijing. a new problem has beset the commonwealth games in delhi it still can target contaminated water in the main pool could be responsible for a stomach virus that's affecting swimmers the england team say twenty percent of the swimmers have come down meal games federation president mike fennell says the matter will be looked into agent lee meanwhile the aussies don't seem to be suffering too much they won six of the nine golds in the pool on wednesday night including a clean sweep in the women's two hundred meter breast right while on the track the first goal went to mo to keep ciro from uganda aged out kenyan you could choky in the five stands meet. and finally be hundred fiftieth anniversary of russia's first rowing club has been held in some pages but it was billed by the british and as our correspondent

richard found that relations between the two countries in the sporting field a still going strong. europe has played a crucial role in the cultural development of some petersburg over the last three hundred years italians took care of the architecture french was we are soccer sees language of choice but dutch gave the city's distinctive canals while the united kingdom helped set up the country's first ever rowing club one hundred fifty years ago but which unfortunately over time has fallen into a state of disrepair original one existed. and a couple hundred metres from this place. during the sea go for a second goal we're. building. most of. this here and the. one hundred people in the russian only sport decided to initiate their reconstruction of the school for yulia and he killer the director of

the russian imus or rowing association this place has a special meaning she learned how to row here during his student days and personally wanted to restore the club to its former glory to help a new generation of to learn the sports. this idea came to us a long time ago because a lot of us used to train here and it was sad to see just how low the standard of rowing in russia had fallen to we all got together to see how we could try and restored the place and keep the tradition going ascent because berg has always had a number of places where people have throat. a field of rowing between russia and the u.k. still remains strong one hundred fifty years on five time in pick champions to steve redgrave has visited the site of a clubhouse has a distinctly british feel so it's a technical and coaching expertise the u.k. is able to watch it's likely to see a marked improvement in the standard of the sport not just around some petersburg but across the country as a whole we would like to or suborder team eight of us senators and averse to and.

all the other things to help them to attend and the royal regard to the year and our struggle for the challenge cup special. training. mainly in regard to. also probably would like to use the experience of britain coaches one of the main aims of a crowd is to help develop you can interest in the city especially among students the oxford and cambridge boat race is famous the world over and university rowing is popular in the us but the same can be said of russia and this idea has the backing of one of the world's greatest ever rowers junior rowing is that every two years is a completely new people coming into it. in the seniors you have perhaps leaps that will go on for five ten some even longer. to break in.

if people at the top what happens is you slowly get your everybody's level goes up by then the older people retire and the next level of their this is imperative given the current state of russian rowing the country is just one one gold of the last prelim big games and the prospects are looking good for london in less than two years time this is a far cry from fifty years ago where the roman lympics proved to be one of the greatest moments in rowing not just for russia but also for some peters percolating . grant as it was known then twenty six people from just one. came to their national team and half of them were back with the medals so. probably hundreds of thousands of people went for all of the time difference of the city so. station has become. proper again to help the helper to the well with an abundance

of also one would think that some petersburg will be a mecca for rowing lovers from around the country however the swans fall upon hard times of the last couple of decades but due to a long standing partnership with the united kingdom there are hopes but rowing can return to its former glory in russia hopefully donte some petersburg brings to the end of the sport whether it's not. hungry for the full story we've got. the biggest issues get a human voice to face with the news makers. every month.