much brighter than if you move from phones to pressure in some. ways for instance on t.v. don't come.

to. parliament for peace here to stand us heading to the polls in a bid to bring stability to the state ravaged by repeat of violence unrest. mourners are gathering in russia's city of small lands to remember six months after a plane crashed plane the lives of poland's president and many of its top brass. will join me alice it was in the old city two months we traveled to the site sold the tragic plane. and in our view of the week nine years of war

with casualties in afghanistan ever on the rise critics say the campaign is rapidly spinning out of american control. plus three new cosmonauts are in orbit on the international space station we follow the steps of their journey beyond earth's gravity. it is a day out of the russian capital you're watching r t with me marina josh plenty to come your way the sunday morning here in moscow now after six months of political turbulence and violence the people of care his stand are casting their ballots for parliament i will rule the country the vote will take power away from president and give it to him and what will be the first such case in central asia it's also hoped to stabilize a region where hundreds of people died in brutal clashes in recent months while you

know across live to our correspondents until you know who is in the capital city. is in the southern city of osh it was the epicenter of the summer's onslaught good morning to you guys and first to the talia tell us a bit more about why this election is so important. well this is a landmark election for the country and regardless of how many people show up at their lection it will still be valid even once it's over kurdistan will become the first central asian country to become a parliamentary state where a prime minister has more pro or than the president and it's accountable to the parliament tradition essentially asian states are ruled by all three tarion leaders on in april when former president by key was overthrown the country was wracked with political violence that took lives over dozens of people and left many more injured people were on happy with the former president's policies and many lives and after the president was overthrown temporary government held

a referendum during which it was decided to turn the country into a parliamentary state there is still rumors however that more political avoids will follow this election is special in the country stars and regions. that is only run italia and responding oprah's going off is in the town of auschwitz was the epicenter of the summer's onslaught you go or so what is the atmosphere like an arch which was rocked by violence this summer. or sure we are now. just on second largest city meaning people call it the second capital and this is i'm all new places you need office the girl you the most in the country because first of all it's populated both why keurig is and was back in the nationals and last june there were mass ethnic clashes in the city which resulted in the deaths of hundreds of people and that's according to the most modest figures thousands of

others were injured and thousands more had to flee their homes the city still recovering from their violence and there were fears apparently this violence could be turned with the start of the voting in fact many people even feared going to the polling stations there have been reports of threats sent out to the local population where some mass reports of foreigners and posters distributed in other cities calling for violence is watching nevertheless polling stations did open at eight am and the locals are coming in and placing their vote. ok so that's the atmosphere in the town of russian tilings go back to you now tell us how people in the capital feel about this well do they believe in change at all. but we've spoken to quite a number of locals and people do have quite tight hopes for this election we also visited several polling stations and people started showing up early in the morning a lot of people have showed up a record number of twenty nine political parties registered for the selection

however many of them have more or less similar political agenda there are still those who remain skeptical about this election we have heard rumors that some of the leaders of political parties may get attacked however the country's temporary government says that its security forces are completely ready to resist any and any political rallies that may take place during this election i will go back to the region remains on stable to be hearing so what is being done to provide security and concerns of possible violence. well security is tight across the whole country but especially here in the south police officers are present at each one of the eighty two polling stations in the borscht and are also patrolling the streets accompanied by volunteers i know that around fifteen hundred volunteers have been recruited for the job for you see around five hundred swat like commandos have been

flown in to or from the capital bishkek and also the authorities have been holding previously various drools to be on guard in case of emergencies so we will be monitoring the situation as the events unfold polling stations are going to close at around eight pm local time or expecting to hear the first preliminary results around midnight and of course we will report on events here in or as the day goes on ok well timing or thanks very much indeed for bringing us the atmosphere in kyrgyzstan and we'll be crossing from more to you throughout the day thanks so much indeed for this update. now ceremonies are to take place in memory of the plane crash in russia that killed president of poland many of the time ranking officials it's been six months since the tragedy took the lives of ninety six people near the city of families of the dead are planning a pilgrimage to the site where we can now cross live to. this man region for us

today that was so one the morial ceremonies are to be held. for marine all right so that this morning's memorial service is all being held at the request of the families of the victims and to separate so bizarre due to take place always remember the tragic plane crash on the tenth of april twenty when all ninety six children of the two one zero who died as they were making their way to a seventieth commemorations at the. seen amounts of twenty two thousand. were killed at the hands of the soviet secret police it was a tragedy on the unprecedented scale this process within just the one day since president his wife maria and me all of its military brawls including his chief of general stall think that the a.f.l. was the head of me as well as a number of bishops and government officials was very quick to offer its sympathy

declaring the monday a day of mourning so today's delegations all we believe being led by. the polish delegation will begin by going to the place where the daily brief on the plane is being held. to the size of the crash where plant has been erected and catholic prayers will take place there is what is the length of. an altar the move on to the memorial complex on the scene the massacre itself a very small silver lining to have come out of this is that in the month all to the crash the russian government did concede to a huge number some sixty seven documents a previously classified material relating to the canteen of massacre however one person that will not be attending today's events is the brother of kitchens down the needle don't position ponzi. scheme he's been

a very quick to criticize the handling of both the russian government and the minutes into the investigation of this crunch and so this is what's going to be happening today now as we know the investigation is still going on to what stage now. well i mentioned that. he has been critical of the process of the investigation and he's not the only one what happened is that he in the halls of this tragedy president of appointed to head up a joint commission. russian investigation into the pools is of the crash name for the polish few months they studied the flight recorders the flight as well as all with all the manner of materials available to the what they've managed to confirm is that out of the plane came in some ground. had some land but we were not told russian air traffic controllers did myself warn the crew members and not to land

they informed them all the time is of their full size and also it's also been confirmed that the plane was in good working order had recently been renovated and referred which they there wasn't a question of equipment failure they've also ruled out the possibility of a terrorist attack or some sort of explosion or fire taking place all know aborts. the lish military has i'm sorry for that policy conducted the raid this separate investigation into the into the causes of the crash i want spin confirmed from both sides of that knowing the crew members were in the cockpit at the time of coming into lines of the question as to whether or not these pilots were put under pressure to land has not yet been confirmed but a number of courses full of the crash have been put forward including the way in which the plane was prepared for the flight the willingness of the crew members to a refusal what is given to them and also the ways in which the crews were prepared

for the flights colins now says that is very pleased with the way that the official response is that the investigation has been carried out and have been very pleased with the transparency off the from at the russian investigators is and that joint interstate aviation the committee has now finished its investigation and within a matter of days will one day the detailed reports to the polish aviation experts though then start to those reports and they promise to make them public and in three days when all tape. yes. polish oncologist will conduct an investigation of the site with freddie remaining playing de vry or victim day three. thanks very much for bringing us the latest from his plans cretin ellis who reported there. it watching r t coming to live from moscow and this week the u.s. led campaign in afghanistan reached the grim milestone of nine years and there were

even more losses of civilian and coalition troops it's a critical time for the u.s. effort as it struggles to turn around the fight against the taliban ahead of next year's expected withdrawal of international forces afghan officials continue to back the coalition's efforts but even they admit that after all this time there are still no tangible results and as our policy your reports the online antics of american soldiers are not helping matters. a false goes up in smoke and with a justified or not tempers fly in the afghan capital the culprits soldiers who can be heard saying fantastic before posting the clip on the internet even if by burning the house accidentally a copy of the koran is housed that can be easily used as a tactic or as a means of acting more young. religious

is true then it's to go and joined. and it seems to be working more and more islamic extremist websites are hosting direct links to videos put up on the wave by the soldiers themselves in blogs and social networking sites it's the enemy who's not want to be helping the taliban fight its cause they can easily be copied . easily make. the us forces fail video clips if you want. yeah. you want to hang. out in some cases the u.s. soldiers videos are prankish and childish other times they're downright criminal or extremely provocative in this clip u.s. soldiers burn the bodies of dead muslims facing mecca today in afghanistan the internet is becoming more and more popular but look around and it's no surprise

that in a place like this there's still only a few people who have access to it so you'd sometimes home connection is so unreliable that every afternoon he's here watching videos that make him angry one of the only going on we see hundreds of videos about afghanistan nato and the americans are talking about human rights you can see the proof for mine it's a lie the. internet cafes are the buzz in downtown kabul hundred have been has managed the small and overcrowded cafe for the past two years and although the connection is slow it's fast enough to keep people logged on. very . easy for people to watch these videos put up by the american soldiers because the most popular videos are on the first page of you tube also when one guy sees a video he tells his friend. less than a decade ago when the taliban was in power home computers were banned they were

only three places in kabul that had internet but now the global jihadists understand that sometimes an e-mail might just be myself then the sword followed once an e. mail and send message by by a mobile phone. make what do you put it good with you clips the word it seems always has a way of getting out of one people not to see disclosure of the internet because everything you see is. in the life with the taliban picking up on a form of communication one spend it now forced on coalition troops to censor themselves pointlessly r.t. kabul. and critics say what the us started in response to the nine eleven attacks is turn out to be a quote mara like the vietnam war brian bakker an anti-war coalition national coordinator believes it was draw of coalition troops from afghanistan will not lead

to increased violence. the american government in its propaganda arm just as they did during vietnam tried to paint a picture that there would be a terrible bloodbath if the occupation forces left but if the occupation forces leave that means drone bombing attacks of afghan and pakistan villages will stop it will mean that the level of violence instead of ask a lady in every month with more and more thousands and tens of thousands of foreign troops coming in troops who obviously don't understand the country don't speak the language don't understand the culture and are largely demonizing the people and have all sorts of racist characters and then those forces when they leave the bloodshed will diminish that doesn't mean that we know what will happen in afghanistan but the american presence has escalated the violence the cycle of violence throughout the country and throughout the region they had a rushes and in our products agency says a year is a long u.s. campaign in afghanistan is actually stole the fight against drugs.

that's part of the nine years of the military operation in afghanistan have demonstrated that the more fighting the reason the country the small of the chances are of destroying drug production there but only a competent government that has the support of the people who can really control the country and take serious steps to destroy drug production which when the us says you cannot deprive farmers of their livelihood it actually sends a message to the afghan leadership as well saying they shouldn't do it because first of all this will destroy people's livelihood and second you push farmers into the hands of the taliban i think this is merely an excuse. and again the full interview with the head of russia's and are caught in just ten minutes here on our team. now alledge russian gun runner has appealed against a thai court's decision to extradite him to the u.s. a lawyer for victor borge says there's no evidence against him and insists the judge hears statements from witnesses but with no indication of whether the court

will accept this appeal but with relatives fear for his future on the other was a very unstable it's quite possible the extradite him and just look him up on some aircraft carrier and force him to give whatever testimony the u.s. wants him to give i think they'll go as far as it takes to get it and i'm sure everyone understands they're playing to face to do these days starting with chemical sense psychological pressure. on tuesday the thai criminal court cleared the way for books possible extradition after dismissing charges of money laundering and fraud citing insufficient evidence those claims have delayed his handover following in august ruling foreign control i mean he was to be sent to the us a so-called merchant of death and isaac is ations of terrorism and supplying arms to colombian rebels he was arrested in an american led sting operation in march two thousand and eight in bangkok a former u.n. arms trafficking experts as a boot is extradited a u.s. court might not allow all the evidence to be examined. i have concerns

about what's the big two will be going back to based on the early of the person who in recent times has been convicted on a sting operation involving the fox the colombian rebels is a man called monster all counts who was an arms dealer who strangely also was assistance to the americans on many occasions and when his lawyer sought to bring that into the courts he wasn't allowed to do so or not presidents i think it's of logically that he's depends team will be able to bring into evidence the fact that the house on occasion being the assistance to the pentagon to within nato countries in providing america i think it's unlikely that people who want the university to harm anyone but i think home is sometimes done as part of the process but what people may see is getting good getting the truth out of somebody she my concern always has been not the sort of is necessarily innocent of all charges it but the

sting operation of some he didn't do quite clearly just think operation that he's not of the merchant of death which the media portray him as well i would agree he's a virgin so some of this. russian president dmitry medvedev has slammed the bell russian leader for calling moscow it's out of the in his video blog medvedev said president lukashenko statements made during his reelection campaign were not only undiplomatic but down right and decent follows the bell russian leaders accusations the russian politicians are trying to tarnish his image and sponsor the opposition but if it is suggested focuses on domestic problems such as the disappearances of many bell russian citizens russia's president stressed the current tension must not affect the country's people and their partnership. r t two has a lot more in store for you and here's some of what you'll find online right now. exploring the arctic frozen expanse on a chunk of floating ice russia's scientists meet in the middle of the ocean to

share breakthroughs on their country's going to the polar treasury. and meet lobby a superhero with us now the big man has vowed to clean up every piece of rubbish that's blighting the country's force find out more at r.t. dot com. now the queen of the netherlands this week asked the head of the liberal party to form a new government backed by the party of an anti islam is the minority cabinet will have the support of will durst who will remain outside government but wilders who is known for his radical ideas went on trial on monday in the hague for inciting hatred. and stamps from a speech he made were he compared islam to night isn't called for the koran to be banned however the court failed to move forward with the case as well as exercise his right not to answer questions his lawyer also accused the judge of bias requested he be substituted and convicted welder's could face up to a year in jail. this whole thing his whole argument. and i come from the same angle

is we're not talking about muslims not about individuals we're talking about an ideology and a belief system and if you actually look at that belief system in detail you'll find that it does it doesn't fit in with it's not compatible with the west and western liberal democracy and free speech as we know this whole thing is a suspicious trial is the pressure of free speech what is you say these are actually talked about the ideology and the koran is the rule and we're now having a trial because somebody has dared to criticize a book now recently here we've had professor richard dawkins had a whole t.v. program criticizing christianity and the bible and said you know equally strong things that it was it was a crime against humanity in the you want to arrest the pope i believe when he came over now nobody to kill professor dawkins i wanted to lock him up or put him on trial and he is doing exactly the same thing he's arguing about a belief system this is not about individuals it's about what individual shrew

choose to believe and what will this is doing is criticizing that belief system and i think that said i don't agree with everything i said i think most of his criticisms are valid. let's now take a look at some other news from around the world on the evacuation of thirty three miners trapped underground in chile for more than two months to begin on wednesday engineers have drilled through to the chamber where the miners are sheltering sparking celebrations across the country the top part of the shaft need to steal a single which would take about a day and engineers now also must test whether the escape path a safe to prevent the risk of collapse. the son of north korea's leader kim yani has made a rare public appearance alongside his son you know it happened during a military parade celebrating the sixty fifth anniversary of the country's ruling party recently appointed a general younger kim is expected to succeed his father as head of the nation the appearances being viewed as a further sign of official confirmation of the succession. over two hundred

passengers have been evacuated after a ferry caught fire in the baltic sea the fire was caused by a blast on the upper deck injuring twenty eight people the ship was near the german island. on its way to earth when you and firefighting ships have been spraying the stricken ferry with water to keep it from breaking up and from spilling one hundred seventy tons of fuel on board. today journey out of the upgraded so you spacecraft is and it successfully at the international space station two russian cosmonauts and a nasa astronaut will spend the next six months on board the i assess the newcomers join another three space men who are presently manning the station since they arrived in june and there will be a remarkable reunion in february that's what scott kelly will be joined at the space station by his identical twin brother mark and other astronaut who will fly a shuttle mission artist on barton watch the brothers say goodbye at the viking or cosmodrome. in space

within a few months kelly and his brother mark both astronauts will be in orbit together. this. kids growing up we never thought we would be in this. unique in privileged position to be able to do this the build up to scott's launch of russia's baikonur cosmodrome on friday was filled with technical questions but there was a human moment to go there yes there was smiles. and goodbye to his when his brother mark joins him on the i assess in february it will be the first time they've worked together for a very long time we have occasionally flown together in the navy as a test pilot but before that i think we you know i was working in dairy queen well over twelve years old mopping the floor for the last jet of the last job we really had that we worked together and then the time came mark said goodbye scott and to the rocket these two russian crew mates everyone went to it's only twenty minutes

to go until the launch one boat is on the ground the other is preparing for glass so that they both know first time and what they're counting down to not what's his brother fly away into space the trip he'd made three times him self. it's you know it's a credible to watch any rocket launch and all my brothers are board makes it even more exciting i've seen him launch three times now and it's pretty incredible thing to see when they both meet again on the international space station in a few months time it will become a family space station tuesday but just like his brother mark doesn't want to be too sentimental it's going to be a busy busy fly but you know to get a chance to do that with my brothers is a great opportunity scott and mark on celebrity twin oxen or so yet but it'll be a uniquely human moment when the hatch door the siblings meet in space time bottom potty. and shortly we'll be talking to russia's and our cards chief about the

afghan drug threat and i'll be back with a recap of our top stories in just a couple of minutes.