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new hope for stability. in the country's first parliamentary election year. review all the week the war in afghanistan. making it the us military history this year has been the deadliest year for foreign troops. destination all but three of the international space station.

with the top stories of today this week you're with live from moscow security has been tightened at polling stations across. the nation votes to become central asia was first parliamentary democracy international observers say there are no serious legal violations or trouble despite fears violence could erupt earlier i spoke to our correspondents are you going off in the rest of southern city of and that's in the capital bishkek. this is the landmark poll for the country regardless of how many people are going to show up at today's election the election will still be valid and after this election kyrgyzstan will become the first country in central asia to become a parliamentary state where the prime minister has more power than the president

and accountable to the parliament traditionally central asian states are ruled by with three tarion leaders and when former president bakiev was overthrown in april this year the con she was wrecked in violence with dozens of people killed and many more injured people here were unhappy with the president's policies that have left many in poverty and that was the reason why he was overthrown after he was overthrown the temporary government. has held their referendum during which it was decided to turn the country into a parliamentary state and there were rumors that said these elections might bring even more violence to the streets of curious time and other cities to the streets of bishkek in other cities and carry just on especially in southern regions not exactly well to say you go to prison officer right now you're going to talk to me what is the atmosphere like in all sure you are which is being rocked by violence this summer all the city of all those are security strong second largest city mean

people you can call it the second capital and this is definitely one of the courses in the country in need of change and stability the most to be goes it's far moved by his and it was very can nationalize i last june the city saw a huge wave of violence and destruction and one armed gangs who had through and drove around the city destroying businesses and writing up houses and so this violence lasted for several days until the authorities were able to take control of the situation mobilizing the army but unfortunately by a bad time hundreds of people were killed several thousand people had to flee their homes and several thousand more people were injured and there were fewer. this while in school return would. be held and there have been reports of threats sent to the local population for years distributed both here and in other cities also calling for more violence however the. time

and many people are coming in and casting their votes however the atmosphere here is still extremely tense i've shown you some people wanted to stay home leaflets with various information have been spread people don't know whether they should believe information or not but some people still want to fulfill their civic duty and cast their ballot. a lot needs to be changed in this country but first and foremost what has to change is people's way of thinking. as you can see the situation is very difficult but hope does that and i guess that's what many of the locals are thinking at the moment just going to the polls and placing their votes just about an italian now tell me how do people of capital feel about this vote do they actually believe in change people here have rather mixed feelings about this election there's a record number of twenty nine political parties registered for there were actually

and many of them which have quite similar political agendas so many people here are very confused which party to vote for but out of the people that we've spoken to many feel very optimistic and have high hopes that this election will actually bring change and political stability to the country. we're living through a crisis here in kyrgyzstan and i hope this election will restore order and calm in this country and help its devastated economy see what we have recently at last with managed to live up to the real democratic election i wanted to go smoothly i want our leaders to think about people of need and not feel that pockets like all previous militias did let's hear right now here in the kerry gets. it's always rather quiet but we have heard rumors from the locals that some of the leaders of the political parties participating in the elections might get attacked however a local authorities have that security forces of the country are on full alert for

any possible lot of rallies that may take place. over reporting now central asia expert. says stands attempt at a power shift it's a major challenge to the vote won't do anything at the beginning because that is just a start. after the vote if the vote goes well as we see what i think we have still seriously problems serious problems concerning the agenda. of the new government has to face i think the major problem all the central asian countries are facing is a power shift as we have seen twice now in. power shifts it's not only the person who goes it's the whole system which gives the president in power will do everything possibly to avoid that and stay in power and that might be a problem initiator of unrest so i won't exclude more unrest in the near future.

ceremony has been held to remember the victims of the plane crash in russia that killed the president of poland and many of the country's top officials six months ago ninety six were killed near the city of somalia and. as this report. today's memorial events took place at the request of the families of the victims on the tenth. one five. region crashed as it attempted to land in dense fog disregarding the advice of local rounds. advising them not to try to land the plane in. fields they ignore the instruction and that the plane did crash killing all ninety six on board so within the one day one plane crash lost its president its first lady and a number of its key political and military personnel was quick to offer its condolences to the polish government and indeed to days of mourning ceremonies have

been led by both us ladies. and he immediately off to the plane crash in russia declared a day of mourning and president medvedev appointed prime minister putin to head up a joint russia polish investigation into the course of the crash the police matusow conducted their own private investigation over the policy for months not joint investigative committee is taking a very decent kids eyewitness accounts on the flight log and they concluded that on a two occasions on the fateful morning a little before eleven am on the tenth of april grounds of fools these moments and who did points to try to ruin the crew all rule that two people claimed not to attempt to land in the dense fog at all which they chose to ignore they've also confirmed that they did try to direct them to an alternative airfield investigated miti has also confirmed that the plane itself was in fine work nor would it have recently been improved they've also ruled out the possibility of

a terrorist attack or some sort of fire explosion having happened on board crucially they've also confirmed that to know on the crew members were in the culprits at the time of the crash to the question as to whether that who put under pressure. to land the plane in those conditions remains that other reasons have been put forward as possible causes for the crash including the way in which the crew were trained especially their ability to violate an order which they may have believed to have been wrong for their part the potential sources say that they are very thankful and appreciative of the level of transparency and corp offered by the russians cheering this investigation and that joint committees says that they have now completed their investigations and they've handed a very wrong of the paperwork including eyewitness reports on the flight to the polish or thors he's in there they say a detailed analysis on their findings will be had within the next few days they'll also be handed to the postal authorities and then say they will make it public in

three days time on october thirteenth we also know that just will conducts an excavation all of the sites all of the plane crash trying to find any other remnants of the plane or any of the victims. the u.s. led nato campaign in afghanistan entered its tenth year this week with no end in sight the longest war in america's history has turned into a vietnam like quagmire the taliban is still a regular bomb. two thousand and ten is already the deadliest year of the entire campaign for nato troops and the fighting is taking a heavy toll on the afghan people with civilian casualties spiraling as aunties policy reports of some camera happy u.s. soldiers helping the taliban win a propaganda war. else goes up in smoke and with a justified or not tempers fly in the afghan capital culprits soldiers who can be

heard saying fantastic before posting the clip on the internet even here if by burning the house accidentally a copy of the koran is bought and how's that. can be easily used as a tactic or as a means of acting more. religious history with them it's to go and joined the taliban and al qaeda and it seems to be working more and more islamic extremist websites are posting direct links to videos put up on the web by the soldiers themselves in blogs and social networking sites it's the enemy who is now helping the taliban fight its cause they can easily be copied by al-qaeda and the taliban. easily make. the us forces fail the video clips. you want to hang.

out in some cases the us 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 did muslims facing mecca today in afghanistan the internet is becoming more and more popular but look around 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 color we see hundreds of videos about afghanistan nato new americans are talking about human rights you can see the proof online it's a lot. 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 get in less than a decade ago when the taliban was in power home computers were banned there 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 a knee mill and send message by by mobile phone and. make very very good video clips of the word it seems always has a way of getting out of one people not to see this kind of thing in the internet because every time you see this consumers in the life but the taliban picking up on

the form of communication it once banned it now falls on coalition troops to censor themselves points we are to kabul. and the number of afghan labs cooking up drugs for export to russia has tripled and according to russia's anti drug cheat the united states is to blame at a committee when the u.s. 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 this will destroy people's livelihood and second if you push farmers into the hands of the taliban i think this is merely an excuse furthermore since u.s. special representative for central asia richard holbrooke first suggested this idea that instead of eradicating drug crops the u.s. should target drug labs and traffickers which was almost a year ago the number of laps of producing drugs for russia has tripled a year ago we knew about one hundred seventy labs in afghanistan today we know of

more than four hundred laps there producing drugs for russia. and you can watch the full interview with victoria even off in about fifteen minutes time right here on alt. well the alleged russian arms trafficker is appealing against a thai court's ruling that he should be extradited to the u.s. fifty boots lawyers claim there's no evidence against him and insists the judge should question witnesses his family fears that if extradited he would be forced to confess only was he really understand that it's quite possible the extradite him and just look him up on some eve craft period and force him to give whatever testimony the u.s. wants him to give i think he'll go as far as it takes to get it and i'm sure everyone understands they're playing to find ways to do it these days starting with chemical sense psychological pressure. on tuesday the criminal court to drop

charges of money laundering and fraud against food clearing the way for his extradition charges could have delayed his being sent to the u.s. which was supposed to happen by november the twenty year was arrested in bangkok two and a half years ago and has been behind bars ever since washington accuses him of fueling terrorism and conspiring to supply arms to colombian rebels which he denies a former u.n. army is trafficking expert says that if boot is extradited to the u.s. he might not get a fair trial. i have concerns about what the verdict will be going back to based on the only other person who in recent times has been convicted on a sting operation involving the far colombian rebels there's a man called monster all counsel who was an arms dealer who strangely also was an assistance to the americans on many occasions and when his lawyer sought to bring that into the court he wasn't allowed to do so or not president i think it's of

life clear that his depends chain will be able to bring into evidence the fact that he has on occasion been a resistance to the pentagon and to us in nato countries in providing or. i think it's unlikely that people who want. you know brutally to harm anyone but i think harm 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 is necessarily innocent of all charges but the sting operation is something he didn't do quite clearly just think operation he's not of the merchant of death which the media portray him as well i would agree he's a merchant of some death and coming out for you this hour here on r.t. poverty behind the publicist he find out in my residence of new delhi are skeptical about the ongoing commonwealth games. president dmitri medvedev has hit out at his bell

a russian counterpart for trying to make an enemy out of moscow in his video blog said alexandra look at shanker is stepping up his anti russian rhetoric the russian leader thinks it's all to do with the upcoming presidential election in bello rules where a look at is hoping to stay in power says the russian leaders trying to distract voters from domestic problems moscow and minsk signed a political union in one thousand nine hundred nine would have since seen a steady decline in relations. added that the current tension should not affect the quote brotherly ties of the russian belorussian people. while the u.s. might claim to be a champion of freedom of speech but not it seems if it's coming from russia iran venezuela or china the head of the media organization which oversees america's international broadcasting says it must up its game to combat the rise of what he called media enemies including our team got in each account has more. it's

a common belief on capitol hill that the best way to raise money from congress is to scare them walter isaacson the head of a government agency that manages u.s. international broadcasting apparently wants a lot of money the cost to fight america's enemies in the media which he identifies as he ran venezuela russia and china we can't allow ourselves to be out communicated by our enemies. there's that freedom house report that reveals that today's autocratic leaders are investing billions of dollars in media resources to influence the global opinion you've got russia today iran's press t.v. venezuela's telos and of course china as a launching international broadcasting twenty four hour news channels correspondents around the world spence portably set aside six to ten billion dollars we've got to go to capitol hill with that number to expand their overseas

media operations to me it sounded like a declaration of information war but leader mr isaacson backtracked i don't take a russia or r t as an enemy and certainly did not mean to imply that they're an enemy so that's just not right maybe mr isaacson really did not mean to offend russia or china it's all a pitch for more money from congress which he's trying to kind of appeal to by saying that other countries are spending more on international communications gear is really the buzzword that's used to try to generate money for the defense department a cia intelligence agencies and now for international broadcasting but getting the u.s. message across this costly there goes that mr walter isaacson is heading is called broadcasting board of governors it includes radio stations voice of america one of them and a fairly unpopular middle eastern t.v. channel on all this the board spends more than seven hundred fifty million dollars

and it's way more than the budget of our t.v. iran's press t.v. and as well as tell us or combined and maybe money does not really make up for global media clout mr isaacson says that it's truthfulness that will make the difference and in the and the truth is on our side and it's that statement that raised an alert with some freedom of speech advocates somebody says the truth is i was on the united states side as a propagandist and that. journalist and i think that's bad it sets a bad example for other countries when that when they say that because obviously other countries have their perspective many times u.s. media is slanted toward the united states even the private media and the credibility of the broadcasting board of governors was under even more scrutiny when reports came out about the white house influence on the b.b.c. reporting after the iranian presidential election and some experts say american

broadcasters that once used to be a powerful voice in the international media are now facing a crisis the problem that they are facing is that the messages they have of how the world is supposed to work is not resonating it's not. getting traction it seems washington is still getting used to the increasing volume for media voices giving a fresh perspective on world issues kind of chicken or t. washington d.c. the commonwealth games has provided new delhi with a platform to showcase its rising wealth but behind broad billboards lies the poverty of shantytowns residents there say the money that went on keeping up appearances could have been better spent on improving the city's squalid slums our correspondent kerrison charan singh has more on the story. across the boards showcasing the commonwealth games have sprung up trying to hide the city's poverty

but these haven't been entirely successful here investment the heart of the slum is still visible most of its two thousand residents are not surprised by the action. the government considers us dirty it could give us land to relocate them instead to hide us they put a curtain up as if we are dirty and shouldn't be seen our politicians take their votes but they stay in palaces the commonwealth games are supposed to showcase delis arrival as a world class city in this new avatar there is no place for the city slums no wonder then that even the station feels that these boards will help project the best face of the city pushing away the reality that me exist behind the people in the slum now have to circle around the whole barricade to fetch water from the other side children to have to squeeze themselves in and out through the gaps to avoid the long new route is another there's no water here this is the biggest problem for us there used to be one town close by but there's been shut so we have

to walk to get water from far away the government has spent at least four point six billion dollars on upgrading the infrastructure for the games yet slum residents such as run the family believe this development has bypassed the. if the government had provided some amenities for us even to proper houses for us to live in we would have been grateful or they could have opened a school in the slum provided us with drinking water. when the commonwealth games and the birds will come down but for the only slum residents life will continue to be tough for them long term life improving changes are needed not short of cosmetic ones got and seeing. just now approaching twenty five minutes past the hour here in moscow you are with r t let's get to some other news now in brief for you at least eight people have been killed in suspected u.s. missile strikes in northwest pakistan a drone targeted

a tribal area in north waziristan believed to be dominated by a militant group blamed for attacks on foreign troops in afghanistan the u.s. it's often been criticized for the strikes which last week killed two pakistani soldiers islamabad a reacted by closing a key border used as a nato supply route the border was reopened on friday ending the eleven day blockade. police have clashed with hundreds of and see gay protesters that serbia's gay pride march around sixty people were reportedly wounded in the violence the protesters tried to break through heavy police cordons protecting the gay activists but were kept a back by security forces. and the evacuation of chile's thirty three trapped miners is due to begin on wednesday rescuers have drilled through to the chamber where the men are sheltering sparking the celebrations across the country the top part of the shaft needs a steel casing which would take about a day and

a half to assemble engineers must also test whether the escape tunnel is safe enough to prevent the risk of collapse. while the upgraded soyuz spacecraft has arrived at the international space station after taking off from the baikonur cosmodrome two days ago the crew made up of two russian cosmonauts and nasa astronauts will stay there for half a year they were greeted by three astronauts who have been manning the station since june remarkably family ties are soon to become part of life of the i s s r t's tabatha reports on the special bond of brothers beyond. twins in space within a few months scott kelly and his brother mark both astronauts will be in orbit together courses are his kids growing up we never thought we would be in this earth you know unique in a privileged position to be able to do this to build up to scott's launch of

russia's baikonur cosmodrome on friday was filled with technical questions but there were human moments to go there yes there were smiles. and goodbye t. is what is for the 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 maybe as a test pilot but before that i think we always work in a dairy queen or a 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 those two russian crewmates everyone waiting it's only twenty minutes to go until the launch one brother is on the ground the other is preparing for glass so that they both know firsthand what they're counting down to not what his brother flyaway into space the trip he'd made three times himself. it's you know it's a credible to watch any.