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lame ducks quack in a ball of faces a race against the clock to get an arms control treaty with russia through the senate before the democrats see that majority cuts in. global power shift the asia pacific region becomes a center of financial power and influence with china taking over from japan as the world's second biggest economy. and fresh organ trafficking allegations in kosovo to reignite claims hundreds of serbs had body parts and all of us did during the kosovo war in the late ninety's as if it is full denies crime is rife.

with twenty four hour news from russia and from around the world this is in moscow good to have you with us so the race is on to get a key nuclear arms reduction treaty with russia through the senate in the us the final session is started before president obama sees the democrat majority cut in general when it will get much tougher for him to get his policies through what is going to has more now from washington d.c. . obviously this is going to be a last minute push to get this landmark deal passed through the senate before you newly elected officials step into office in january there is a very tense part of going game going on here in washington on the a lot of observers say that for many on capitol hill the five is not about the content of the treaty but rather about scoring political points and the point scoring because it is expected to intensify after republicans gain a considerably bigger influence in the senate in january compared to what they have now the republican senate minority leader has already said their priority will be

to have obama voted out of office in two thousand and twelve so basically to make sure that the president fails on his major initiatives so the obama administration is very eager to get the treaty passed on this so-called lame duck session in order to avoid a bumpy ride after january when obama's arguably major foreign policy achievement could well be on the line of the u.s. it proves that and hillary clinton and defense secretary robert gates have just published an urge for the senate to hurry up with a ratification saying the u.s. national security depends on it the prospects of the treaty to be ratified by by this senate look promising the treaty was earlier approved by the senate foreign relations committee there had been a long buildup to wait over many months of hearings america's key military officials had been unanimously testifying in support for the treaty leading security experts in the country were saying it's only common sense to have the new arms reduction deal in place actually among those who testified in support for the

treaty there were more republicans than democrats so it's wrong to think republicans are all against it some very influential republican senators like richard will guard have strongly advocated for the treaty to be passed they've been they've been calling for their party members to put partisan games aside to to put their overwhelming desire to undermine obama as side and do what they believe is right for their country and for maybe on for many cut capitol hill observers the whole thing. bate it really comes down to this question will some republican senators sacrifice a landmark historic deal just for the sake of denying obama this feather in his foreign policy cap but what's at stake the treaty will create nuclear arsenals of both russia and the u.s. by a third it's meant to increase the level of trust between the two nuclear superpowers it's meant to show an example of nonproliferation to other countries and is expected to pave the way for u.s. russia cooperation in other areas as well and many believe what's on the line now

is the well advertised reset and not ratifying the treaty could well put the leaders other cooperation plans on. reporting there and political expert dr dominic levens says obama is desperate to make this treaty work to win points at home. while of the moment everything's less important than internal battles on capitol hill. you know within the sort of american political elite there's simply obsessive lee hostile to each other and competing for power nothing else really counts and therefore you know international treaties the whole range of foreign policy issues to simply become again essential here about who's in and who's out in washington well i think it's partly that they feel the document is important to you know this treaty as a significant part of their whole foreign policy and obviously they are committed to you know better relations with russia and trying to stabilize the nuclear relationship but beyond that if the senate throws out this treaty it will make the

rest of the world believe that obama is powerless if he can't even get this treaty through what else is he you know going to be able to do probably nothing i think most of the rest of the world regards this is a good treaty the administration is committed to it if the senate throws it out all filibusters it out then it will make the american administration look powerless and of course that will have a very bad effect for the next two years so there's a you know a general issue surrounding the credibility of the effectiveness of this administration there's also of course the broader issue of the nuclear arms balance with russia and indeed of collaboration with russia on nuclear arms in general which presumably would also affect american plans as regards iran that it's not at all surprising that. gates and indeed our barbara pretty desperate. what in a few minutes we'll be looking at the stealthy sweetener the u.s. is offering israel war planes in exchange for halt in west bank construction

critics say bribes won't solve issues that decades of talks failed to deal with. the first the center of economics and power shifting. quickly east was to asia pacific that's a view of russia's foreign minister who's been in china for a three way meeting of nations widely seen as shaking up the old order of global politics russia china and india report of the increasingly influential bric group alongside brazil the growing dominance of this block is seen by analysts as changing the world's centers of power the host of today's meeting china has already overtaken japan to become the world's second largest economy and its fullest catching up with the us all to test our senior reports now in the awakening of an asian giant. from a pile of ruins right after the second world war to an economic powerhouse all of this bad of a single life time major pan asia economic miracle one you enjoy but nowadays the land of the rising sun is becoming the land of rising discontent.

the unemployment rate itself is has been steady at around five percent but what's problematic is the quality of the jobs play in europe out of the appeal. and even when companies pay a new people they tend to high on the condition of without social security so the social benefits economic growth is on a standstill and export the engine of its economy are hurt by a soaring again pushing them to take their business elsewhere in the short run you would be doing you should really be increasing the overseas prevention we would be increasing to be equal parts for the us cities by overseas he's referring to china also known as the factory of the world with a major chunk of every manufactured art of today either fully or partly made in china i'm here in the heart of the largest china town. there have been four

generations of chinese that moved to japan and they've been fitted greatly for the rise of this country economically but i. the original country they had left has now overtaken their adoptive home to become the second largest economy in the world which means japan is now chasing the pack rather than leaving it japan you're quite right still seniors stuck in the mud struggling to generate. growth beyond us little short of a sluggish. level. and i'm not sure either of those things are changing many would say we're witnessing the beginning of china's era its economic clout is undeniable at the recently concluded g. twenty and apec summit barack obama repeatedly demanded that china lets the you want appreciate seeing below chinese currency is hurting us exports chinese president hu jintao laid a move china gets the last word that's the new reality in asia if not the whole

world. r.t.d. yokohama japan. well we'll cross that story for your line at all website dot com and also the website right now for you we've details of a holiday speed revolution russian row is prepared to prime its trains to travel at least one hundred fifty kilometers an hour most of its network and. when the pressure is on us college kids are turning to popping these pills the worrying rise of undergraduates on artificial stimulants and rapidly become addicts. israel's mulling over another temporary halt on building jewish settlements on

palestinian territory in return for being given three billion dollars worth of fighter planes it's washington's latest effort to get it stalled peace talks moving once again the deal. to hand over a new f. thirty five would give the israeli air force unmatched striking capabilities in the region u.s. and also into international resolutions against israel united nations and will not ask for another freeze when that deadline is up palestinians are not least because the proposal will not apply to east jerusalem where live now to washington phyllis bennis you can give us her insight into this latest development she's director of the new internationalism project of the institute for policy studies thanks very much indeed for joining us the u.s. is lining up an expensive initiative here isn't it what three billion dollars is this the last throw of the dice to actually achieve peace or is it a pretext that some may see it as the u.s. using this is a way to arm its ally against iran under the guise of of a peace deal. well i think in many ways it's all of the above we're seeing in the

one hand this is a set of bribes if you will that the u.s. was very likely to give to israel anyway the three billion dollars we still don't know if that will be included within the existing thirty billion dollars that the u.s. has agreed to give to israel in military aid over these ten years this was negotiated by george bush and is being implemented now by president obama whether it will be within that or whether this is an additional three billion dollars of new fighter planes they're also getting something that the u.s. has given all the time to israel anyway which is complete protection in the united nations that means vetoing any effort by the palestinians to get the security council to to to recognize a new palestinian state it means protecting israel from being held accountable for war crimes that may have been committed in the gaza war including preventing the goldstone report from being brought forward and with israeli accountability sent to

the international criminal court it means continuing what the u.s. has done in the past of making sure that in the international atomic energy agency that israel is never even requested to join the nonproliferation treaty and make public its well known but officially secret. nuclear arsenal all of these things are things that the u.s. has provided to israel anyway so what they're adding to it now is saying that after this three month partial slowdown of settlement construction because it will not apply in east jerusalem which is crucial that's where there's a big settlement expansion campaign already underway that they will never again ask for a settlement freeze so it's giving the israelis an awful lot in return for really not very much so actually you mention jerusalem that surely the talks are doomed anyway on the palestinians won't move forward unless israel does actually freeze construction in east jerusalem so the whole things unfold anyways in the.

absolutely and the question now remains whether the palestinian authority which is making the decisions hears is going to be willing to move forward with these negotiations if the israelis do agree to the u.s. proposal if they will be willing to move forward knowing that there will be no stopping of settlement expansion massive settlement expansion which includes the expulsion of palestinians from jerusalem in complete violation of article forty nine of the geneva conventions that prohibits both the expulsion of an occupied population individually or in mass from their own land and prohibits in the same article prohibits the planting of new population from the occupying power israel into the occupied territory it's illegal on both fronts but knowing that that's going to continue at full speed the question now will be if israel accepts this will the palestinians agree to negotiate on those terms i think it's very unlikely

it will be accepting a complete and utter collapse of the possibility of east jerusalem being the palestinian capital do you think it is not clear that israel will accept the. i think it's quite likely i think that president obama has given netanyahu many things that he will be able to use as arguments for the part of the right wing that's even further to the right than netanyahu himself and in that context i think that it's going to be much more difficult for his far right partners to say no the possibility would be that they would lose so next election if there were to be a vote of no confidence it's not a given israeli politics is very volatile and when you have a political sector that sort of goes from the far right like netanyahu to the fascist right and i use that term quite advisedly like lieberman the foreign minister who has advocated force transfer of palestinians on mass out of the west

bank and perhaps out of their traditional homes inside israel as well you're dealing with a very difficult political situation just just just very briefly you mentioned many negative aspects about this initiative and also we talked a little bit earlier about iran and whether this could oversell going to ask you whether this could actually increase tensions between iran and the u.s. and israel if the u.s. putting forward this while they doing as part of the middle east peace quartet off to rule the e.u. the u.n. involved with this why is it just the u.s. putting forward this is a broker and nobody else involved. well you know many of us have believed since the beginning that the quartet was never a quartet that it was always a solo act with three backup singers i believe that the quartet was always designed to provide political and diplomatic cover to a thoroughly unilateral initiative unfortunately russia the european union and the united nations' worst of all have agreed to serve in that sort of back door role of

providing credibility for a u.s. initiative that should be seen as unilateral and supporting illegal actions by israel providing the political cover for israel to never be held accountable it's really unconscionable and the question is why are the governments of the european union russia and the united nations as a whole not standing up and saying this is unacceptable that we want to be involved but we want to be involved on the basis of international law not on the basis of accepting a u.s. resolution that will be a a public violating of international law and allow that to become the the credible solution here this is not going to lead to a just and lasting solution this is not going to lead to the end of israeli occupation phyllis bennis we'll leave it there thank you very much fascinating to hear what you have to say director of the new internationalism project at the institute for policy studies joining us there live in washington d.c.

thank you. well now time to have a look at some of the world headlines this hour and in that through a high rise apartment building in shanghai is taking the lives of forty two people with over one hundred others injured the twenty eight story tunnel was under renovation a full broke out on scaffolding quickly spreading to the building itself people jumped out of windows in desperation to escape the flames. want to see a four story building has collapsed killing at least thirty two people and injuring sixty others emergency crews believe dozens of people are trapped under the rubble local residents were seen digging for survivors with their bare hands. far engines are having difficulty navigating through the neighborhoods crowded streets hampering the rescue operation it's thought monsoon rains may weaken the building's foundation. is obvious to an airline quantas continued a boeing seven hundred seven flying from sydney to argentina had to turn back because of a problem with this electrical system smoke began to fill the cockpit so the pilots dump fuel and headed back to sydney landing safely with all two hundred twenty on

board it's the fourth incident this month following the fiery engine blowout on november the fourth which grounded its entire a three eighty feet from singapore. the seven suspects in kosovo have been charged with persuading people to sell their organs with false offers of cash one of the accuse of previously faced allegations of trafficking body parts of serbian prisoners join the cause of a war and as sarah firth found out that conflict and cause of us later declaration of independence is invited in organized crime. they grease him allegations claims there's no going to his crime group including doctors and a high level health official were involved in organ trafficking and as the investigation continues there are now growing concerns with political instability and a weak justice system kosovo could be becoming a breeding ground for criminal activity we don't have very real state and real estate is not functioning actually and we don't have development that's why the

party's very high unemployment is increasing you by the allegations focus on the medical private clinic and first surfaced two years ago forcing the center to close shockingly r.t. have discovered that to those named in the indictment have continued to work of a sense as another health and a medical just next door to where the alleged crimes took place the indictments have shed a harsh spotlight on organized crime in kosovo both its government and western countries are accused of turning a blind eye to the lawlessness has been growing ever since it declared independence from serbia really three years ago there are also many who accuse the ruling authorities of miscarriages of justice that date back to the war being drawn between medicaid and the yellow house case the alleged murder and harvesting of organs of serbian war prisoners by members of the cause of a liberation army but there was insufficient evidence to bring that case because my

husband was taken just after the war and despite civilians haven't been promised security regardless of ethnicity he never came back the families of kidnapped and killed people in cos of a have been fighting the right tape in the un mission in kosovo and yours for a long time but so far without any results the biggest problem is that those who are killing on kidnapping people and consummate have changed their soldiers uniforms for the peace begin to power overnight would. international institutions these are the faces of some of the people that are still missing from the war and the fake of the day is really where the kosovo if the fighting organized crime and there are still so many who say creative of the abuses of the past third. cup of. international interest in the middle east doesn't just rest with securing peace countries like lebanon are also eager to get their economies fighting fares well that's why the country's prime minister has come to russia to continue signing

a raft of multi-million dollar deals caught up with saad hariri ahead of his visit that's our special interview next on r.t. . i had then met have welcome to the archery interview with great pleasure and i would like to welcome the finance prime minister shakes out i had even i know hello prime minister hello i had thought that that and that in theaters and do you think

that is illusion of the political crisis in iraq will have a positive impact on the and could lead to resolution of the political crisis there as well. i think the main problem here is that the key issue is ignored i mean about a fair peace for everybody in one hundred ninety one there was a peace conference in madrid then there was also the arab summit conference in beirut where the participants came up with the arab peace initiative but now the peace process is being destroyed by different amendments which will lead us nowhere but the principles behind the resolutions which were supported by everyone demand that israel should follow the resolutions that would have been no need now to talk about rome's and other problems have this peace process not been buried in the one nine hundred ninety s. we face many difficulties today because israel denies palestinians their legal rights refuses to return the golan heights to syria the ship of farms. and geisha to lebanon but the arab peace initiative was adopted why is israel doing that the

international community has an obligation here it needs to know that we can only solve problems in the region through a fair peace for all this into israel is extensible out of the deadlock in the peace process not only is it responsible israel is the main reason why the process failed with netanyahu is government is not able nor is it willing to continue with the peace process what role could freshet play in promoting the peace process in the middle east and russia participated in the madrid conference and is part of this process it is also part of the quartet mediating in the israeli palestinian talks therefore i think russia could play a very. it has many friends in the arab world we need to use our relations with russia in order to communicate the arab stance on things to the international community because it's very unnerving to see the injustice done by israel to palestinians as well as to lebanon and syria we can no longer ignore this israel's

trying to impose its own agenda and keep seizing land day live unfortunately the world is not doing anything about it this is unacceptable in all aspects international of human religious it goes against the geneva convention and any other regulations israel is breaking international conventions thank you. when everybody knows that he had relationship with the russian leader is a very good what key issues really discuss your and this is it that you think he had he has men and women too often politically relations with russia very important to us we would like these relations to be economically beneficial as well we would also like to find out how russia could assist lebanon and equipping our army and security forces in this respect we're going to propose some ideas to our russian friends we have been promised certain assistance in lebanon is ready to work out a plan for purchasing russian weapons to lebanon has purchased arms from russia in the past and now we are trying to figure out if we could get some discount on

weapons for lebanon's army and security forces and us and what about jets. we will study the issue during our visit our pilots are going through training and hopefully this visit will be a successful end to what our president has started on many of you know what areas can expect agreements to be signed in russia we're considering signing an agreement on culture and between our countries ministries of justice we hope that agreements in other areas will be studied properly especially those concerning armaments for the lebanese army. and i know of at who's seen is russia maintains its position regarding the human international tribunal on the killing of former prime minister and fully supports it what is your standpoint on this position the beer. it's a natural position since russia is driven by the idea of justice and is never abandoned it and that's why we are grateful to russia for the position which we

consider to be natural because russia supports lebanon not only in the matters related to the international tribunal but also in everything lebanon had to go through over the past decades with all the wars both in two thousand and six and earlier russia has always been on lebanon's side when you met why aren't you willing to satisfy the opposition's requirement. to step back from the special tribunal in order to keep the peace in the country and the will to a mile or two of us here we have created the government which initially was a national unity government and with no such concept as pro-government or opposition forces we must be united it would be a political mistake for anyone to consider themselves to be part of the opposition while being part of the government that's number one number two is that there are indeed concerns about the special tribunal but i think that it would be wrong to talk about this under current circumstances there require sobriety and dialogue people need to calm down and act sensibly fighting leads us nowhere and at the end

of the day we will have to live together in our country and keep our dialogue if god forbid we develop different views than the country will have a problem with that we must get back to the negotiating table the country requires peace and that's the most important thing yes we indeed still have some disagreements but is it really the way out there must be peace otherwise there is no way to achieve positive results in dialogue how can an emotional person be in dialogue with other people i keep saying it all the time that we need to calm down the lebanese people need an opportunity to live a peaceful life because people are tired of all the discord we must do everything to achieve it and know who the father was something that if pressure on you on the part of the position builds up you'll have to resign is that possible. then. i haven't felt much pressure on me and i think the pressure is being put on other people rather than on me as for resignation i was elected by the lebanese people

majority expressed their trust in me so that we could form a government i became prime minister thanks to the support of the majority and i'm set to continue working together with everybody i love. then q mr prime minister. thank you. for your comes our comfortable shuttle bus will teach you to sum up just a few hours on certain urgent focused and scary current affairs. on the moon. craters.