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these stunts on t.v. . extradited russian businessman victor booker accuses washington of trying to force his confession he denies all charges including conspiracy to kill americans and why arms to terrorist groups. security of the why the white house vows to do whatever it takes to seal the arms reduction treaty between russia and us more republicans push to postpone its ratification. advising tension roma gypsies say they are being outcasts claiming european countries are using a fight against crime as an excuse to target them.

i. am in the russian capital you're watching our team when we were in a joshua welcome to the program alleged arms dealer viktor board says u.s. officials pressured him to confess while he was being extradited from thailand he told this to russian diplomats madam in a new york prison but has denied all all the charges he's facing at if convicted could face up to life in prison are reports mr boot has said that u.s. officials had tried to pressure him for evidence and pressure him to confess to crimes during his extradition from thailand to the united states and according to what's being reported this is a pressure that mr boot did not came into. committing to victor during the extradition the americans attempted to convince him to make a confession of the crimes he had never committed and promised some kind of privileges in return rejected all these offers what the russian diplomats also have

disclosed is that mr boot is being held in solitary confinement at the metropolitan correctional center in lower manhattan mr bush has also asked that his wife be relocated to the u.s. here to new york to be with him his wife of course has been in thailand by his side for more than two years proclaiming her husband's innocence now mr boot stood before a federal judge and the judge had read out the charges for mr boot pled not guilty on all of the charges when the u.s. attorney however was addressing the press in new york speaking for about ten to fifteen minutes about the case that they are building against mr vick to move to the russian businessman and outlining specifically the charges let's take a listen to what he had to say distribute now stands charged in this district the southern district of new york with four charges. one conspiring to kill united

states nationals two conspiring to kill united states officers and employees three conspiring to use and acquire anti-aircraft missiles and for conspiring to provide material support to the fark what's interesting to note and to underscore is that during this press conference the us attorney and the head of the da continued to paint a picture of victor boot one of the most dangerous men in the world a man who sides with violence who sides with war who sides against the united states they were for a time as the so-called merchant of death and then at the end of their press conference they want to remind everyone that victor boot remains innocent until proven guilty and assuring the press that he will receive a fair trial some were questioning how that could take place after he's already painted in the press and in the international media as a man who promotes violence and promotes war so

a lot of wondering whether or not this trial will in fact be fair for mr victor boot. are now reporting their military defense lawyer major eric volz says boots case could open up indoors box for the u.s. there are number of cases that the united states is unhappy with and what we're running into is this dangerous precedent where if if we're exercising this type of authority over individuals in other countries what's going to happen in the future to u.s. citizens and whether or not other countries are going to demand extradition of our citizens you know people who they think are criminals for example in the last administration and demanding their extradition to spain or italy or some other country and how can we as a straight face an international community have it both ways if the justice department didn't do their job properly and get this one right you know it certainly could open up a can of worms for us in the future. and a little later we'll tell you about the possibilities of

a smoke russia was behind the initiative and why some say it's an infringement of the arayans. in the u.s. democrats are struggling to get a key arms deal with moscow ratified in the senate by the end of the year the new strategic arms reduction treaty sealed in april should slash the number of russian and u.s. nukes by a third but the republicans in washington seem determined to stall the deal as artie's got an edge to count reports it's getting pretty tense here the informal republican leader on the new start senator jon kyl said the treaty should not be considered until next year he is saying there are other important things for the senate to talk about like the economy and that's bad news for the trade of the administration is making a last ditch effort to appeal to the secular state hillary clinton defense secretary robert gates leading security experts in the country they're all saying the failure to pass the new start treaty this year would endanger the u.s. national security they give two reasons for that first americans can no longer

track russia's strategic crude nuclear arsenal the other main reason is that weakening cooperation with the russia's that could follow if the new start treaty is not in place joe biden and hillary clinton made it clear that the new start treaty is the centerpiece of obama's reset of relations with russia for anyone to see that we can postpone or we can avoid it is i'm afraid vastly underestimating the continue we rent that is posed to our country so we hope our our friends in the senate will bring this up pass this treaty and then i can. inform the russians that it's now their you know their turn to do the same which they told us they intend to do a lot of observers say that for many on capitol hill the fight is not about the content of the trade it was there about scoring political points the republicans already said. our number one priority will be to have obama voted out of office in

two thousand and twelve so for many capitol hill observers the whole debate on stark now comes down to this question will some republican senator sacrifice a landmark his story he'll just for the sake of denying obama his arguably the biggest foreign policy achievement. is going to count for him there now kate hudson from the campaign for nuclear disarmament says the prospect of a world without nuclear weapons is too important to throw away for political reasons we were amongst the many people around the world who really welcomed president obama's speech in prague where he outlined his vision of a world without nuclear weapons and of course a vision which president medvedev shares and i think it's absolutely reprehensible if senator in the u.s. congress are obstructing the passing of this very important treaty the new start treaty for party political point scoring reasons i think this is far too important on a global scale for them to stand in the way like this many people globally including

i should say former cold warriors people like henry kissinger and george schultz many other leaders across the world now believe that it is just too jane shuras to have nuclear weapons and that is the trend that is taking place in the world towards disarmament and away from nuclear weapons and that is the trend which the u.s. senate and the u.s. congress should be going along with and following the leadership of their president kate hudson from the campaign for nuclear disarmament here. crisis is over the plight of roma gypsies is spreading across the european union and some countries blame the roma for rising crime and tackle it by the porting them back to where they came from making it worse by comes amid accusations of discrimination as artie's daniel bushell reports. seems like we could become common across europe the mayor of this town in southern belle garrett told r.t. he had to tear down this block of flats because the room residents had turned it

into a slum this pile of rubble is all that's left of the housing estate what also it is called a public health hazard infested with rats cockroaches and fleas thousands of roma home. some have moved to this wasteland no shelter health care or education for the children. where citizens where there's a treat us like this schools won't take my son because he has lice and disease people here ask is this what the e.u.'s become with winter approaching they'll be sleeping in the cold. e.u. politicians bury their heads in the sand only we can solve their own problems. france to send tens of thousands of roma back to bulgaria sweden it's a lead denmark and germany had similar policies they use justice commissioner says it reminds her of world war two saffir is left to pick up the pieces one of the

evicted told me he picks pockets to feed his family those that can go straight back to rich e.u. states member countries report rumor offenses are shooting up this lawlessness is pushing rising numbers into angry anti gypsy groups the biggest problem with the just special. is that the crime is already a civil war. or else for. the life of our of the people europe's ten million roma are the elephant in the corner the e.u. community usually freezes them out in all ways but one of education opportunities limited music remains one of their few past success. a racy gypsy style of pop called child tops the charts but campaigners more that most roma stand by by france and other states can't integrate because there aren't enough jobs for them and bog area they say ethnic conflicts are set to surge until

the e.u. learns to live and work with roma not just enjoy the music in the nightclubs the new bushell arty sophia. the u.s. is facing a backlash against the american treasury secretary's decision to print six hundred billion dollars and a bit to stimulate the economy critics of home and abroad say this so-called quantitative easing will devalue the dollar and create havoc across the world. u.s. federal reserve announced that it was buying treasury bonds worth six hundred billion dollars and this was on top of the previous purchase of treasury bonds worth one point seven billion dollars i mean what do you pay for that stuff with you know you know paid for by writing a check you pay for it ultimately in the end you pay for it by cash and this cash starts hitting world markets some markets are more volatile than others and obviously it's going to have an effect but it was a shock and. awe you know there are some people who are not quite as critical to us

as others but i don't recall anybody applauding the u.s. move i don't recall anybody saying oh smart move i don't i don't think i don't think anybody said that there were some people who were not critical but then they didn't they didn't they were not in favor either you know. and you can watch that interview with author and journalist don kirkman full here on r t just over twenty minutes time. and let's not take a look at some other stories from around the world now really missile killed two california militants after hitting a car in gaza the dead are believed to be brothers were members of the terrorist group army of islam israel says watt of the insurgents was involved in a plan to kidnap israelis and sinai in egypt. the first one taught of a detainee to be tried in a u.s. civilian court faces a minimum of twenty years in jail after being found guilty for plotting to destroy a u.s. property yani from tanzania was cleared of hundreds of other counts including murder

charges at a court in new york he was arrested four years ago over his involvement in the one nine hundred ninety eight bombings of u.s. embassies in africa which killed over two hundred people. nearly fifty people have been arrested in one in germany of the american embassy in athens during the rally marking in the one nine hundred seventy s. student anti dictatorship uprising more than twenty thousand demonstrators clashed with riot police who responded with tear gas and stun grenades police also reported clashes in the southern city of atrocity and people were venting their anger at the u.s. support for the hun to which the rule which ruled then greece. the legal status of the energy rich caspian sea is in focus at a summit being held in the as their bridge on a capital baku leaders of the caspian five which are the five states surrounding the sea will discuss securing the safety of the area as are going off now reports.

the caspian sea is often referred to as the natural marking point between europe and asia and it is extremely rich in natural resources nearly twenty billion tons of oil and gas. which is comparable with a deposit in the persian gulf or sturgeon up to ninety percent of the world's sturgeon catch is done here during soviet times the sea was shared between just two states the soviet union and iran to be collapse of the u.s.s.r. newly independent states emerged. and obviously everybody wants a piece of the pie but the legal status of the sea still has not been decided and one of the main goals of the caspian nations summit is to resolve this issue and divide the caspian sea between these five states russia is proposing to divide this . into sectors while sharing the war another major highlight of thursday's

summit is the meeting between the president's office russia and iran which is actually going to be the first meeting off the two leaders since russia supported the leader of the un sanctions on iran and also canceled its shipment of the ask three hundred missile defense system systems to tehran which was strongly criticized by authorities even if you agree with those sanctions should not have had any effect on russia's obligations to iran because we signed the contract before the sanctions were imposed furthermore the sanctions don't apply to defensive weapons you used to protect your country that's why russia should have on its contractual obligations and delivered three hundred systems to iran the meeting between presidents need to be a different ahmadinejad is set to take place later on thursday we're expecting to see what's going to come out of that but apart from the issues i just mentioned economic cooperation at the caspian sea is also obviously going to be discussed

between state these decisions me back the lives of the. millions of people living in the balloting countries and we're also expecting a final document to be signed between old five states which is aimed at boosting cooperation in the fight against terrorism drugs and arms trafficking in the region now the afghan president is reportedly reiterating his unconditional support for new year's operations in his country this comes just days after hama car as i slammed u.s. led military operations and called for a drawdown yet coming nato summit in lisbon is expected to see a roadmap for withdrawing international combat troops from afghanistan by the and f. twenty four team military contributor says it's up to the alliance commander in the country general david petraeus to make the exit a graceful one. political approach is still remains the same down despite a defect that it hasn't been working nine years and it's unlikely to work in another

four years and it operates the cross purposes with a military strategy reach that actually doesn't make sense because it's bottom up approach successfully tried and tested by the u.s. special forces both in iraq and afghanistan to overcome the contradiction between the political top down approach and hands on practical military bottom up strategy general petraeus has to regain of that initiative from his political masters and to lead the way of both the governor and general of afghanistan that's the only way to provide the opening space to save the face for the nato for a long mission in afghanistan and for the graceful exit of the u.s. forces from their region. and i was there to drive a car only get a portion of their yeah it's official russia has the most smokers per capita in the

world the shocking statistics just released are just another reminder to the government that they need to up their game in their anti-smoking efforts as artist a surveillance reports they're not taking this battle lying down. brief but graphic the world health organization and the russian government are hitting the airwaves with a campaign meant to stamp out cigarettes in a nation where a pack of smokes is sometimes cheaper than a bottle of water a new study shows there are more people lined up here than anywhere else in the world more than half of all men do the numbers smaller among women a twenty five percent but it's growing according to the world health organization diseases associated with the addiction kills nearly five hundred thousand russians every year about forty seven percent of small cars who are smokers today they start small given the age of fifteen sixteen and the said thank you is that tobacco industry know you know this provides very glamorous and to get advertising the

government is taking action by banning cigarette ads and cigarette promotions in t.v. and film beginning in two thousand and eleven lawmakers are also pondering the possibility of making it more expensive to puff prime minister putin is asking legislators to lead by example to show who among government members smokes one two three c we have better statistics in the country at large at least on this issue. alone you know what i think they'll try to quit smoking won't they. what are you going to do to fight smoking and we should suit your own example by quitting. i wish to see what are you laughing at you smoke you've got to quit to. some call the government's anti smoking efforts and overzealous infringement of their rights.

it's like ben and you from. i won't care if there is a band asked if i want to smoke. more measures are on the way including a complete public ban on smoking in bars and restaurants to take place between fifteen so you know what it's like when you go out like your favorite perfume or cologne but by the end of the night rolled around an ashtray this was still a vision. you'd be able to tell that the air is clear that's because we're first smoke free bar so you can smell the same way going out as you did coming in marbella is the baby. who himself has been cigarette free for for years his aim is to have a fashionable place where nonsmokers can breathe easy. look at the experience of european countries profit depends on whether one likes it here or not if i can create a couzin relaxed atmosphere and make people here feel joy and be merry i will earn

my money. so for some of the smoke free future is now. has more on our stories now to let us know what you're thinking and here's some of what's online right now. and the recent removal of hundreds of chaos from. understanding. there are some of the most intimate by the author of our final published. writing. to his wife and a larger collection. next year. and a lot of her avoidance asking. russia's prime minister now wants you to help. new. details.

and it's time now for a business of day with stephanie. morning and we've got news that a russian tech company could be investing in twitter yes that's right digital sky technologies is looking to make some investments on twitter looks like a popular choice i'll have more on that just a bit later on in the bulletin but fust russia is aiming to spend twenty eight billion dollars on its roads in two thousand and eleven that's almost nine percent more than the previous year but the government recognizes it's still not enough and wants additional help from the private sector that pool has the details. russia managed to combine a number of the worst problems in transport just getting from a to b. can prove torture aside made all the worse by the sheer size of the country

motorways by far and few between and the roads often badly patrolled moscow is a case in point it has the fourth worst traffic jams of any major city in the world it's a very unorganized try things there is what is the main point is missing in my eyes mr ted j. planning for the city or what they say meet of traffic to understand the base of the traffic is a. inter connecting system which is different which i was a huge investment is also needed to build just one kilometer road in the capital can cost up to three hundred million dollars the sums involved is so much that the government needs private money if it's not to put too big a dent in the budget and wants to improve efficiency private companies have a lot of knowhow they have a lot of experience of similar projects and one that come here that of cost to be honest money but it's just the size of the market. attract those contracts we are talking about a contract with run for ten years fifteen years or twenty years the time it takes

to make a return on an investment is a major deterrent to investors even when construction companies can be found to join a public private partnership they find it hard to convince the banks to provide backing this is where the world bank can lend a hand generally would be a lot of institutional work in which we will be basically providing support to the companies in the future if they are once we go further down the road there raby possibilities of financial activity once the roads are built people will still need to find a place to park often a time consuming problem in moscow the government may be able to help by changing legislation so developers can buy land inside the city rather than just renting it this would provide added incentives to incorporate profit traffic management and shopping malls and business districts would be adequately supplied with parking

spaces freeing up the roads for people who are trying to get somewhere nick business altie the russian government has approved its privatization plan for two thousand and eleven to two thousand and thirteen the asset sales are expected to raise as much as three hundred thirty billion dollars the midst of economic development of it in the balloon and explains the pappas of the program. the key difference of the plan for twenty eleven to twenty thirteen is of course it's large scale character the aim of such a privatization programme is not only to bring additional funds to the state budget even though that's of high importance our key task is to encourage investment into companies. such as time outs took a quick look at the i could see markets asian stocks are making gains on thursday snapping a four day slice the nikkei even hit a fresh five month high one point in the session exports as a high on a week again and financial stocks are lending support to global investors are

recovering from a ten day slump that has wiped over two trillion dollars of the value of global stocks. here in moscow markets finished in the black on wednesday the my sense was half a percent higher mystery chips were up but. the trend. the number of mortgage loans in russia has more than doubled in the last year that's according to prime minister vladimir putin who cites the strong recovery in the housing market the government spent more than thirty billion dollars building new houses during the crisis. russia's central bank says the country's foreign trade surged by thirty five percent in the first nine months of this year volume the trade with foreign partners amounted to four hundred sixty billion dollars exports grew by almost forty percent while imports increased other slower rate of about thirty one percent. russia is currently less fashionable for investors the brazil that's according to the dept of spare bank however mark rubenstein from i have seen

much pull disagrees he believes there are compelling reasons why some investors are picking russia over other emerging markets. it will look at their relative valuation russian equities now are valued at a nine a half p. versus brazilian about fourteen so this is much you know it's a big difference and of course what i counted that has accounted for that discount has been their political risk premium which has been evaporating my view quite rapidly over the past sixteen months i think we will see more funds coming out of many other emerging markets coming into russia brazil seem like a very obvious candidates because capital controls the tricks the more expensive china is much more expensive than russia and that could take some money out of that the current signs out of russia as i'd mockery bolland is much stronger personalities expected if you look at the data market data out of russia for the

past several months it consistently has been above the expectations of the market so i will not be surprised to see alice revising their marker forecast for russia boards in the near future russia's digital scots guy technologies could become an investor in the microblogging service twitter the head of d.s.t. says the company is looking to invest in a range of projects with a minimum value of a billion dollars twitter being one of them so will street journal reported twitter was seeking two hundred million dollars of investment the online service has around one hundred eighty million uses and is worth more than three billion dollars. and that's all the business news for now but of course i'll be back with a few next hour and you can always find the stories on our website that's. slash that's this.