it watching r t six in the morning here in moscow welcome to the program now a total of twenty six people including a number of russian citizens are being held after major anti terrorist group in europe belgian police suspect the group of being part of an international terror network which was planning a series of atrocities at christmas across the continent now those held are also under investigation for seeking recruits and funding for terrorism in russia's republic of chechnya daniel bushell has been following developments from brussels. police here in brussels say they busted an islamic terrorist cell tied to russia's republic of chechnya which is planning attacks three throughout europe and this evening also it is swooped on fifteen people suspect of recruiting jihad is to fight in iraq and afghanistan it comes just hours after or storage is launched

pre-dawn raid on homes of another eleven suspects who were tied to a cicily are linked network the belgian prosecutor's office said quote they were an international terrorist group using its streaming internet site and saw al mujahideen to plan an attack it comes as part of massive coordinated raids across europe in countries like the netherlands denmark germany where a thirty one year old russian man of chechen origin was arrested suspected of training jihadists to fight in terrorist campaigns those arrested or belgian dutch moroccan and russian origin this is seen as among the first top level links that police have found between russia's chechen terrorist organizations and the worldwide al qaeda network and also to say those arrested a suspect of gathering recruits some money to finance a chechen terrorist organization called the caucasus emirate in effect to found

a separate islamic state based on a surreal law in the cells of russia and it comes in the wake of horrific attacks in russia from those moscow metro bombings that we saw earlier this year two increasingly bloody suicide blasts in russia's southern republics of degassed on and chechnya of the one of those attacks russia's foreign minister sergei lavrov said that those chechen league groups were based and was standing very much in line with al qaida but after that the united states but chechen rebel leader dog or more are on the most wanted list of terrorists but it's really taken this set of events in the past twenty four hours to show that russia's chechen terrorists networks are standing shoulder to shoulder with some of the world's most dangerous terrorists. dr edwin baker a research fellow from the international center for counterterrorism believes a group arrested on tuesday is part of a global terror network trying to expand as far as possible of course they are part

of this global jihad of which al qaida is the main i can they are not only recruiting chechens to go back to fight to chechnya but they also recruiting other people in this case possibly people with a dutch moroccan background so in that sense they're not only part of a local struggle well they're part of a global jihad and chechnya is to focus for some of these groups who have roots in europe who have nothing to do with chechnya so it's more international and these foreign supporters they want these groups very much to make this international as possible now a new figures show a record high number of young us military veterans returning from iraq and afghanistan committing suicide each month. on a vest against what pushes so many american soldiers to take their own lives at home after they've escaped danger at the front line far away each day eighteen american veterans commit suicide in the last few years more u.s.

military personnel have taken their own lives than have been killed in either iraq or afghanistan the numbers raise a question where is the battle really happening in the field or at home. it was only home for eight months before. he even took him over to my home is mentally. and year and a half when i post torture. i told him he was six. when. these parents share a similar tragedy one of losing their children who had gone to war in iraq strong and healthy man and came back deeply traumatized and haunted by nightmares.

thousands of american troops returned home with post-traumatic stress disorder but many refused to seek help from the government in fear it's going to show on their records and they won't be hired anywhere but even those who do seek help are often neglected i want to apply for a job. i applied for unemployment benefits. i went to the veterans administration for treatment a year after i was discharged because i was feeling suicidal and i was discharged i was refused treatment actually brian little would served in iraq came to this charity event for homeless veterans because he too was homeless he and dozens of other young man and women here. not only do many come back from war traumatized but are often left without a roof over their head according to the u.s. national coalition on homelessness forty percent of homeless man are veterans the staggering number of those who see no other option but to kill themselves pushed

the country's veterans affairs department to start a suicide prevention hotline they claim they've talked to more than ten thousand veterans out of killing themselves iraq and afghan veterans fuel the epidemic and i share your sadness over killing you know. specialists often hear from callers they see no meaning behind the many killings they witnessed any war can be traumatizing for soldiers but the suicide rate among vets in the u.s. is now the highest seems the vietnam war there was no similar surge after world war two things. view is questioning the motive of the war is now reflected among many young american vance who's only down to drive them even closer to the brink looking at the plight of veterans in the us one can't help asking what is the cost of war is it the one point eight trillion dollars the u.s. spent in iraq and afghanistan last year or is it the shattered lives of hundreds of

thousands of soldiers who come back home to find out their battle for survival has just begun going to shut down our t. clinton maryland and still ahead for you this hour. metal monsters like this fishing vessel sitting here abandoned waiting for the sea water to return to the deserts of catholics down with international rehabilitation after taking a factory errol's proves it may once again return i'm one of the friends to join me in central asia to explore what used to be one of the world's largest landlocked body of water. but not. high praise in high places find out just why film star leonardo dicaprio got a small town prime minister. now tension has surged on the already tense korean peninsula after northern forces launched an artillery barrage on the island in the south southern forces confirmed

they'd earlier fired shells in exercises directed west not north earlier so will blame the north for what it called an unprovoked shelling of its island and has threatened to retaliate against its neighbor but the south had violated its maritime border during the military drills two south korean marines were killed in one of the worst clashes in almost fifty years russia's foreign ministry said that the strikes were unacceptable and called on both sides to show restraint. the solution with us of what happened deserves condemnation it's we insist that both sides must take measures to pacify the situation and prevent similar action in the future unfortunately this is already the third incident of the kind this year so this time it is a colossal danger of the situation descending into military conflict this must be avoided russia has repeatedly warned of the growing tension in the region and is

now counting on both sides to arrive at a suitable conclusions american investigative journalist webster tarpley says that as well as territorial disputes the leadership succession underway in pyongyang is behind the border clash it's a disputed border and the south koreans were holding maneuvers and the north had protested and then the shooting began and since the border is disputed who violated whose territory or even who started shooting i think we can't really know from a distance normally that would not be anything special we've had it again quite a few times what makes it more worrisome is that this is now the yellow sea and this is a place where the u.s. and south korea have insisted on having a presence very close to beijing very close to china and chinese are very very upset about this the other thing you've got is just the general framework of the succession now we've got kim jong il passing on the mantle to kim on

and there may be some generals in the north korean military who are not happy about taking orders from somebody so young and so inexperienced with no military background so it means that they're very very sensitive to provocations more than they would be at some other time. a new world order where global history is redefined as promised by week you leaks during its next revelations meanwhile one of nato allies denmark says the last documents revealed by the whistleblower claims danish troops were involved in violence and abuse in iraq and reports after being denied further information by nato and the u.s. the country's authorities have turned to the whistleblower itself to find out the truth. danish defense officials seem to be on the quest for the truth the week. after the whistleblower web site released thousands of iraq war logs showing prisoner abuse in iraq denmark launched its own investigation to find out whether

danish soldiers were involved if anything had happened in a wrong way of course we should be open about that but first they turned to nato and to the united states for help with no luck to get the documents from the americans because the americans and the close ally often mark in these documents are american after being refused access to information by nato and their american counterparts demi's defense officials have been forced to turn so we can weeks ironically we got to see those documents before they did because the very same logs that the ministry of defense are after are in position of a danish newspaper which got them not from weekly leaks but from a whistleblower of their own and yes danish defense officials asked the editors for help to we're not going to give them to the defense forces because this is the sort of protection thing called newspaper with a paper keen to protect informants identities the danish military had one last resort we q. makes for a gravel

a former military intelligence officer finds the situation absurd he was arrested and jailed for leaking information on weapons of mass destruction in iraq six years ago and now the officials themselves are turning to leaked documents for truth something gravel himself was jailed for so it only shows the very thought ma'am. viewpoint regarding freedom of speech. has always been so as to suit it so if you're embarrassing leak they will do whatever it can to prevent a messenger if we would treat us don't like what they discovered this time it may be that once again it's a website telling the danish people what their soldiers were really doing in iraq. copenhagen denmark well let's have a look at some international news in brief this hour thursday is to be a national day of mourning in cambodia following a stampede that killed three hundred seventy eight people at

a water festival nearly eight hundred were also injured and the disaster tragedy struck as thousands try to cross a narrow bridge when a crowd panicked for an unknown reason most of the victims were crushed while others drowned falling from the bridge. portuguese trade unions have started a twenty four hour general strike against government wage cuts and the pension freeze the unions hope to bring the country to a halt with mass pickets two days before parliament votes over a sturdy budget expected to pass by the government is trying to reduce huge foreign debt so avoid another you resign bailout greece and arlette portugal is seen as the next potential flashpoint undermining the stability of the euro while our island remains in political chaos over e.u. i.m.f. rescue plans. toxic gas levels and low oxygen readings have been found close to where twenty nine trapped miners in new zealand are thought to be two

robots have been ascent underground with another one it's where as it's still too dangerous for rescue teams and the men who are trapped in a gas explosion on friday at the pike river mine or experts say there is a high risk of another explosion the country's prime minister has warned the nation to prepare for the worst as nothing has been heard since the men who include british and australians as well as new zealanders. well to central asia now where the erroll see once the world's fourth largest lake almost disappeared half a century ago due to soviet agricultural mismanagement the receding waters robbed the region of its economic lifeline but it did not deprive people of the hope that one day the sea would return and as our. reports there are science one of the world's worst manmade environmental disasters might be reversed but there are people living at this harbor who have never seen the water which once lapped at its walls the former port city of a raskin kazakstan was once

a bustling hub of business and human activity but beginning in the one nine hundred sixty s. rivers feeding massive cotton fields for the soviet union diverted water away from the rivers that fed the erroll sea. be a pretty nice game in which she was close to the city my husband and i am by and we would swim to the islands for picnics on the weekend we swam and lay in the sun nation the sea started moving away the watches became shallow and then just joined up with my children still unknown in the pictures until the waters were so aggressively diverted the aerial sea was the size of ireland. the disappearing sea took with it fishing jobs commerce and an entire way of life just a few decades ago where i'm standing now as far as the eye could see was bright blue water ships just like this bobbing up and down bringing in the day's catch now when you drive across the former seabed all you see is abandoned villages abandoned

ships and camels now people here call it errol coom or errol doesn't it was a. planned economy is largely to blame for the dying of the aral sea all decisions are made in moscow which took no account of the ecological balance of that region the consequences of that could be felt as early as in the one nine hundred sixty s. the r.e.c. region the fines the terms pre-crisis crisis and disaster. it was after the collapse of the soviet union that people were faced with the seriousness of the disaster the sea had split in two in two thousand and five experts harnessed what little water still flowed into the lesser erroll sea from the river by building the cocoa. and eighty seven million dollar project funded in part by the world bank the smaller body of water had become the great hope of the future. we had over two hundred people here from russia kazakstan and his back to stand the work was

very hard and many of us lived here on site for two or three years but now we're happy to say the time has come to pack up the structure is working perfectly welcome to news after years of failed dam projects and wasted water in just a few short years these small downs have turned parts of the cows like desert back into a seascape dotting it would be. the hope is that as the project progresses the dams will be built even higher keeping more water and extending the boundaries and the boundaries of the latter era will be back to the city of r.l. . when the sea left my husband did not want to leave this place he used to say our children would grow to see with zero nine even before he died he believed that the sea would come back. now as the excess water flows through distances it disappears out into the newly and greater peril see no grand scheme for saving that.

for the one million people living in cassocks stands poorest region measurable improvement only come when the shores once again fill with bugs lindsey france r.t. kazakstan. well that was the latest in our series of reports on one of the world's worst ecological catastrophe we'll be bringing you more throughout the week and our moving on a major summit to save one of the world's most endangered and majestic animals from extinction has been taking place in st petersburg the tiger form has been convened by prime minister putin bringing together conservationists and government officials from thirteen countries their aim is to double the wild tiger population by twenty twenty two and as denise velocity reports russia is leading by example. the used to be one of the moves dangerous species on earth that is until humans nearly destroyed their population currently there are just over three thousand tigers left in the world saving them is

a tough task to support the park in southern russia is home to will have to try girders and contrary to popular belief they breed very well here since this place is not really is it started out as an animal shelter. tigers first appeared here just a few years ago they were taken away by a court order from street photographers who often mistreated the animals or would you know after we nursed them they gave birth to the first litter the two male cubs and one year later cassandra and cleopatra were born you can see them here they feel very well now. here in the given park the animals are provided with medical treatment fresh food and lots of living space the place is also home to a tiger celebrity marshall was given to putin as a birthday present in two thousand and eight and he later gave her up for adoption according to the world wildlife fund russia has developed a simple yet effective strategy of saving this endangered species besides setting

aside protected areas it includes a ban on hunting and typo ching activities that allowed us to population in the russian far east from about. as low as fifty animals in the middle of the last century about three hundred by the eighty's now for the last twenty years more or less stable population of the level of four to five hundred animals however in many countries these animals are on the brink of extinction the current summit on the issue in st petersburg is looking at turning the old it round the world's thirteen tiger range nations are hoping to double the population of the species by twenty twenty two that would be a boon not just for dieters themselves but for the millions around the world who love them that is what's key r t cross in their region. well stay with the subject of tigers another topic of this time from hollywood had a rather die rather difficult time making it to the summit well superstar leonardo

dicaprio is torturous journey to st petersburg involve a plane which caught fire and another which almost ran out of fuel after being rocked by reaching up latics storms his first wife to russia had to turn back to new york but have engine planes undeterred and determined the star switched to a small private jet but strong winds over the atlantic meant the airplanes used up too much fuel and has allowed. after a few wing in helsinki hollywood hero eventually made it to st petersburg his titanic effort to join because france won him praise from the less than russian prime minister vladimir putin. mr de caprio not just came to us. through the front line excuse me if i may but in our country people usually that's what we call a real. and i think that of people. would be responsible for defending nature in order tiger in this particular case we're destined for success. well that's our

team meets a man whose views on the events surrounding nine eleven cost him his job and racial pride was fired from the french military college in paris which he claims for a book introduction he wrote questioning the official version of the tragedy r.t. sophie shevardnadze caught up with him. thank you. thank. you. sir by thank you very much for being with us today you now last year you lost your job because you actually question data and surrounding the official version of their dance around the nine eleven saying that it was an orchestrated conspiracy by israelis americans who are specks this theory out you know first of all the real reason why i lost my job was because i disagreed we've been new french defense police both pro and

a tory intention but it was very very real reason why i had lost my job but. in my last book i have some abode be official version of the nine eleven. i think i'm very confident of the future about the truth i'm just waiting about. what would happen but you know many experts thing. vashon is not right so we have time but we've been over truth and you also advocate this idea of a clash of civilizations in the present and world what is what is it based on who is involved in it and where are the battle lines drawn well in the long term view is three is is not only a clash of civilizations it's a competition between different nation different cultures but it's also a clash of civilization between china europe the u.s. and a lot of different civilization what i say is we cannot deny this clash of civilization

and specially of a fight but the u.s. tried to dominate to lead the world and try to impose western values on a kind of west on a global easy. there's also a rising tension with the immigrant communities in many european countries yes i think it's a it's a big problem you know for my country and for many european countries we have a serious problem with especially the muslim me grants because it's very difficult to assimilate them inside the nation for european christian character and nation let's talk about america a little bit what do you think is america's biggest missions where its major strategic enemies for example america tried to keep the leadership on the world but no it's not possible because of china china race is something very difficult to

accept for the u.s. and they would try to contain tried to compete we've china especially in the pacific ocean where we live probably we live tension between the two major players china and the us but in the long term view i'm confident about the relationship between russia europe on the us i think involuntarily we have the same interest we will have to deal with two major problems in the future china on islam the islamic world and the reason why i'm confident about the future between between the u.s. and russia now that republicans actually won control and congress how could this affect the future of the start treaty with russia well actually but varies a trend inside the republican party we. which doesn't good opinion of fresh air but i think very is also

a pragmatist pragmatism tradition in the republican party and then over to russia is a very important player and also no vote for us question like afghanistan like iran all the major question. american have been need russia to find solution so even the republican know about that well last week actually nato invited russia to cooperate in the joint european missile defense system what does this mean how do you actually see russia's role in the future of european affairs affairs and the years to come well the russian position is fair i mean because just say ok we're we have a balance worth funk stupor nuclear weapons and that we've your. we've your cheated that we've you're on to me side you want to break this. killebrew

we visit balance between the major player and that's not fair i understand the russian concern about that. and i think if the u.s. want to achieve to be accepted they need to include russia into the systems they need to associate the russian invest system and of security it's impossible to to deal with russia also we've achieved because if not what would mean that. the side cheated is targeted against russia thank you very much for this interview i think you're right. wealthy british style.

markets why not. why not what's really happening to the global economy with mike's culture no holds barred look at the global financial headline. the. line. soon which brightened if you knew the song from tongues to be so. nice for instance on t.v. .

you're watching our recap of our top stories this hour police across europe twenty six people suspected of plotting a christmas. with those detained reported to be a link to international terrorist networks and militants in. the u.s. war. is becoming more visible on home soil as of late a recent report shows a record number of young veterans are committing suicide. north korea. but seoul confirms its forces had earlier exercises directed not more. call from both sides. for. weeks to find out whether that country's soldiers will be.