it's heading towards the square where you all tell us what is the situation now. bill we heard from the press secretary of one of the presidential candidates mr nuclei is that they were preparing to head out to up have a scare square where we're standing right now they left the office and a war attacked by a number of people they weren't police officers or at least they didn't have any police insignia or law enforcement insignia on their clothes or simply dressed in black they use stun grenades and actually beat the presidential candidate he is now in his office we know that an ambulance has been called to offer him medical assistance we don't know whether he'll be hospitalized as of now but we have spoken to his press secretary who said that the beating was quite serious and they are waiting for the ambulance to the doctors to diagnose him to say whether he does need to be hospitalized or not and that of course was. part of the opposition's plan to come to this square and protest the election results and as you can see

behind me a lot of people are already starting to gather their equal waving flags both on this side of the square and on the opposite side of the road more and more people are coming towards us we've also seen a lot of riot police standing around a park october sky square all around the palace of the government which is where we are right now and so far they haven't deployed and they're just sitting in their cars waiting for any incoming orders but the situation could potentially turn nasty . let's talk about the results solve this election this is just the closest rival of an example to show because only one in the six percent of the votes are clearly an overwhelming victory. indeed it isn't for the fourth time mr lukashenko has managed to prolong his stay in office for sixteen years of uninterrupted power time and it seems that he has won once again. as he himself said to journalists

just a few weeks before the election there might be political changes coming to beller roost but no change in power and that of course does seem to be the case opposition leaders however have refused to acknowledge their results have said that the election was fraudulent and put forward the results of their own exit polls which are not actually recognized by the government or any other official institution according to official exit poll results of course looks on that will show the guy has over seventy percent of the vote in the his country with his main one of his main rivals only reaching over six opposition candidates however say these numbers are falsified and they will come to the square to protest that falsification and demand a legitimate election where you would talk about the domestic reaction that tell us what are the international observers that she's saying about this but as. well of course international observers can't fully comment on the election and whilst there are ongoing polling stations closed at just now so we are expecting to hear more

from international observers who were here monitoring the election about their experiences their thoughts but we have heard some comments on the general mood of the election the general opinion of the people so far it seems that everything has been quiet there have been no outrageous violations we've only heard reports of one violation where an observer an international observer was not allowed into a polling station but so far that's the only a report that we have managed to get believe that for a moment thanks very much indeed for that update catherine is our of a bringing us the latest on that presidential vote in better russo's the polls close thank you. the moscow region is on security alert with more than four hundred people detained as part of attempts to prevent violence linked to ethnic tensions the arrests follow a recent wave of clashes between russian nationalists groups minorities and police more than three thousand people have been detained in the last week tensions boiled

over at a month sanctioned meeting eight days ago following the death of a football fan in the brawl with native north caucasians the gathering turned into a ride with ethnic minorities and police attacked it was a repeat of the clashes on wednesday when extremist russian use of migrants from the north caucuses gathered for a room with a confrontation a man suspected of leading on resting killing a migrant from credit is now in jail prison dmitri medvedev urged authorities not to hesitate to use force to quell hate riots. clashes fighting in vandalism are not just administrative violations but crimes and those who commit these crimes should be locked up rather than just told off the police should be using their legal authority to prevent extremism and incitement to this nick hatred what happened in moscow and in some other russian cities has shown that although requires very efficient management i'd like to draw attention to the fact that inciting ethnic violence in our country is

a crime to. barack obama as democrats have beaten back a republican assault on one of the administration's key foreign policy achievements senator john mccain called for a new arms reduction treaty between moscow and washington to go back to the drawing board but his motion was voted down by the senate bombers urging the start treaty to be ratified as soon as possible saying it's critical for national security but the likelihood of the deal getting through the senate before the end of the year when the republicans take up more seats look slim a new strategic arms reduction treaty was signed by dmitry medvedev and barack obama in april and would slash the two country's nuclear arsenals by a third but it won't come into force until ratified by both sides something was. it's been ready to do for months political analyst joel rubin says failure to ratify the start treaty will tarnish america's political reputation. if it doesn't get passed actually fails there could be serious consequences for american leadership on arms control follow up for the american reputation around the world

would be significant if it doesn't pass but it is not turned down but just delayed there to also signal that president obama is weak at home that's why advocates for the treaty are saying it needs to get passed now. still ahead here on blasting off for the holidays. dominoes. this is not. rocket blast off from the government throwing out the. catch the action here in a couple of minutes. but first this week's or another spate of unrest and street protests across europe amid government attempts to tackle their economic woes at an e.u. summit in brussels a permanent fund was agreed upon to bail out your resume in countries that are at risk of bankruptcy thousands of people continue to take to the streets all over europe protesting against tough spending cuts and of a general strike in greece caused public transport disruptions and closed schools

banks and courts demonstrations were staged by trade unions all across the continent from the czech republic to spain ronald's the director of the euro skeptic bruges group says the new fund will not solve the eurozone problems. it's a short term measure to for the markets but it will not solve the underlying problems that are causing these massive debts within these countries which is the euro they hope to tempting to solve the greek debt crisis would stave off contagion that still spread to arlon and it's now spreading to portugal and spain and will also spread to italy. just too great the eurozone bailout package isn't big enough and it doesn't address the underlying problems and part partly that the euro zone's policies of forcing austerity on the nations that are in these dick we have these massive debt crisis isn't helping because it's creating these massive austerity

it's destroying their economies for generations what they need is economic growth to get their way out of the depressions we can call them that depressions that they're in stimulate recovery and then they can pay off the debts at the moment they can't because their economies are just too badly damaged because they're in the euro so to some other world news this hour here on r t suicide attacks targeted military bases and two afghan cities leaving thirteen members of the security forces dead in the northern city of shootout began when government stormed an army recruitment center and military brass outside another recruitment center the main one in the country was then ambushed in a separate incident on the outskirts of kabul the taliban has claimed responsibility for the attacks in which five assailants were also killed. thirteen people have died after an oil pipeline exploded in the central mexican state of puebla authorities say five blast took place during an attempted theft but the cause is unknown dozens were injured and over thirty homes were destroyed

firefighters say the flames are now under control and investigation is underway. the un secretary-general ban ki moon has rejected a demand from the disputed ivory coast government that un peacekeepers should leave the country incumbent president laurent gbagbo accused the u.n. of arming his rival. candidates claim victory in last month's election sparking fears of another civil war after scores died in clashes among that supports the u.s. france and the african union. but refuses to step down. thousands of stranded at airports across europe a severe winter weather continues to disrupt travel hundreds of flights are canceled at london's international airports heathrow and gatwick due to the amount of snow france italy and the netherlands are also reporting problems in germany at least two people were killed in traffic accidents caused by the conditions forecasters say the temperatures are predicted to last beyond reason.

earlier this week prime minister vladimir putin set the record straight on the number of issues as he held his annual q. and a session with the russian public over a million questions were sent in and putin spent four a half hours during the live t.v. broadcast to answer as many as possible and that is the telling of a followed the nationwide event. not quite truth or dare in his annual q. and a session the russian prime minister wasn't given a choice and some of the questions were rather daring like the one about former oil tycoon mikhail khodorkovsky who is currently serving an eight year term in prison for fraud and tax evasion it was a question that got put in going. just like a character in a famous russian movie i'm sure that a thief places in prison because he's accused of stealing tax evasion and fraud with the new charges he faces is about stealing hundreds of billions for his

company security chief is in prison for murder they didn't like the manner of nifty so they killed him then there was another woman in moscow who refused to sell her little stool to them and they killed her when they didn't like the hitman they hired he's dead as well. another sore spot was the issue of recent ethnic clashes between russia and that because people from the north caucasus that the government failed to prevent the prime minister said nationalism is a common disease. radicalism is like a virus if society weakens the means system goes down and diseases start to spread but if societies mature in these bugs of radicalism and extremism simply lie dormant and can't cause any damage which. russians domestic worries do you can everything from social security and police reform to real estate prices and if you foreign policy issues were touched upon as well such as the recent spying many of that has spread across the atlantic. we don't need to use special squads to

punish traitors. i can assure you all of them will full of the push themselves they can take their thirty pieces of silver but it will stick in their throats the video conference was held in a rather chatty and upbeat manner the format was introduced by bush and when he was still president back in two thousand and one and become a prime minister he's continued the tradition of the annual informal discussion with the public and as ever he likes a good joke politics mixed with a little ironic humor but i will country when you presume it good oversleeping. we sleep in turns to worry everything is under control. now that explains why more sco is a city that never sleeps after an exhausting q. and a session of four and a half hours russian prime minister vladimir putin can now go and rest as russians now know they will still have their backs covered by look at r.t.

moscow. well as we heard there the fate of mikhail khodorkovsky was touched upon in that q. and a session and this week in moscow court delayed its verdict in the second trial of the former oil tycoon the decision of being due to be announced on wednesday but was postponed by the court until the twenty seventh of december the former you know was arrested in two thousand and three and is currently serving an eight year jail term for fraud and tax evasion and the latest rally faces charges over the theft of billions of barrels of oil from his company and lauding the proceeds are found guilty will face a prison sentence of up to fourteen years but if a court clears court of gotta give the latest charges he'll be released next year the forty seven year old made his fortune during the turbulent ninety's through the privatization of state assets which made him russia's richest man images of deformed fetuses and children eating excrement are causing heated debate here in russia as part of a controversial online campaign aimed at beating the growing problem of drug and alcohol abuse in the country authorities hope it will discourage youngsters and

help addicts see sense or to warn you that you may find some of the images in reflections report disturbing. me the happy motto for the march she says masha i used to smoke marijuana when i was pregnant with her face internet ad is part of a stomach churning antidrug can pay sashenka i was already on heroin then. surprisingly it's the least offensive episode of the series designed to shock some of them may leave a bad taste in your mouth quite literally like this one for instance. that's why we stop it here. it says that keeping quiet about drug abuse among school kids is like keeping dirt in your mouth the disturb an advert has provoked a huge discussion on the web one just how far we can go in trying to keep youngsters away from drugs that was the word yes it causes a slight nausea impulse but that's what we need it will make those children who now

think that it's bad to tell their parents and teachers about dealers in other words they do not report on dealers let them consider which is better with in their mouths or without food every year more than one hundred thousand people officially dying from overdose and drug related dabs and that doesn't. take countries to have a believes people would better opening the scale of the problem rather than concern themselves about the distance see of the adverts if the poor there's nothing a few million or contradictory in the sand should we just keep silent about everything why ok let's keep our mouths shut and just live on let twenty year olds die and millions and billions of dollars flooding into drug dealers pockets while we just pretend that everything's perfect in our society. as behind the fact that the end to drug adverts is getting more primitive is another shocking reality the targeted audience is getting younger and younger the average age when youngsters in

russia first try drugs has jumped to thirteen years with the ethics every life expectancy just twenty one. left but this is aimed at them so it has to be primitive in order to work do you think they don't know that drugs are bad but they just need to have it literally imprinted in their minds the shocking can pain is actually a government initiative a response to the country's new priority in fighting the drug problem. we've always been concentrated on finding drugs and withdrawing them this july we've adopted a new state drug strategy now we need to focus on decreasing demand rather than trying to cope with the consequences. with the government's recent refocus on preventive measures we can expect more and more projects like this one aimed at literally disgusting the idea of drugs out of youngsters minds and yes it may be unpleasant looking but so are the statistics of drug abuse in the country and if

there is a chance no matter how small that this can stop someone from stepping onto the slippery slope its creators say it's worth the arthritis causing. raef notion r.t. more scope. well coming up later in the program links to secret detention centers and trafficking some of the accusations against course of his prime minister find out who's behind them and what he has to say about it and why some serbs say that revelations are not surprising. that story still to come but first the u.n. security council is holding an emergency meeting behind closed doors discussing the increasing tensions on the korean peninsula south korea says it will go ahead with military exercises on its shared border with the north despite a promise from pyongyang to respond forcefully the drills are to take place in the coming few days on a south korean island shelled by the north a month ago four people were killed in the november assault but this time pyongyang

warns it will strike even harder the russian side which says it's deeply worried by the crisis calls for the u.n. meeting china backs russia's call to restrain south korea but the u.s. maintains a soul has the right to hold the military drill political analyst frank says russia is best placed to act as a mediator in the korean conflict. russia is the only country that does have a. box nor specific interest. which actually is a difference between russia and the european union so russia can actually be a trustworthy and reliable mediator a neutral broker the interest that russia does have a concern in korea is stability there's a situation emerging that marks a major war to. both careers but also china us will have a negative effect on. the region and on russia and hans rushers major preoccupation

is actually maintaining peace. because of his prime minister hushing touchy is facing questions over a report for the council of europe which claims he was involved with a group that killed prisoners in the late ninety's to sell their organs there are also reports that western governments knew about the allegations have been turning a blind eye to them for years. it says more. this ellen has never spoken to the media before he's been to angry his brother went missing in the summer of one thousand nine hundred ninety eight and no one has helped to find him while he went to work as usual with his friends to the barrage of it's mine and that was it i never saw him again we went to the police and everyone else we could think of after the war i thought there'd be an exchange of prisoners and hundreds of our binion's were freed the so many serbs are still missing now after twelve years i've lost all the international officials who didn't do anything when the easily could have his brother is one of the near two thousand four hundred people who went missing both

during and after the late ninety's kosovo war and is still unaccounted for and allegations leveled against senior members of the kosovo liberation army including the prime minister has since had she and a council of europe report it will not help to ease the minds of men like this one in the report claims mr attaches links to organized crime date back to when his the needs of group became the dominant factor within the k.l.a. and the alleged decision of western powers to largely ignore its activity in the hope of establishing some form of short term stability in the region allow tetchy and his followers to assume positions of political pillow with in kosovo in the years following the war. everybody including western countries knew all about these allegations for years but he wanted to keep them hidden the only. other was in charge here interest the e.u.

use rule of law mission in kosovo says it will now launch its own probe into the allegations in general. on war crimes and other serious crimes very serious. should be sufficient evidence and should we be responsible for dealing with them we will certainly look into the issue. mr hashem she has dismissed the report is baseless and defamatory and has threatened to sue it's another shocking twist in the history of this already troubled region naysay randy e.u. peace keeping in police cars stand guard twenty four hours a day each side of this bridge that divides the serbian and albanian parts of the town of meet the wreath said ten years after the end of the cost of been worn ethnic divisions here still run very deep bass with the release of this report people are now saying that they feel abandoned and let down by the international community here supposedly charged with protecting them all these he is less

a bit. of a story come across because it's the kremlin. bringing a century old christmas tree to light up the heart of moscow getting the best of mood here an outing in just a few minutes with. the new crew members of the international space station to make themselves at home for the last almost six months the soyuz craft carrying three astronauts successfully docked with the isis on friday the crew brought seasonal gifts to those currently on board the station well arty's all of it was a baikonur cosmodrome in kazakhstan for the blastoff. over my shoulder you'd be able to see these so used to make twenty rockets now would be blasting off sending cosmonaut the meat to be called the r.t.f. and astronauts apollo nespoli from the european space agency and katherine coleman from nasa into space now this is the product of two years a very intense training in the trio be spending six months on board the

international space station while they're up there they'll be carrying out a number of experiments and continuing the work in space that the international space station carries out now i think we can. buy lots of the stuff behind me i'll let you get on with the. dominoes. as the saudis say rocket blasts off from the cosmodrome in kazakhstan sending them make. money and katherine coleman off to the international space station. don't forget to look on for website called where you can see the new land again if you like there are also plenty more stories for you that. might catch. peter singer dancer an entertainer iranian born of ashes taught me about his international roots and skyrocketing career. and if you told

installs can sometimes feel like calories but this time not treat fashion house is going to greet an exhibition here in its own right up until christmas and get the details on that it's. it takes pride of place at the heart of russia's capital over the festive season a century old christmas tree was delivered this week to the kremlin's cathedral square where it. stand tall for the next three weeks this year the tree was blessed by a russian orthodox priest for the first time to be decorated with thousands of russian lights and ornaments christmas trees have been back in use at the kremlin for nearly fifteen years now when president yeltsin revived the revolutionary tradition this is event was accompanied by a theatrical show including

a visit from father false and the rabbit which is a symbol of the coming year according to the chinese come. one on a few moments of the lives of four men deep underground at the egypt border. special report and we have a recap of our top stories just ahead stay with us. to

live not only next to the big guns of egypt but also on the border of peace and war. they are responsible not only for themselves. but also for their loved ones. they're ready to take any risk. wealthy british scientists. on. the. market

why not. find out what's really happening to the global economy with max cause or for a no holds barred look at the global financial headlines two kinds of reports. is he used. to. say. in india in the movie joyce the photo. is the gateway photo

of the brand imperial troy the tallest westin. hotel the socialist hoto saddam did to go and. run the same the kennel was hotel retreat. protected with us the latest headlines in the week's top stories now. polls have closed in belarus's presidential elections the country's incumbent leader is the clear favorite to win. those already set three consecutive terms outing up to sixteen years in holland. ethnic tensions between russian nationalists and groups in the caucasus forces moscow to take preventive security measures to avoid a new wave of clashes hundreds were detained taking the total to more than three thousand this week as a result of isolated clashes in various parts of the city. no topic was off limits

as prime minister vladimir putin took the hot seat for his annual q. and a session with the public nationalism and justice were among the issues that came up in the four long discussion other subjects covered included social security police reform and property prices. and europeans speak out against their governments and the methods used to deal with a volatile economy single currency increasingly being seen as the root of the problem. leaders agreed to set up a permanent fund to rescue failing economy. i'll be back with more news for you more developments in the meantime we take you on a journey into the clandestine daily life of smuggling tunnels on the border between gaza and egypt that's a special report next. planes are still flying over the border area and i wouldn't show.