one presidential candidate has been seriously hurt in clashes with the police and is in hospital with a brain injury but his country is our of it is in our square where more than a thousand people joined the rally and i'll be talking to her in just a few minutes from now. meanwhile 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 arrest for a recent wave of clashes between russian nationalists groups minorities and the police more than three thousand people have been detained in the last week tension is called over at an unsanctioned meeting eight days ago following the death of a football player in the board with native north cations egalitarian to a right with ethnic minorities and police attacked as a repeat of the clashes on wednesday when extremist russian using migrants from the north cortices gathered for a room with a confrontation a man suspected of leading unrest and killing a migrant from kind of a stand is now in jail prison to meet him inventive urge authorities not to

hesitate to use force to quell hate riots. got out to clashes fighting and 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 incite literalistic a trid what happened in moscow and in some of the 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 cheat ships that leap. barack obama's democrats have beaten back a republican assault on one of the administration's key foreign policy achievements sen 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 obama's urging the start treaty to be ratified as soon as possible saying it's critical for national security is

the last day for democrats to push it through before a new senate is formed in january in which republicans will have more seats a new strategic arms reduction treaty was signed by dmitri medvedev and barack obama in april and would slash the country's nuclear arsenals by a third but it won't come into force until ratified by both sides something most cases it's been ready to do for months in the context she just told r.t. that failure to pass the treaty puts global security it's think. we're talking about terrorists that could get at the nuclear weapons because we're not doing sufficient inspections on the security in the safety of the facilities when you have twenty thousand nuclear weapons and all over the world anybody can get at them but that's just too darn many to be honest and how can we persuade iran to go to zero when we have twenty thousand and won't reduce them that would be a ridiculous statement of immoral proportions so we have got to take the proper

steps to rid the world of nuclear weapons and this treaty is a small step toward that wonderful goal. still ahead this hour here in r.t.e. blasting off for the holidays. by. the start of. the rocket blast off from the cosmodrome in kazakhstan to catch the action in a couple of minutes from now here on our team. this week saw another spate of rest and street protests across europe amid government attempts to tackle the economic woes at an e.u. summit in brussels a permanent fund that was agreed to bail out euro zone countries that are at risk of bankruptcy thousands of people continue to take to the streets all over europe protesting tough spending cuts and other general strike you greece cause public transport disruption and close schools banks and courts demonstrations were staged

by trade unions all across the continent france luxembourg belgium the czech republic and spain danish member of the european parliament mr schmidt believes the current crisis shows the euro is a failed concept. the euro as a construction has created this problem because it has destroyed the southern europeans countries competitiveness and the bailout now is just prolonging and thereby creating an even bigger problem because the dept will just grow and grow in this you know the eurozone is reacting very desperately introducing the euro bonds of course we need to be solidarity in the european union but we also need to be economically realistic and the realism of the euro zone is that it doesn't work it hasn't been working for four years and there are at least several. harmonious regions within the euro which make it impossible to maintain a common currency so i think that the even the strongest first of all this will have to either recognize that we need to have one hundred percent of governance

from brussels and since the europeans don't want to have to go with the second lie which is to admit that the euro is a failed currency spain is going to be most likely going to be the next big. topic either spain or portugal in spain the unemployment rates are right now around twenty percent which is the future which puts a huge pressure to the finances in spain and the depths rises just getting bigger and bigger if portugal falls which it is on the lips of everybody here in strasburg that will be a disaster strikes the spanish economy because those two countries are interlinked so severely in economic terms so when i don't know whether portugal or spain falls first but when the one falls the other one will do as well. well the back to our top story number the roots where opposition supporters of staging a rally to protest against what they say was a rigged presidential election that's no i talked to all of these cartridges are of a who's a lawyer in the capital of minsk now only

a country the police use stun grenades we believe to disperse demonstrators heading towards where you are in here only but if you are here and president i come back i know it's a phrasing cold here in the belorussian capital minsk thousands of people have come out to protest what they believe was a falsified rigged presidential election if you can see behind me they're moving down one of minsk central avenues press vick ms ali as they see or independence avenue they're trying to block off traffic so far we haven't heard of any sort of clashes between them the riot police we haven't heard any attempts from riot police to get the people off the streets but they are holding flags and just moving down the street waving those banners trying to get everybody together and earlier we saw up to at least five thousand people standing here in this very square according to the press secretaries also of the opposition candidates that we managed to speak to . their plan their major plan was to stand here until their voices are heard there

wasn't a specific plan of a two three four hour rally after which people would just go home opposition candidates say that they were prepared and the people that were here were prepared to stand here for as long as it takes we also know that one of the main presidential candidates from the opposition mr nuclei of was attacked earlier on today as he was heading to observe risk a square where we're standing right now and. when he left his office with around two hundred of his supporters they were attacked by men in black they weren't wearing any law enforcement insignia but they did use sound names to basically stun the crowd. i mean clear from self was quite brutally attacked according to his press secretary who spoke to us just a little while ago we now know that he has been hospitalized with a serious concussion and that has left some of the opposition members

a little stunned because they were of course gathering here to see him and to hear him speak now it is unclear who will step up to the plate and address the crowds but from what we can see the crowds are pretty intent on making sure that their voice is heard. that we're here to defend our freedom which is being threatened by one man who's in power and who's making all the decisions by themselves but the entire system is riddled with fear we've just seen where the presidential candidates were given a client beaten brutally flues went off everyone was put down on the ground and told to stay down we heard the attacker swearing he broke the glass in our booth and began stealing our equipment like thieves old people were kicked out some of us regrouped and came here to protest. it was. well we're sorry about this we have actually lost our contact now with katrina as out of there in minsk we'll try and do our very best to regain contact with her

a little later here on r.t. but in the meantime let's look now at some other world news this suicide attacks have targeted military bases in two afghan cities leaving thirteen members of the security forces dead in the northern city of can do is a shootout began when gunman stormed an army recruitment center the 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. at least twenty two people have died after an oil pipeline exploded in the central mexican state of puebla forty say five blast took place during 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 an investigation is under way . the u.n. secretary general ban ki moon has rejected a man from the disputed ivory coast government that u.n. peacekeepers should leave the country incumbent president laurent gbagbo accused

the u.n. of arming his rival son it would target both candidates claim victory in last month's election sparking fears of another civil war after scores died in clashes among their supporters u.s. france and the african union back in power but refuses to step down. thousands of stranded at airports across europe as severe winter weather continues to disrupt air travel hundreds of flights. 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 will cause the say the arctic temperatures are predicted to last on christmas. but of this week prime minister vladimir putin set the record straight on a number of issues as he held his annual q. and a session with the russian public ever a million questions were scenting putin spent for the whole files during the live t.v. broadcast to answer as many as possible and it is the telling of

a follow the nationwide event. not quite truth are there 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 who that of course ski who is currently serving an eight year term in prison for fraud and tax evasion it was a question that got put in going so we should 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 from his company security chief is in prison for murder they didn't like the mayor of new if the so they killed him then there was another woman in moscow who refused to sell her little store to them and they killed her when they didn't like the hit man they hired he's dead as well. another sore spot was the issue of recent ethnic clashes

between russian bad tickles and 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 immune system goes down diseases start to spread but if society is mature and the bugs of radicalism and extremism simply lie dormant we can't cause any damage but you are going to get russians domestic worries 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 that has spread across the atlantic to reset a bit and then use them as we don't need to use. squads to punish traitors i can assure you all of them will fall off the perch themselves they can take their thirty pieces of silver but it will stick in their throats the video conference was held in the rather chatty end up marriage in the film it was introduced by bush and

when he was still president back in two thousand and one and then become a prime minister he's continued the tradition of the annual informal discussions with the public and as ever he likes a good joke politics mixed with a little ironic humor but i will tell you the country when you president medvedev are sleeping. with we sleep in turns don't worry everything is under control now that explains why i was 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 about look at r.t. . well as we heard there the fate of the cult was touched upon in that q. and a session and this week a moscow court delayed its verdict in the second trial of the former oil tycoon the decision had been due to be announced on wednesday but was postponed by the court until the twenty seventh of december the former you corsi who was arrested in two

thousand and three and is currently serving an eight year jail term for fraud and tax evasion well in the latest trial he faces charges over the theft of billions of barrels of oil from his company and nor drink the proceeds if found guilty he'll face a prison sentence of up to fourteen years but if a court clears critical of the latest charges he'll be released next year 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. the u.n. security council is holding an emergency meeting behind closed doors discussing the increasing tension 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 it take 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 it will strike even harder the russian side which says it's deeply worried by the crisis

called for the u.n. meeting in china backs russia's call to restrain south korea but the u.s. maintains seoul has the right to hold the military drill political analyst alluded to frank says russia's best place to act as a mediator in the korean conflict. russia is the only country that does have a stake box nor specific interest. groups actually it is a difference between russia and the european union so all russia can actually be a trustworthy and reliable mediator a neutral broker or want to trust that russia goes and how concerned you korea is stability but over there is a situation emerging market for a major war that will inevitably not only import both careers but also china us it will have a negative effect on the polluting the region and on russia and hands russia's major preoccupation is actually maintaining peace. julian assange the founder of

the anti secrecy website wiki leaks was released on bail from a british jan on thursday he's now under house arrest wearing that trick tag and awaiting a court decision whether he'll be extradited to sweden where he's wanted on sex crime charges sanj denies any wrongdoing and calls the case a conspiracy against him the charges against him were dropped in august but later reopened which many believe is a politically motivated move paul lashmar an investigative journalist based at london's university believes the u.s. is desperate to find a way to prosecute a sanch regarded in the swedish problem that he's got he's just going to have to wait until such time as the extradition process to seeds so that could take any time between a few months of the year i would think however he's also got a problem with one of the america is going to catch up with him and we're going to catch up with him in the u.k. or sweden the fact is the americans are very very angry about this and they are out

for revenge and they are going through every step they can to find something that they can charge you with because really you know why he's position is more like that of a journalist he's being given documents which is then released he did actually still the documents he didn't go behind you know he didn't go into the computer itself but they're so angry they're so embarrassed by the whole thing that somebody has to pay for it and at the moment it does look rather than going to go off the judean assange without. kosovo's prime minister hushing touch he is facing questions every report for the council of europe which claims he was involved in the group that killed prisoners in the late ninety's to sell their organs and also reports that western governments knew about the allegations but i've been turning a blind eye to them for years on these and his habit has been. the selling has never spoken to the media before he's been too 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 can 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 they 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 class of a liberation army including the prime minister has since had she and the council of europe will not help to ease the minds of men like this when the report claims mr attaches links to organized crime dates back to when he has been it's a group became the dominant factor within the k.l.a. and the alleged decision of western powers to largely ignore its activities in the

hope of the stablish ing some form of short term stability in the region allow touching his followers to assume positions of political peril over the course of a hundred years following the. 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 and. the e.u. is rule of law mission in kosovo says it will now launch its own probe into the allegations general unix takes on war crimes and obviously with crimes very serious . should be sufficient evidence. should we be responsible for dealing with them we will certainly look into the issue. mr hashem times she has dismissed the reports is baseless and the farm a tree and is threaten to sue it's another shocking twist in the history of this already troubled region. and e.u.

peacekeeping 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 unworn ethnic divisions here still run very deep bass with the release of this report people are now saying that they feel about a let down by the international community here supposedly charged with protecting them all these years are less a bit. of a. new crew members of the international space station and making themselves home for their story last in almost six months the soyuz craft carrying three astronauts successfully docked with the s.s. on friday the crew brought seasonal gifts to those currently on board the station and all of his peers all of it was at baikonur cosmodrome in kazakhstan for the blastoff. over my shoulder you'll be able to see these so use t.m.a. twenty rockets that will be blasting off sending cosmonaut the meeting called the

last year 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 will 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. if i let's have the stuff behind me i'll let you get on with the. dominoes. is the story. the rocket blasts off from the cosmodrome in kazakhstan sending them a trick on the landscape paolo nespoli and katherine coleman off to the international space station. while i don't forget to log onto our website is r t

dot com where there are always more stories for you and there are some that might catch your eye at the moment he's a singer and dancer an entertainer iranian born told pti about his international roots and skyrocketing career. and louis vuitton stores can sometimes feel like galleries but this time the luxury fashion house has got a real exhibition here in moscow it's all right up until christmas and the details are not at. all. it takes pride of place at the heart of russia's capital over the festive season a central christmas tree was delivered this week to the kremlin's cathedral square where it will stand tall for the next three weeks this year the tree was blessed by a russian orthodox priest for the first time it will be decorated with thousands of

russian trickier lights and ornaments christmas trees be back in use at the kremlin for nearly fifteen years now in prison but he revived the revolutionary tradition this year's event was accompanied by a forgettable show including a visit from father frost a rabbit the symbol of the coming year to china is coming. well with christmas trees lighting up across the world many are gripped with the festive spirit but there are those who view the holiday as a purely commercial event and when journalist laurie hafen it's also known as the resident ask people in new york now what the season means to them. does christmas have anything to do with jesus any more this week let's talk about that. pagan celebration. do you think that's a good thing or. not do they care very much but it's kind of sad isn't it is that

the company's fault for marketing all these products to us or is it our fault for forgetting what it's about the companies they want to make more money so. so how do we fix it how do we remember what it's about. keep bringing it to the public's attention. like we are now yes the parents responsibility to bring it to the home it really is and if you believe that's fine if you don't that's fine too you know but it does lose a lot and you have to keep it at home and if you pass it on to your kids the kids will pass it on you know do you think this whole war and christmas thing people are trying to make sure that we're celebrating all faiths and not just christmas takes away from the christmas spirit or does it everybody should do what they should do upon their release so if you want to put up a christmas tree should be able to put up a christmas tree that i believe in i think to get angry about it i'm not sure that's helpful and i'm not sure that's in the spirit of the season either maybe to

educate and evangelize in a more friendly way maybe that's what we should be doing so that people who are screaming about us forgetting christmas are kind of adding to the noise than and forgetting about jesus too. you know if what you want to fight then ok we can get that i mean everyone should have their time when the muslims have it's time you do something and you know. black americans have. and jewish people have their day and no christian should be the same way. but i think the religious aspect is becoming more and more foreign to the holiday itself we're all from different backgrounds so we have to know the muslim faith than all the other faiths that are out there and just be one big happy family one big happy country is not really what it should be about it should be that's really what's christmas should be about it should be about loving by neighbor or whatever they

neighbor wives are celebrating peace happiness joy and i want to wish you happy holiday all of you out there have probably seen some whether or not you think society has forgotten about jesus that christmas time the bottom line is that you're a christian the best place to find jesus at any time is in your heart. when in a few moments from now we'll be discussing whether the palestinian state can be established with a deal with israel that's an exclusive interview and i'll be back with a recap of our top stories before that stay with us live here in moscow.

well with. bringing you the latest in science technology from the realms. we've got the future covered. in india in the movie the joint the hotel rooms. the gateway hotel the grand imperial truly told us to.

see don't need to go. run to the kennel was hotel retreat. the latest headlines in the week's top stories now. protests and outrage in bella ruse says the opposition comes out to protest the country's presidential elections calling them fraudulent one of his candidates has already been seriously injured as part of a planned demonstration against alexander lukashenko who looks set to claim a fourth term in office. ethnic tension between russian nationalists and groups from the caucuses forces moscow authorities to take preventive security measures to avoid a new wave of clashes hundreds were detained today alone 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 putin took the hot seat for a session with the public nationalism and justice were among the issues that came up and before long discussion all the subjects covered included social security police reform and property prices. european speak out against their governments and the methods used to deal with volatile economies the single currency is increasingly being seen as the. root of the problem this came as leaders agreed to set up a permanent fund to rescue failing euro zone economies. will be back with more news for you in less than fifteen minutes from now in the meantime the e.u. has been asked to declare the west bank and gaza strip an independent palestinian state even without a peace deal with israel this comes on the back of stalled negotiations after the jewish state resumed settlement building welty spoke to rebel andrew baker he said no solution regarding a palestinian state.