live to watch his country his hour of a who's in the russian capital well earlier as we just mentioned one presidential candidate was seriously hurt in clashes with police tell us what's going on there in the center. is that a noticeable tension no. bill the majority of the people that were here in october square square thousands of them at least five thousand people from what we could tell have now moved to a just outside the parliament building the presidential palace and are demanding for the next hour that look to give them a fair and democratic election they will say that they will continue standing there until their voices are heard police of course are calling to them saying that this is an un sanctioned rally and they will have to use force if the protesters don't leave of their own accord so there is potential for this to turn violent right now of course those people are just standing still waving flags and shouting various patriotic slogans of course earlier there were some scuffles and one of which of

the one of the main opposition candidates for president mr gallop was injured quite seriously him and a number of his supporters were leaving their office heading towards the square where the rally was taking place there were attacked by a number of men in black without any official law enforcement insignia they use done during aids and. a seriously injured two of the presidential candidates one of them has been rushed to hospital with a serious concussion. before because they were here to defend their freedom which is being threatened by one man who is in power and he's making all the decisions by himself but the entire system is riddled with fear we've just seen where the presidential candidates in a client literally flues went off everyone was put down on the ground and told to stay down as we heard the attacker swear at you and he broke the glass in our booth and began stealing our equipment like old people were kicked out somewhere.

regrouped and came here. and we're just getting reports that some of the crowd have started breaking windows in the presidential palace so this is already turning ten surely violent we have yet to see what the police will do and response of course the bitter winter cold here remains hasn't stopped thousands of people from taking to the streets and this may turn violent and a resemblance to the last election of two thousand and six where police clashed with protesters that of course turning into a violent and memorable post-election protest this could very well turn out to be similar but the better russian central election commission claims that alexander lukashenko has received almost ninety percent of the votes now what are international observers saying about this overwhelming victory. of course international observers out were not able to comment on the course of the election

when polling stations were open but after they're closed we did seem to we did manage to get a few comments from international observers that were here so far there was only one report of the trouble for an international observer he was not allowed into a polling station but that according to officials is the only incident on record so far and international observers seem to be quite satisfied with this election of course a lot is riding on it for belarus and critics say that this is perhaps one of the reasons that the opposition was given some of the sample and some of the freedom in the run up to election day free on air time a sanction anti-government rallies many skeptics of course saying that the reason behind it was a very pragmatic one with the european union specifically promising many billions of euros if there is signs of a free and democratic elections and of course the money incentive is a very strong one so we are still waiting to hear more details from him. national

observers but as of now. groundbreaking incidents have been reported ok katrina thanks very much indeed companies are bringing us the latest on the aftermath of the presidential vote in. 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 nationalist groups minorities and police more than three thousand people have been detained in the last week tensions balled over at an unsanctioned meeting eight days ago following the death of a football fan in a brawl with native north called cations the gathering turned into a ride with ethnic minorities and police attacked there was a repeat of the clashes on wednesday when extremist russian news and migrants from the north caucasus gathered for a room of confrontation a man suspected of leading unrest and killing a migrant from is now in jail or prison dmitri medvedev urged authorities not to hesitate to use force to quell hate rights. 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 incitement to listening catered to what happened in moscow and 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. democrat senators are making a last ditch attempt to convince their republican rivals to ratify a new arms reduction treaty with russia most are against the deal the strategic arms reduction treaty was signed by dimitri 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 lawmakers in both countries something the russians say they're ready. do time's running out for obama's

democrats majority in the senate will be sliced in january and need at least fourteen republican votes to pass the deal the conservatives say they need more time to think on next bergmann from the center for american progress says the start treaty is too important to throw away. it confirms that the u.s. russia relationship will remain on track i think the second thing is that it maintains the new core stability that we've had some see end of the cold war importantly the start treaty maintains and monitoring and verification measures that allow both the u.s. and russia to check out what each other is doing in the nuclear arena and it enables progress to continue to reduce the role of nuclear weapons in the world so i think it's a vital treaty it's one of the priorities that the administration has set forth and it's too important for us national security for russian national security of a global national school for the security of the world for republicans in the senate to hold us hostage and i think they won't i think this will be the one piece of legislation that actually gets massive bipartisan support although you know

nothing is certain until it's and and there's still a ways to go but i think i think we feel confident that this is actually going to get ratified in the next few days. still ahead here this hour naughty blasting off for the holidays. this is not. the rocket blast from the cosmodrome in kazakhstan. when he casually action in a couple of minutes here on t.v. . but first this week's or another spate of unrest and street protests across europe amid government attempts to tackle the economic issues i didn't see you summit in brussels a permanent fund was agreed upon 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 against tough spending cuts and of a general strike in greece schools public transport disruption and close schools banks and courts and stations were staged by trade unions all across the continent

from the czech republic to spain one of the countries was hit by the crisis has already had to apply for plano. musician turned political activist jim kor from the band of course believes his home country needs to abandon the euro. what we're actually experiencing here i believe is a top down engineer financial crash an implosion of the world economy by design designed so as to affect a corporate takeover not just our own country but many other countries around europe were having to submit to draconian welfare has cut start are going to impoverished the irish people more people people in this country are afraid to put on the heating because they don't know where the money's going to come from this is absolutely dreadful the irish people are being made to pay for the sins to contrive sins of billy's international bankers we do situation where we're thirty four billion of taxpayer money was punted to bottomless pit known as spying recently came out who the bondholders where we bailed out probably the richest family in the

world the rothschilds we bailed out goldman sachs i mean this is just unbelievable this is robin hood in reverse we've got you know this is the poor in the middle class bailing out the super rich we could solve our debt problems practically overnight if we wanted all timothy the solution is the root cause of the problem is no we're not printing our own debt free money that's what we need to do like abraham lincoln's greenbacks we need to get back to printing our own debt money we need to get out get out of the e.u. and back into the european economic area where we can set our own monetary policy and not be dictated by brussels in terms of monetary policy that is set up to to suit germany and france to the detriment of the other countries in the that's a good thing and as soon as the e.u. . it should become violent confined to the dustbin of history and soon. time now to check out some other world news this hour for you world update suicide attacks have targeted military bases in two afghan cities even thirteen members of the security forces dead in the northern city of can do is

a shoot out began when government stormed an army recruitment center and military brass outside another recruitment center the main one of the country was then ambushed in the separate incident on the outskirts of kabul the taliban has claimed responsibility for the attacks in which five assailants were also killed. at least thirty two people have died after an oil pipeline exploded in the central mexican state of puebla authorities say five blasts took place during an attempted theft but that 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 demand from the disputed ivory coast government that u.n. peacekeepers should leave the country incumbent president laurent gbagbo cues the u.n. of arming his rival alyson he would tara both candidates claim victory in last month's election sparking fears of another civil war after dozens died in clashes among their supporters. france and the african union backing but refuses to step down.

and thousands of stranded at airports across europe has 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 arctic temperatures are predicted to last beyond christmas. earlier 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 over a million questions were sent in putin spent four and a half hours during a live t.v. broadcast to answer. as many as possible and that is the telling of a cover up followed the nationwide event. not quite truth or dare and 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 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. 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 nifty uganda 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 hitman they hired he's dead as well. another sore spot was the issue of recent ethnic clashes between russian vaticanus 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 these 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 of that has spread across the atlantic is that a bit of it yes i was i don't know we don't need to use special 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 other charity and a big marriage in the form it was introduced by britain. when he was still president back in two thousand and one and then become a prime minister hughes 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. country when you're president over sleeping.

with sleep in turns to 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 up i look at r.t. moscow. one of the later we'll tell you how russian authorities are using hard core reality to combat abuse find out about anti drug campaign which some say has gone too far in its bid to shock and why producers say it's the only way to get the message across. but first 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 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 called for the u.n. meeting 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 would have 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 no specific interest career 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 one interest that russia doesn't have concerning korea is stability but not her there is a situation emerging market for a major war that will inevitably not only involve both careers but also china us

bill how the negative effects on the military in the region and on russia and hands russia's major preoccupation is actually maintaining peace. images of deformed fetuses and children eating excrement causing heated debate here in russia to put 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 out exceeds sense would like to warn you that you may find some of the images in the reflections report disturbing and it. needs a happy mother for it to my she says masha i used to smoke marijuana when i was pregnant with the b.b.c. internet ad as part of a stomach churning antidrug compay in a sashing sashenka day i was already on heroin then which is surprisingly externalities defensive five percent of the series was 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 at hare. it's as if keeping quiet about drug abuse among school kids is like keeping dirt in your mouth the disturbing adverse 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 a 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 or let them consider which is better with in their mouths or without food every year more than one hundred thousand people officially dying from drug related deaths and that doesn't. take our interest believes people had better opening the scale of the problem rather than concern themselves of all the distant see of the adverts. who are. contradictory and

should we just keep silent about everything why ok let's keep our mouths shut and just live on the twenty year olds die and millions and billions of dollars flowing into drug dealers pockets while we just pretend that everything is perfect in our society. as behind the fact that the anti drug advert is getting more primitive is another shocking reality the targeting audience is getting younger and younger and the average age when youngsters in russia first try drugs has jumped to thirteen years with the ethics every life expectancy just twenty one. this is aimed at them so it has to be primitive in order to work do you think they don't know what drugs are bad when they just need to have it literally every in their minds the shocking can pain is actually a government initiative a response to the country's need priority in fighting the drug problem but as a concept 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 three century focus 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 some from stepping out of these slippery slope its creators say it's worth the arthritis causing refinish not see more scope because of his prime minister hesham touches facing questions over 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 but have been turning a blind eye to them for years and if it has 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 can think of after the war thought there'd be an exchange of prisoners and hundreds of our binion's were freed but 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 he 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 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 the 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 power within 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 interests the use rule of law mission in kosovo says it will now launch its own probe into the allegations in general unix takes on war crimes and obviously with crimes very serious. should be sufficient evidence. should we be responsible for doing with them we will certainly look into the issue

. mr haskins how she has dismissed the reports is baseless and the family tree and is threatened to sue it's another shocking twist in the history of this already troubled region naysay randy you 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 he is let's say a bit. of a. false start a company that father frost visits the kremlin century old history to light up the heart of moscow giving the first of many here a lot to you in just a few minutes from now. but first the new crew members of the international space

station are making themselves at home for their state lost in almost six months the soyuz craft carrying three astronauts successfully don't with the eye assess on friday the crew brought seasonal gifts to those currently on board the station peter all of it was at baikonur cosmodrome in kazakhstan for the last. over my shoulder you'd be able to see the soyuz t.m.a. twenty rockets now be blasting off sending cosmonaut the meeting called the r.t.f. and astronauts apollo nespoli from the european space agency and kathryn coleman from nasa into space now this is the product of two years a very intense training in the trio of you 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 you're seeing. the stuff behind me i'll let you get on with that.

domino theory by you know as the story twenty rocket blasts off from the cosmodrome in kazakhstan sending the make to become the monster paolo nespoli and catherine coleman of the international space station. then we get to log on to our website it's dot com where there are always more stories free that here is something that might catch your eye at the moment he's a singer and entertainer going in port arthur ashe has told r.t. about his international roots and skyrocketing career. and leave you told stories can sometimes feel like galleries but this time the luxury fashion house has got a real exhibition here in moscow it's on right up until christmas and can get the details of the calm.

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 but it will stand tall for the next three weeks this year the tree was pressed by a russian orthodox priest for the first time to be decorated with thousands of russian tricky lights and ornaments christmas trees have been back in use at the kremlin for nearly fifteen years now and president revived the revolution a tradition this year's event was accompanied by a theatrical show including a visit from father frost and the rabbit which is a symbol of the coming you know you've chinese come. well blasting off into orbit happens all the time these days but in the few minutes we look back at how it all started that's in a special report about the first man in space to be just to recap of our top

stories that's coming up very shortly with me here on all to stay with us. chosen from among many. he was given

a clear cut mission. a mission he successfully accomplished. and became the first ever man in her space. hero of the soviet union one of the best known persons in the world. call his thoughts were focused on flight. could he ever think that his life's work would cost him his last . one happened in those few seconds. and what city could see these sealed barrels still. curio guarini. on our team. in india oh she's available in the movie the joint the hotel rooms. the gateway hotel the grand imperial truly the taj was the coromandel let her tell

her to sit don't need to go and. read this and the colonel was her child as a treat. that means headlines of the week's top stories here now in our outrage in bell a ruse says around ten thousand people come out to protest against the country's presidential elections calling them fortunate reports are coming in at the windows of the parliament and government buildings have been smashed the opposition is trying to break in one of its candidates has already been seriously injured it's the result of a planned demonstration against an example who looks set to claim a fourth term in office. ethnic tension between russian nationalists and groups in the caucuses forces moscow thorgils 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 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 and before long discussion of the subjects covered included social security police reform and property prices. and europeans 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 the failing euro zone economies. upstate at the moment when up next as promised report on the world's first man in space who successful flight almost half a century ago made him an icon of the soviet union that special report is next.