twenty one year old us a doula started smoking heroin at university six months later he dropped out and does what he can to support his have. he is one of the million addicts in this country the world's largest producer of opium. as i said my life rizzo's their own drug i know it's killing me but i can't stop anti drug measures of diminished output but a hit only costs two dollars providing an escape for addicts ranging from refugees returning from iran who fled the country's civil war to military veterans to teenagers with little to look forward to. the united nations says it's another threat to afghanistan's long term economic growth and security it's what we call the coca-cola effect i mean people always talk about the demand creating supply but people forget that supply demand and that's exactly happening in afghanistan i mean if you think about the health issues you think i mean a.t.v.'s often starting among

injecting drug use it has as well to do what you security i mean security forces and the high levels of addiction and security forces means that yes you will corrupt your security system so all those elements together means that there's a heavy burden for this country and with the limited resources available it's one mall of what they should not have within this country. local city that external and threaten them and the police do nothing more than chase them away or throw them in jail for a day or two then they come right back. today there are an estimated sixty thousand heroin addicts in the afghan capital and that number is rising fast many of them say they want help but the government can do little for them and the handful of rehabilitation clinics that exist are just a few hundred beds to offer. the u.n. funding to judge sensors the largest and best equipped facility in the capital but that's not saying much it can only handle about sixty patients at a time. to enter addicks must submit to

a two months detoxification but the center's director dr y. doula has shown this is a lack of post treatment prospects ensure that over half of the patients fall off the wagon. and we just. saw the mother relapse is a huge problem there's not much we can offer these people once they leave here. a sadullah got ten days treatment before running away to get high again the international community is focusing on combating the flow of drugs leaving afghanistan but within its borders a battle just as important is being fought with addiction a major hurdle in the country's hope for future stability. in kabul for r.t. . and russia's top anti-drug enforcers says if nato wants to stop the flow of opium from of ghana stamp of us target the drug lords at the top of the chain. because you know what she did was you know the size of the people in stations hasn't changed this year they still cover one hundred twenty three thousand hectors the

number of families involved in poppy cultivation has increased by about four thousand for these peasants the fifty provides the most basic living the simplest struggling for survival and all the talk about the need to create economic incentives for them is simply pointless they work as slaves for the landlords and these are the people we need to find and target and what we're proposing nato is to take the land from the. international law and most national legal systems presume that prophecy used for criminal purposes should be confiscated. and christmas day certainly one years ago marked the i'll break of the decades long war in afghanistan in a few minutes time our goal of fod in the country discusses how political standoff between cold war rivals spilled over into decades of conflict. take several hours to get from the nearest airport to the casino in southern russia and

as you can see the zone still doesn't look like gamblers paradise. from tourist areas and from reality we'll look at what spoiled the idea of purpose built gambling sounds in russia. a series of events i saw vs cartoons have appeared in georgian newspapers the latest move in a campaign launched by president saakashvili a number of soviet monuments have already been dismantled across the country as school children have been obliged to watch a documentary likening the u.s.s.r. to nazi germany but as archie sara first reports many georgians are about their soviet past the spy the government's attempts to wipe out their history. the destruction is savior monuments a law banning savior symbols and now an anticipated documentary and a series of cartoons in local papers all part of an anti circuit campaign currently being led by the cuban government that both the timing and methods of

implementation have led many to question its real natives and then you say it's not just anti soviet propaganda but anti russian those conducting this campaign are trying to put russia on a par with the soviet union. it's been two decades since georgian independence and just two years since children attacked south thirty year provoking an armed conflict with russia a history of tense relations and these recent events i thought likely to have a bearing on what's now happening. in a local newspaper the pick your favorite general firing is kicked in. with the from this why and what part of the anti favor campaign has also been accused of being anti russian of encouraging the public to live by the bigger picture. but many georgians particularly the older generation hold positive memories a saving at times angrily age of blood seeing worked as

a police officer in the save the union and jules harsh comparisons between situation then and today we are we look at war and order was much better in the summer retirement today in the soviet union we had professional unions protecting our rights today we have nobody to take care much we're being poisoned with the ideology of the current authorities. for people like angrily the destruction of monuments dedicated to saviors soldiers many of whom were themselves georgian is particularly inflammatory they've had to sit by and watch as their memories of the past of richie's to rubble. why do you think big. mantled these monuments we want us to forget our history but we should never forgive. the government his name for his provoked his stance towards russia. the controversial campaign techniques perhaps a step to. history must be honest and true to fact and not one side

to all nations united and soviet union are equally guilty for the problems it doesn't make sense to try and blame it on bush but using comic books to facilitate this is appropriate i think the efforts of the government look silly well the strong emphasis on the negative aspects of the savior period might well suit the present political agenda everyone inside georgia is happy with their government's actions. georgia. well you always find more on any of the stories that we cover for you here on our website but here is just a quick look at what's on land at r.t. dot com right now. the russian president sums up the year's events and it drove you to find out what he had to say about his personal priorities corruption spies freedom of speech and more. and if you want to marry him with something a little more sophisticated than the year this christmas party has got the perfect

recipe. well as christmas comes a lot of us many appears to be focused on whether or not the christian side of the holidays being deliberately ignored but many americans say the so-called war on christmas issue is simply at a stretch to the verge of public attention away from more serious problems are to stand us off ski investigates. tis the season to be decided i'm just so enraged by these all these atheist displays and trying to push jesus to the back seat on christmas day but people like head humanist roy spec hard say they aren't trying to push jesus anywhere when they see these ads it does give them pause they it gives them a chance to think about the issue and these issues are plenty to wars record high

unemployment add a budget crisis approaching but apparently the real war while the one atheist group is putting a new spin on the war on christmas if you listen to the media this is the truth we're trying to to take a shot at christmas they don't have any guts if they did so i said they'd go after the muslims want to stop. and visit they he's referring to is the quote unquote other america the folks who want religion out of public life. and on the opposite side of humanity that with all the political correctness here in the united states like the fact that you can call it a christmas tree anymore you have to call a holiday tree you can't say merry christmas you have to say happy holidays some groups are taking action like this religious group here god and america's leaders dot com this is the web site they created you can log on and take a ten question water bill a choice quiz about which founding father or politician said it which really just

quote but with all that outrage and all the back and forth much of the quote unquote rest of america thinks things probable are politics right now or spoken all these moral and religious issues instead of focusing on the actual things like the economy and the wars and things like that is distractions but for those americans who want religion any time any place anywhere it isn't just a distraction there definitely has been a war on christmas for a long time and brian fisher is part of the countless conservative christian organizations that are formed to send this kind of message to single most inclusive thing that you can do this time of year is wish people a merry christmas. i think it's appropriate to ask them to acknowledge that jesus christ is the reason for the season and the division is particularly evident in the most powerful of places case in point democrats were pushing to work overtime even after christmas and republicans like senator john kyl and jim de mint were pretty much calling the proposal blasphemous causing this kind of reaction the need to

really think. that. everybody calm groups. it moves the. rethinking and perhaps considering that the real battle is much more serious. and it's one that goes on all year round. just for our tea and a soft just. alaska being bought from russia over a century ago is perhaps another thing many americans are unaware of this christmas yet the place itself is alive with a lot of memories of its bring the settlers as we reveal in a special report around fifteen minutes time here in our. it's the secret incursion into the country. it's the invasion by means of. tradition the language. venti bestie compete to beat.

in culture. the thing is that the have the dems are still unaware of what's going on in their mind you still asking me what. it's like. i don't know do you but alas the great game on our t.v. . watching are to live from moscow to introduce two years ago russia's gambling ban has been widely declared a failure the isolated locations of the four official gambling zones have mant that they failed to live up to expectations and now authorities are looking at shifting casinos closer to tourist areas to combat thriving illegal businesses are reports. stacks of cash and roofs of one are bandits federal security service agents breach and illegal casino and will screw eighteen months ago

a strict gambling law meant casinos in russia could only exist in for special zooms but it failed then the show idea to build gambling zones far away from residential areas just didn't work it takes several hours to get from the nearest airport to this casino in southern russia and as you can see the business still doesn't look like gamblers paradise. the distance according to regional authorities almost killed the whole idea. of transportation is a key factor today we have a steady flow of gamblers coming to this casino enough to make the project worthwhile but that's not the zone's full capacity plus month russian president medvedev approved a war relocating the only functioning gambling zone in the russian south now the zone will be closer to tourist destinations which travel to the city of an up on the black sea coast which according to locals may very well become the new and hopefully more successful version of the russian vegas. in that winter time the place looks

a bit depressing but are not as deputy mayor is certain that his city does have a potential for developing gambling industry. in the village obligations with its one thousand hectares of vacant land lot is just five minutes away from the airport there is also a railway line and a highway passing through a napa for resort hosting the gambling project is a good opportunity to make on the upper excess of all the year round up until now only been able to fill the hotels for me talked over but because you know the season will stretch up to twelve months. these fields have been prepared for a large scale construction by a peninsula with the yellow sand beaches that attract thousands of the future golden sands gambling zone will also include russian style theme park hotels shopping malls and restaurants authorities admit however that the news there will be more or less just like they're all one unless the illegal casinos disappear and this may require more legislative work to stop because he knows from operating

where they shouldn't be wish there was that is the point that you have come up with a proposal to introduce stricter punishment for the organizers of the underground gambling dens so far almost one hundred percent of these individuals have been able to avoid serious punishment by disguising their businesses as lottery clubs or internet cafes although there is still no deadline. the golden sands project isn't especially stay just the region up to mystic they are certain that it may take less than three years to build this new gamblers paradise on the black sea coast but with a huge and powerful underground gambling industry it's still unclear whether the news will be the right bet for russia this is the let's keep our cross in the region while this christmas marks thirty one year since the beginning of the campaign in afghanistan the country was gripped by a civil war of the time the soviet intervention came as a shock to the u.s. and the subsequent campaign changed the life of the country for decades to come

artie's military contributor of getting her shop who fought in afghanistan looks back at how it all began. the list expected guests of the christmas parties since nineteen seventy nine while the soviet spits noffs who commands the most successful special forces operation. back on christmas night in one thousand nine hundred seventy nine ironically it was not only a smashing success for the joint. task force it was a tactical success for their opposite numbers back in langley washington d.c. the nine hundred seventy nine christmas party was celebrated as the beginning of the new era of entrapping the soviet union in afghanistan as a way to revenge for the united states failure in vietnam and as the beginning of this so-called wilson war otherwise known as the anti soviet jihad and their proxy

war against the soviet union in afghanistan conducted by the united states and their allies it's really symbolic that there wilson's war there war part one and part two the current u.s. counterinsurgency both those stages of personalized by robert gates who used to be of the cia coordinator of the anti savia jihad in afghanistan and in this century presides over the pentagon in his new capacity merry christmas to you all who have been involved one way or another into the tragedy of afghanistan and its people. we're getting there and still is on the program this hour here on r t a way to escape the apocalypse. if you can over the sort of most.

of the world those loyal recalled the doomsday cups our team needs a russian engineer who offers an unusual means of salvation from the end of the world which man to believe this night. and now let's take a look at some other stories from around the world here on r t at least forty people have been killed and seventy injured in a suicide blast in northwest pakistan near the afghan border the explosion went off outside the u.n. world food program office in the town of car while locals were waiting for supplies to be distributed it comes a day after clashes between pakistani taliban insurgents and security forces in a neighboring region that left thirty five dead. travelers throughout europe will be celebrating christmas at airport terminals as heavy snow continues to prevent planes from taking off a shortage of. the icing callicles meant hundreds of flights were canceled and paris europe's second busiest international hub the problem was made worse by

workers at france's main anti-freeze factory going on strike travelers have also been stranded island and denmark germany's dusseldorf airport has been closed due to the weather. every coast opposition leader is called in the country's army to protect civilians against foreign mercenaries and militia although the sun otara has been recognized as the winner of last month's disputed presidential election incumbent. is refusing to step down west african leaders threaten to use legitimate force to remove was that region's central bank cutting off his access to funds one hundred seventy three people have died in post the lead. violence in the country. tens of thousands of tourists have converged on bethlehem to celebrate christmas mass a birthplace of jesus a midnight mass led by the catholic church's top priests in the holy land is considered the peak of the festival vance of the town in china hundreds of

christians ran into a store of vision cathedral while those who couldn't get in braved subzero temperatures to watch the festive mass on screens the world why it's a liberations mark the end of christmas eve which leads into the christmas day holiday. and while the world celebrates christmas some are more worried about what they call imminent armageddon one man perceiving the threat after reading ancient predictions of staking out himself to guarantee humanity survival failings that his invention can always be turned into an eighty thousand dollars sauna that explains. ancient mayan calendar predicts that on twenty first of december twenty twelve the world will and. suffer cataclysmic events floods other options and earthquakes that will wipe out almost everyone but some are getting ready to survive the apocalypse i fear

kilometers outside of moscow on an abandoned battery farm and invention has been made which will save humanity when the end of the world doesn't i behold the doomsday capsule the military engineer by training beaker says he's a genius and that the large trajan collider controls the world whether he admits that many loft when he showed us his proposal for the live capsule one year ago now he's built it he says people are taking him seriously yeah we can see it is got four layers of insulation he can float roll down here and learned upside down without being damaged. of course it can't be destroyed by tremors or loss of all make mistakes. this is where the show will be and the air purification systems can house not to fool people for forty days but of course eighty thousand dollars will be kept has recruited

a band of neighbors who've already booked their places in the capsule but i was because i'm scared of twenty two out we have to be ready. yeah there's a going to die we will survive. and of the end of the world doesn't come into years you get in he says his capsules can be used as saunders or industrial fridges and recommends that the government order several thousand immediately either of party moscow region. they now hearing aren't even more member going always turn to our web site r.t. dot com right now though with take a look at what's happening in the world of business. well welcome to the business program i'm sure on a key on this year's christmas shopping has shown that russians are not yet spending as much as they did before the crisis however russia has one of the longest winter holiday periods in the world a lot of retailers and restaurants to make fortunes during that period tatyana political reports. many russians start celebrating christmas with the rest of the

world all due to it's a fifth of december. then move into the new year's festivities and then off course celebrates their own russian orthodox christmas all the seventh of january the ellipse will wakes holidays make folk be expanding holiday shopping in russia will do three town sales by forty two percent this december which is ten percent higher than the same period last year clothing purchases and food retail will grow over fifty percent this month whereas toys sales will increase a whopping one hundred sixty three percent but russian shoppers are no longer as impulsive as they used to be before the crisis. this year every version will spend an average around three hundred eighty five euros on holiday shopping which is just five euros more than in the crisis year of two thousand and nine. but this is still

twenty percent lower than for example german spend on presents and festive dinners additionally russians will still be on holiday for more than a week after the new year while most european countries return to full time work analysts say such long holidays are merely a luxury when considering that the russians do do people are capital is still very poor this drunken week as some call it cost the economy about one percent of g.d.p. annually but for now that loss is peanuts compared with the almost full two percent growth which most consumer sectors are currently enjoying in russia that's you know pretty cool business our team. and russian stock markets had a quiet trading week my sex and it flat after closing marginally in red on friday down just under a half percent ending a fourteen straight week of gains yes fared better finishing in the black up point

twenty three percent wrapping up a successful trading week trading volume for light as investors prepare for the holidays. and russian markets hardly moved this week as investors were buying gas for christmas and new year rather than stocks maxime arlovski chrystia wraps up the week. this week was relatively calm and that's mostly because the majority of the market players example large ones and brokers from europe and the us on christmas holiday the indices have barely changed as we have treated volumes very little but also lowball childes one of the interesting events of this week was the disclosure of terms from the alleged merger between. which long of a dump the stocks of these companies. and that's all the business for now but you can always find more on our on our website that's our. business stay with us.

it's the secret incursion into the country. it's the invasion by means of. tradition the language. that the first beat beat. and culture. the thing is that the have the danes are still

unaware of what's going on in their land still ask me why do you. think i don't know anything about alaska the great. the closer to the. industries are rapidly developing. to the homeland of those with strength of mind and body. to the land developed by cossacks in ancient times. which became a premier destination for nineteenth century political exiles. this is the. question on oxy.

more news today violence is once again flared up. these are the images the world has been seeing from the streets of canada. china corporations are today. well all the baggage has joined us you're watching r.t.i. marina joshua these are the top stories afghanistan's cheap heroin is depriving thousands of locals of a future besides flooding other countries a desperate situation is a reflection of nato's poor efforts to tackle the problems of russia's top as a driving force. from dismantling historic monuments to comic strip propaganda and i saw the campaign in georgia gathers pace with russia seemingly

prime target but a growing number of people say the authorities to rewrite history are going too far . and reports of a war being waged on christmas have been all over the headlines in the u.s. this holiday season but many americans believe the hype is just to divert the public's attention from more pressing problems. well next a journey to a place in america that used to belong to russia and in some ways still does so our special report discovers next. once it was a part of russian territory there are still reminders to this day children wearing russian national costumes people having russian names and many orthodox churches are standing here but more than one hundred years ago it became the u.s. territory though some americans still don't know about. you still asking their idea about let's go.