all. the official t. application. from the. video. and. the top stories from ati tonight no release from a cold khodorkovsky of the already jailed for more oil. guilty of embezzling billions in cash in oil. president dmitri medvedev

called for a firm stand against interethnic violence. a tough crowd down on racially motivated crimes and justice for all criminals regardless of their nationality some promises from the kremlin. but the spoils of war on show israel and lebanon compete for tourists attention. side of the story. hello this is r t it's midnight here in moscow you know in our top story former tycoon mikhail khodorkovsky has been found guilty of stealing billions of dollars worth of oil by a moscow court the hearing is now over but the reading of the verdict is still not complete it could take several more days. as the latest from outside the court.

so far we know that nichols a difficult ski and his former colleague left on a visit of russia's once biggest oil giant company you cross have been found guilty of stealing up to twenty over twenty five billion dollars worth of oil and embezzling the funds that of course is that the latest verdict in the second trial we believe that will speed him and his colleagues up currently already serving time for a first conviction delivered in two thousand and five this of course is something that the prosecution seems very happy with they originally asked for fourteen years for mikhail's of that and his former colleague the defense attorneys are of course saying that the trial has been politicized the evidence not substantiated and in fact the case itself has is somewhat ironic because according to their argument the trial so that is accused of stealing the very loyal that he was found guilty of not

paying taxes for in his first conviction so these are the arguments that they're using and that they say they will continue using in their appeal they've already confirmed to the journalists that they will appeal this guilty verdict and if it doesn't happen within russia itself they are prepared to take matters outside the country and go to the european court for their appeal now prosecutors are forced to maintain that everything was done by the book that every piece of evidence was submitted and accordance with procedure and that they are of course not prepared to comment on the verdict any further until it has been read out in full that of course can take days because there are fourteen files in the verdict itself each filed comprises of the nearly three hundred pages and today the judge managed to read around a hundred so. that the math is pretty simple it will take days before the verdict is read in full and the most interesting part right now of course the exact amount

of jail time that mikhail khodorkovsky employed the neighbors if the. well served will be delivered right at the very end my colleague that i push over what little closer at the man his life and his work. once russia's richest men he's now russia's most prominent prisoner coming to the end of it eighty a sentence for the biggest tax fraud in the country's history he and his partner. were charged to stealing two hundred and eighteen million tons of oil worth twenty seven billion u.s. dollars from a subsidiary company of ucas the verdict has been announced guilty khodorkovsky supporters say he didn't break any laws khodorkovsky was not to blame because he had a whole team of very experienced lawyers who are used to tell him that. everything he did was within the law it was the blame of the laws that had dissolved loopholes and them the former tycoon rose to great wealth thanks to one of the world's

largest non-state oil companies ucas the company grew from a state selloff in the one nine hundred ninety s. when government assets were being hived off in often chidi circumstances it soon became russia's fastest growing oil producer but the path to success headed outside to a associates were later found guilty of a number of murders. during the fifth place is imprisoned. accused of stealing tax evasion and fraud with the new charges he faces it's about stealing hundreds of billions his company's security chief is in prison for murder. he has always insisted he's innocent of the fraud charges which put him behind bars ever since his arrest in two thousand and three ignoring his past many in the west believe he was singled out for prosecution among the billionaire businessmen because of his political ambitions the russian authorities say you is pure live

victim to the economic crimes of its manager. and i think there is a strong operative on the part of many in the media in the russian liberal media and definitely in the west to to politicize it as much as possible there is no question that. our cause and the rest of the crowd who participated initiated and was very active in the criminal privatisation of the ninety's are guilty of the crimes they were accused of so in that sense i think very few people would fatha khodorkovsky is persecuted for for nothing yes there is a very strong case i thing against him public opinion is divided i think that most of russia will probably smell a recollecting if you are all those people. and that's why i don't think that i'm on russian broad public unlike liberals for whom. i can he can

find compassion the prosecutors had asked that had that of course he was forty seven at least six years on top of this kind sentence however the reading of the film is expected to last several days and the sentencing has yet to come down marty mask. moscow's airport struggling to get back to normal tonight following a blackout the cause the cancellation of over one hundred flights this weekend thousands of travelers remain stranded because of the disruption with witness reports that there was an attempt to break through passport control out of frustration. at the capital's main international airport with more. well it's the second day of travel starts the people traveling to. you can see the huge number of people that are still around trying to get their flights incredibly chaotic situation still is of course off of the trouble that we saw yesterday when the entire airport had a power cut because it is substations that power the airport the power cables in

russia and that of the sea take down the check in hundreds of flights were canceled hundreds and hundreds more passengers left stranded flight was supposed to be yesterday and we still don't know if we're flying today. yes we have been me and my mother. actually we stayed at a local hotel and it was really nice and comfortable and we're back here today to see if we can get on a flight you know the airport with power around nine pm yesterday and then they managed to stop processing some of the flights domestic and international starts running at about midnight. all measures to normalize the situation the atmosphere in the airport is calm and no incidents involving passengers have been registered we parted to get back on schedule would have had very. little of it has caused a huge amount of trouble and we know

a lot of the flights were diverted to share a match of. course but those opposed to feeling the strain we share much of a space person say they've really been trying to deal with the bad weather conditions and they've had some problems a day icing the pool they go so the moment of the date of the return to clear the backlog they have of the problems yesterday get the flights and get people where they want to go. so if earth reporting for us coming up tis the season to be jolly but not for everyone as the pockets of american jingle all the way millions who didn't get a job for christmas have little or nothing to celebrate. the russian president surprised his kremlin colleagues during a meeting on monday dmitry medvedev began a session of the state council of modernization commission by addressing the recent racial violence in the country. over reports. the president today said that

as in a phobia and asinine tensions are threatening the country's stability and here he was addressing local governors and said that they should work more closely with acne groups to prevent the kind of mass clashes mass riots that happened in moscow and in st petersburg on december eleventh over a bought thousand people kalash with police in these two cities in moscow it was just outside the kremlin they were chanting russia for russians and beat ethnic minority groups represented just mostly from the north caucasus those mass riots followed a killing of an ethnic russian the sparta football fan representative and three of the four suspects who were released shortly after that of course it urged drew to fire football fans and most could also drew the are a ball the president and the prime minister the squeak released after such a short detention and they carried out their own investigation whether those policemen were somehow under pressure to do that of course that all raise concerns

about a rising tide of xenophobia in the country and also the government's bungled reaction to that today the president urged police to act more fiercely to act more harshly to disperse rioters next time but overcommitment would any attempts at inciting racial he should in provoking violence should be stamped out with extreme prejudice forget about loyalties criminals don't have a nationality they must be isolated and punished regardless of their ethnic and social background that some prime minister putin who was also present at this meeting admitted that as nick balance that was formed in russia through saying truce is now changing and these changes are rather painful and prime minister putin urged young football fans not to try to settle scores up to the games by breaking the law and he also urged them to. stay away from the radicals and extremists are

actually nothing to do with the game it's no surprise that the country's leaders beat their alarm the country just recently won the bid to host the twenty eighteen football world cup and of course it's unacceptable for a country which is preparing to host such a pristine just event that's similar attacks and similar conflicts clashes between football fans and police take place across from a country in which over deeply entrenched on opposite sides of a fragile peace barricade israel and lebanon are fighting a propaganda battle having won the hearts and minds of their own peoples the two rivals of now so this side some tourists others artie's paulus later found out some of the attractions are more than authentic it might not be quite the real thing but it sure brings one up close and personal dozens of tourists flocking to hizbollah strongholds deep inside lebanon. we decided to create and develop jihad tourism in order to thwart attempts to distort and falsify history. dubbed pallywood hizbullah

land or hamas would these theme parks offer through all of their own their appeal the danger here is all too real when we try to tell our visitors about real events that took place in this region many stories are about those who gave their lives for their brothers. and in the space of sixty thousand square meters all the trophies collected by hizbollah fighters are displayed captured israeli weapons and tanks alongside katyusha rockets and grad missile launchers. it's given us a chance to see firsthand how wars are fought. but what is jihad to tourism for one tourist is nothing short of terror tourism for another here and now under other side the bunch of criminals they don't they don't they did tell the world they want that they go there one of them over this group of tourists is visiting the jewish state through a specially designed package titled the ultimate mission to israel but in the

course of one week we broke with them to meet with. better officials mossad and tell them to. grow them to the defense ministry to the border in so be eleven hours they live in is their forward positions and the highlights include a visit to an israeli unit that carries are targeted killings a tour of the lebanese frontline and listening in on army trials of him as suspects i'm looking forward to seeing the and getting a better picture of the fighting you can actually see here one of your books as long as it's based on fact propaganda is not based on deception and false allegation and false presentation it is more than ok and so the battle to win the hearts and minds and pockets of visitors on the mop up operation after the real war in the arena of pop culture and entertainment taking people to those places is

a very powerful event for those people to shape their mind and to convince them wasn't we convinced about when the problem hit home with photographs and memories but far from the usual snapshots these ideological holiday makers have a different experience to share point three our teen television. just aired this hour an artist sending best wishes from a. nearby fellow daddy i love you so much you're the best dad in the world happy new year to you joined in the holiday spirit being sent hundreds of kilometers. the ground. would use a bridge before that tonight two suicide bombers have killed at least fourteen people in central iraq the attacks for the second this month targeting a government compound in ramadi one bomber blew up a car and minutes later another detonated an explosive vest as people gathered at

the scene at least four of those killed were police officers forty seven other people were wounded. nine are in court in britain charged with conspiracy in terrorism offenses it's alleged they were planning a large scale attack aimed at landmarks banks and government buildings around central london the men were among twelve suspects taken into custody last week during dawn police raids in the u.k. but three detainees later were freed without charge. missiles fired by a suspected u.s. drone killed at least fifteen militants in northwestern pakistan u.s. drone attacks are common it was of a stand which is a hub of taliban al qaeda the been more than one hundred attacks by pilotless u.s. aircraft in twenty ten most of them in north waziristan. one of rico's protesters in the city of abidjan have demanded a compromise on going power struggle incumbent leader laurent gbagbo is ignoring warnings from a neighboring countries who threaten to use force if he refuses to step down the

recognize the winner of the recent elections called meantime for a nationwide general strike but says attempts to oust him could lead to civil war more than one hundred seventy have been killed and fourteen thousand fled violence following last month's disputed poll. as millions of people rather world enjoy the holidays many americans are struggling to find reasons to celebrate this year unemployment an expiration date on welfare as the anti is money runs out as artie's laura mr reports notes while some are broke others are still raking it in. in the u.s. tis the season for holiday cheer charity and this year first millions of jobless americans despair why did they work all those christmas is why did i give up their time with my family if i had nothing. in all of the work that i've done in my life no reason for to research this used to be her busy season at work but she was laid

off from her job in the gas and heating business more than. to years ago and has been unable to find any steady work since i look for work every single day i feel applications u.s. lawmakers reached a deal this month to extend unemployment benefits for millions of unemployed americans we're all going to have the best holidays we can but lost in that story are millions of jobless americans like teresa who don't even qualify for this help any more benefits expire at ninety nine weeks but a job doesn't magically appear by their own accounts and activists buying on their behalf these americans no longer count in this economy left out in the cold and out of the statistical surveys when for many for example their phones are cut off they are not counted and no one can say that they are but they're struggling arguably the most to get by merry christmas you're fired there are people like sixty one year old gabrielle a laid off veterinary nurse like

a record one in seven americans to eat she now relies on a government program that helps pay for food known as food stamps meanwhile no work is on the horizon it's very hard i mean. the truth of matters are really nothing out there despite the tough financial situation so many are facing these will be happy holidays for some wall street thanks for what the lavish christmas decor is just the tip of the iceberg big things like this one are expected to post their second highest near profitability ever recorded second only to last year and still the average beggar bonus may come out higher that means the average year end bonus would exceed last year's of more than one hundred twenty four thousand dollars a person but if banks are in this money what's so wrong with that many of the banks that are doing well are only doing well because the public bail them out so we're seeing is a transfer of wealth from in a way the needy to the greedy is unemployment soars last quarter american companies

posted their largest corporate profits ever recorded in u.s. . history and while the rich may be taking those earnings to the glitz that new york's fifth avenue for holiday shopping in the shadows or those struggling to see a little light at the end of the tunnel lauren lyster r.t. new york. reviewer let us know about it if you've got a comment to make you can accommodate all the stories you see on our new website our t. dog also there tonight seventy eight years ago the modern possible world system was introduced in the summer you go online to see why it was abolished for a period of time and who wasn't allowed to get a passport. but she will to those photos and videos get a personal look around the historic but in ski see it's a beautiful place the theater of all but a st petersburg we take a sneak peek behind the doors.

what is the clock ticks down to the new year artie's been checking the festive spirit around the globe and beyond the crew of six currently living on the international space station planning a new year's party complete with three and presents. was lucky enough to talk to a cosmonauts ahead of their big day. down here on earth will be celebrating new year all around the planet in our customer fashion with celebrations and parties but there will be six people who won't be able to they'll be one hundred kilometers above on the international space station and they'll have a bit of a different experience cut off from the rest of the planet as it were have limited communication each of the crew will be up there for six months they've been doing experiments and living quite quite a different life to most of us down here here at mission control in moscow we were

able to day to get a chance to talk to them on the on a live link up to the international space station hello my name's tom barton from russia today television merry christmas and happy new year there are sixty. six million of us down here what's your message to the. happy new year we wish everyone good health love happiness success in all the new beginnings and plenty of rewarding achievement in the upcoming year. also here was father frost the russian father christmas he turned up and on a live link gave greetings from the russian people and from planet earth to the crew of the international space station and had a quick chat with them he also was with some children here today the children of the astronauts and cosmonauts up there and they were also split over to speak to their parents. hello daddy i love you so much you are the best dad in the

world happy new year. physically it seems that the spirit and the festive spirit of new year and the festive season will be able to penetrate even outside the atmosphere. reporting there for us coming up next on the program iconic left wing british politician tony benn tells us why he's backing the turbulent student protests even look they've been turning violent.

today i'm talking to the right honorable tony benn one of britain's foremost socialist and the president of the stop the war coalition tony benn thank you so much for talking to r.t. now you are a big believer in democracy as the means to pass power from what you call the wallets to the ballot what do you think is the state of democracy in the world today very imperfect i mean if you look at the world people are beginning to see

the world as a single unit i mean my granddaughters school in london with seventy six nationalities ways to go to school if you like addressing the general assembly of the united nations and i think that younger generation see the world now as just. village and wonder who governs it can be controlled how it can be influenced and so on an area we're looking at the government of the village or the country all. over the world it bound to our sense of what power do we have over the people who pass the laws and with the power of big business which is now in moments across the world many big decisions are made by people we didn't elect cannot remove and who do not have to listen to us so it's a very very big issue i think and you are talking about organizations like the international monetary fund the european central bank controls or they are

instruments of the international power of capital and they have a huge influence over the government policies you know those britain or greece and and i think that issue is going to become a very big one look ahead and how can we pass the power from the wallet to the ballot as well historically it's been done by people who campaigned for it and in the slavery was abolished because people look to slavery. for all being a slave and said who gave him the right to do that to that man and once you asked the question who gives him the right to do that then you've opened up a debate about democracy and is that what we're seeing happening now with these protests on the streets of europe well i think all demands by people to be heard. sometimes the expression observes in protest but otherwise you know argument all these demands are central to the future advance of mankind do you support

these people who are coming out to protest sometimes in quite a violent and destructive way i very strongly support it because the right to education is a basic human right i mean we now have accepted in britain in most parts of the the world. right to be educated the right to health. the right to peace to justice are human rights and if you take some of the way they're doing with the university training you have to pay to go then you are taking away people's rights and influencing the future of your country and we went to war in iraq ostensibly in the name of democracy but that's obviously not something that you support no i didn't think we did we went to war and support of oil interests and we use arguments governments use arguments to justify what they do and then everyone has the right no with the information at the disposal to question these arguments and

say are they valid or not and if they are not valid why we're doing it and the stop the war movement built up the biggest political campaign in britain in history of two million people live in london the next stop the war but it created a pattern of public opinion that compelled governments to train their policy and since then have you seen support for what the stop will coalition is doing to minissha anyway no i think it i think it built up to the point the maximum point just when we were going to war and now with all the inquiries and thoughts about the war tisn't the most dominant question but i think governments realise that when you do get your campaign of that power against what they're doing they are very vulnerable and wiki leaks and julian are sol is what what do you think that wiki leaks has done to support your campaign releasing all this information about the iraq and after.