you until next time listen. to the.

deep freeze hundreds of russians in the country's far east remain stranded aboard a group of vessels law and by an icy trap. the only breaking rescue mission that is already. has now reached the but the grave that remains shut in the eye in the south. the end of an era u.s. republicans regain control of congress from obama's democrats experts warn it will now be harder than ever for the president to push his agenda through capitol hill. and palestinians in the west bank start naming streets after their fallen heroes

but critics say the scheme is glorifying people with their hands. and what is russia doing in an effort to increase the country's energy efficiency i'll have more on that in our business program in about twenty minutes time. coming to live from moscow i'm marina joshie welcome to the program an ice breaker has begun its mission to free three ships and hundreds of people trapped in freezing waters off russia's far east coast two vessels were reached yesterday but three more are still stuck with rescuers being hampered by adverse conditions special say they don't know how long it will take to free them and brings us the latest on the rescue mission. the admiral marker of has actually reached day three

vessels that remain locked in the ice that's now working to break up the ice around the ships and it's going to be deciding which order to be removing the vessels from that area and so that's what's happening right now we know that also a little earlier a third icebreaker was dispatched to join the two that are already over this is really a backup option there is on his way to that area but it would take about three days for it together so obviously with the ice breaker already working at the moment it's hoped that that will be able to free the ship reasonably quickly they are being played down by the extreme conditions and there's a further weather warning so they're going to really want to complete this rescue mission as soon as possible we've heard it really is down to these extreme conditions the temperature has been as low as minus seventeen is that it could plunge even lower they've had gale force winds and incredibly thick ice in that area and so the ice breakers themselves have really had quite a struggle to get three to these vessels now we know that the three ships that are

still trying to take food in for help at the end of last week and the two ice break is the marker of that and the gadget with this patch to help now the smaller of this ice breakers and they got a knot here so ended up getting trapped in the ice required assistance from the large eyes break the girls. at the time that the initial. hope that the country's transport ministry actually issued a warning to other ships about these conditions but we saw that despite that a number of other ships did get shots at the beginning of this week as to the ice breakers being working on days first of all they managed to free to and of course now working with the three at the moment we've heard from the special just how harsh these conditions really are. in the region which in places is almost. beyond the m a river is strewing out marge amounts of fresh water . it's freezing the vessels are in constant motion so as not to let the ice form

around that whole situation worsened by the gill force we know the cycle in bay where these vessels are truck to be quite a dangerous marine area there's very clear water the round it but of course the extreme conditions have meant that it's being even worse and of course the crew members aboard these three vessels are going to be extremely anxious to get this rescue operation completed and get the ships freed the crew have actually been able to being contact we've heard from the very k. they certainly got enough food. so there's a danger of them running out the supplies they obviously spent new year aboard the ship in this size but they're in there they're in good spirit they will look completely aka they weren't in any danger but of course they've been there for a week now so there's going to have been pretty pleased is the arrival of the outer marker of that they're going to be one thing as we start this operation other rescue operations to be completed as soon as possible. sara first reporting there

and on the way here in our city paved with them bags find out why new yorkers are rubbish as homes become a dumping ground for the city's waste that's just a few moments. barack obama's two year winning streak has come to capitol hill a new u.s. congress has been sworn in and the republicans now hold an overwhelming majority over the president's party the house of representatives sees the biggest split with the democrats outnumbered by forty nine seats they're barely clinging on to the senate with a majority of just three votes the change in power follows the results of november's midterm elections the republicans have been trying to sink several of obama's policies since then including a nuclear arms reduction treaty with russia which was eventually ratified by the senate late last month but professor abu ghraib warns the tree could still come under fire on capitol hill. assumption of

republicans of power in the house of representatives is going to complicate life for the administration there is no doubt the new congress is going to try to do. a number of. laws and the policies of the administration one of them of course was going to be on the effort to basically change health care law. some want to change the whole start agreement but i think it's going to be very difficult for them to do so primarily because you still have the senate and the senate although there are fewer democrats the democrats continue to roll the majority there even if. that's unlikely both the senate and the house agree to take such stands to do the president's plans i think we the president still has the veto authority so that's going to make it next to impossible to bring to change. the law and that was professor adam green from american university in

washington d.c. . usually famed for its shopping cutting edge fashion and a lot of big business something's smelly a bit off in new york residents are starting to complain about the mountains of waste being left in every corner of the big apple r.v. is an associate you're going to dives have first and the reality of a city sky high in rubbish. if you're standing next to a pile of garbage taller than yourself how does that make you feel it's a pretty impressive world the world marks the new year one thing marking new york are melton's of garbage. striking a huge blow to the city's traditionally glamorous image you can't even cause the street with a baby carriage to hold the people cannot even want to sit discreet. anthony is a mailman his job takes twice the time these days sadly he notes his salary has not doubled that makes my work very very hard because the blog really box. to do the

work in one instance however the mounds of garbage prevented a tragedy as one new yorker suicide attempt proved unsuccessful this weekend when it jumped out of the window did not turn fatal due to an unexpected software drift into piles of refuse one of thousands filling many of the almost six thousand miles of new york city streets the average american is said to produce fifty tons of garbage in a lifetime new york city has reportedly accumulated as much as fifty thousand tons of garbage in just one week just because we're in a financial recession it shouldn't mean that we're in a moral recession but it will world recession is exactly what the trash invasion has turned the big apple into and while some officials have graded themselves and a plus for handling the situation new yorkers are outraged terribly upset about it it's gross it's ridiculous in a good enough job for our taxes that we are praying for it as an economic crisis

leads to budget cuts that lead to boycotts in the sanitation department that lead to all this garbage out on the street it may be time to ask how soon before the big juicy apple turns rotten and. new york. are you watching r t so stay with us as we've got plenty more stories ahead for you twenty five years after the worst nuclear disaster ukraine says it's safe to develop the novel zone for growing crops but anyone actually also. balancing mysticism with modern technology armstrong thomas and coming up on our to really explore the world of the siberian shawmut. the west bank city of ramallah is naming its streets as part of a regeneration scheme started two years ago to markets hundredth anniversary but some of the titles are causing controversy after being named after people involved

in planning suicide bombings as opposed to reports being seen by some as a sign of growing extremism. in palestinian ramallah they're naming their streets to celebrate the city's one hundredth birthday this is. for the citizens to know where they are imagine never gating your way around here with no street signs to help well until two years ago that was the case in that one there were normal numbers for houses and lives for this digs but now yasser arafat gets a street as does a neighborhood that used to exist in arab jeff and the one nine hundred thirty s. the neighborhoods long since disappeared and the streets a call for palestinian refugees to return to israel the criteria are simple palestinian heroes places and ideas supported by the people this is here it really is there. or there or from as if anything the opposite members of both

groups are glorified which might surprise those who think palestine is most modern city would shy away from praising her master what's like this main thoroughfare named after chief harassed bomb maker yahia yash dubbed the engineer for three years he was the most wanted man by israel for his part in suicide bombings that killed ninety israelis until he himself was eliminated. and this martyr was killed by the israeli internal security service after they tricked a friend of his into giving him a cell phone that was booby trapped fourteen years on his family is as proud as ever. i'm very pleased even in drugs in streets after my son is in my heart and i miss him is the hero of those time. but not all street names are palestinian rachel corrie was an american activist who was killed by an israeli bulldozer during

a demonstration in gaza in two thousand and three the decision to name this business. ramallah after her was unanimous rachel was part of the international solidarity movement a group israelis charge aids hamas and other palestinian extremist groups the people. for the with the way that. the. polls show her mask growing in popularity in the west bank as talks between rival palestinian faction fatter and israel did luck come up. with. and as the new street signs go up in ramallah it's becoming more and more clear a mass is also speaking in the language palestinians here understand placea r.t. . now is take a brief look at some other stories making headlines around the world

a us presidential campaign has found a series of cost cutting decisions helped cause the b.p. oil spill one of the worst environmental disasters in history the report concluded bad management led to a failure in safety procedures an explosion at an oil rig in the gulf of mexico killed eleven workers and caused millions of gallons of oil to leak into the ocean until it was kept in july b.p.'s own investigation concluded many factors were to blame including the involvement of several other companies. police and turkey have arrested a would be hijacker after he was overpowered by passengers on a flight from oslo to stamboul was believed the turkish national claimed to have a bomb when he tried to force his way into the cockpit and the man of the jet return to norway police say the bar was found to the fate of a turkish airlines plane was carrying fifty nine people. north korea is calling for unconditional talks with the self to a few years of conflict on the peninsula so has dismissed the offer as insincere

tension is a high over a p.r. gang shelling of a south korean island in november which killed four people the north claim. the attack was in response to south korean military exercises in the area. the united nations peacekeeping chief says he wants up to two thousand different troops to bolster the un force in ivory coast general on the royal hopes the soldiers will be available in a few weeks at the troops have been protecting a hotel that is sheltering al assad atar the man has been widely recognized as the winner of the november election blockade remains around the buildings by west african and voice reporting that i rico's incumbent leader had agreed to lift it. and you might not think of it as fertile ground but ukraine is planning to start developing parts of the contaminated her novel zone for agriculture scientists believe that plants across there are inherent to the radiation caused by the nuclear disaster twenty five years ago but as artist alex here chefs can report huge doubts over safety remain these berries may look ripe and delicious but

they're definitely not part of a healthy diet the bush is inside a thirty kilometer chernobyl exclusion zone in ukraine and radiation levels are off the scale people do not live here anymore but same cannot be said about flora and fauna some say it is the absence of anthropogenic harm in the church nor will exclusion zone which made nature develop here rapidly after the nine hundred eighty six fallout in chernobyl the environment suffered badly one strip of forest was burned by radiation and turned red people left the area but mother nature stepped in now chernobyl is home to many species of wild animals and rare plants scientists from slovakia studying most in the area made an incredible discovery a lot of the blood life is immune to radiation. we still don't understand how it.

plans to grow. at the very beginning of the earth when life started the. activity on the surface so. much problem and the millions of hectares of land were left contaminated a quarter of a sentry on kiev has decided that this soil no longer poses any threat to humans in march twentieth. will launch a plan to get things growing again. we will establish what parts of the contaminated areas could be used for agricultural needs there is a possibility that cultural products will be grown there when we have so much unoccupied land why not use it among those well familiar with chernobyl like the idea. of how familiar people works to clean this land of radioactivity now

we're being told this is did land this is not true just look at nature's riches in the exclusions if you were however there are those who worried about what could end up on the dinner table critics fear ukrainian and russian markets could be flooded with radioactive agricultural products and there are legal hurdles. ukraine has a law regulating any activities in the exclusion zone it says no agricultural product can be drawn on this land and for now experts you know possibility of this law to be changed. the dominant view remains that the nearest safe zones from the blonde are still hundreds of kilometers away in northern ukraine and some parts of belarus the dead zone in chernobyl is still deemed too dangerous despite some optimists but the fact is radiation can stick around for anything up to twenty four thousand years. reporting from ukraine and check

out our website for the stories we're covering an area and a lot more of it here is some of what you'll find there right now at r.t. dot com president dmitry medvedev and his visit to israel find out the story behind a surprise by israeli diplomats and why it's causing so much disruption. and celebrating break ups where they bash while half of american marriages and in divorce it seems it doesn't have to be bitter some agencies are trying to transform the misery into mirth all the details that are dot com. and from healing and protection to marriages and good harvest in ancient times shamans were in charge of almost all aspects of life in russia's far east they are still very important to native people but there are only

a few left thomas went to see how they adapt to modern times and keep old traditions alive. from the ceremonial rhythm of the drama. to ancient rituals and traditions. the belief in the power of the shaman is very much a part of the cuttin way of life to put it there so that our ancestors always had a very powerful shaman around the law to protect it gave them blessings and ensured security and safety in all circumstances and every day life at a hand on a journey and a tool. a shaman is someone who acts as an intermediary between the spiritual and earthly worlds relying heavily on nature to get his message across when russian orthodox christianity moved eastward and then later with the soviet union shamanism was banned those that practice the faith were persecuted now there are only three recognized sharman living in all of you. i help people find faith in the

fact that their wishes will be fulfilled their family relations in conflicts at work will be fixed when a person has this faith he can do anything i live in a time of crisis and my mission is to help people in this troublesome time every sharman has his own mission. to head certain posts with the engine symbols of the sharman adorning them standing right next to power lines from the modern world there's a contrast between the modern technology and aged mysticism as a problem for the sherman. real shamans live far away from big cities and small villages because contemporary cities with computers cars cell phones and the constant russian distract from the true unity with nature and the spirits i myself am from a far northern region she ganske. trying to make the best of it all life is a delicate balancing act for the cuttin people still with them they probably are an

interesting people when we're in trouble we do three different things at the same time we turn to. shaman we pray you know church and we make use of modern medicine a unique way of keeping a tradition that has been part of your couture for centuries but even if you made us some protect what created this spiral in the middle is a symbol of fire may the warmth of the fire in your name protect you and may you all three spirits be knighted the spirit of the womb the spirits of man and the spirits of the earth in your group you know sean thomas party. and team russia has done canada to become world champions in junior hockey canada began the tournaments as an underdog having lost many of its players to the international stage and russia was also not among the favorites to win having lost its first two games but it was those two in the final and what a game it was canada scored the first three goals and the last twenty minutes

russia came out firing five three was the file score for more sports news check out our sports bulletin layer of the south work out of baghdad they have lines at half past the hour right now that will bring you the latest business news with her own. hello welcome to our business program i'm sure out of. russia is the leading export of energy resources but also one of the most energy inefficient economies in the world but both state and commercial businesses have lotteries ation projects in the pipeline in a bid to improve the country's competitiveness archies column bray has the story. every year russia wastes enough energy to power the french economy but now the kremlin hopes it can turn industry from leaking losses into a green money making machine to get it started the government's approved

a three hundred billion dollar energy efficiency program to trim the fat from factories and buildings inherited from soviet times is plates. the leaders in terms of efficiency our industrial giants transport and housing utilities many industrial sectors of the economy are two and a half times less efficient than their european peers the room for improvement is huge because. it is the biggest oil and gas producer on the planet the people of russia enjoy cheap energy with prices set by the state but those low domestic costs drain the desire to conserve fuel there is no other remedy tool and energy efficiency apart from letting consumers be the deal economic prize for the energy of their consuming president medvedev aims to slash wastefulness by forty percent over the next decade initiatives range from phasing out incandescent light bulbs to state backing for billionaire may help project to build an inexpensive hybrid car in southern russia but there's still a long way to go for the last twenty years so we've been reducing energy

consumption very g.d.p. by roughly three to five percent. you know a lot of other countries moved much much faster and down this road and. right now there are energy inefficiencies are everywhere it's public buildings. budget consumers electricity gas wearing etc it's around us being eco friendly goes hand in hand with energy efficiency recently russia's natural resources ministry drafted a bill to make factories recycled materials they currently throw away by selling them to biofuel plants right now russia uses twice as much energy than china uses to produce the same amount of goods and russian company. these are struggling to. bring in the green killing brain. and let's look at the stock markets now in russia the bourses are closed till the eleventh of

january for the russian media holiday break the asian markets closed up on the day japanese nikkei jumped by almost one and a half percent as investors snapped up shares of big export hers after the dollar hit week highs against again however markets elsewhere in asia will more subdued ahead of the influential u.s. non-farm payrolls report. and european shares as early trading thursday following gains on wall street and a strong trading session for japanese shares the london footsie is up a quarter percent led by b.p. which rose to a seven month high after the u.s. panel investigating the gulf of mexico oil spill said halliburton and transocean were partly to blame and the german dax is up over a third of a percent led by a bear up two percent on news of the submission of a new drug approval for struck prevention. and russia's inflation in two thousand terry and grew eight point seven percent

that's according to preliminary data of the federal statistics service the figure failed to meet the government's seven point five target and almost equal the previous year's inflation in a bid to curb price growth in two thousand and eleven experts believe a refinance rate hike is in the cards. reports. russia's central bank account interest rates on four consecutive occasions in two thousand and ten to seven point seven five per sound to help spur lending after the financial crisis however the easy money if you do inflation which has risen above target currently stands at more than eight percent central bank has to react in order to keep a lid on inflationary pressures that's one of the major most important mandates of the central bank so i think it's also a very important signal that inflation is very important for the central bank

a signal that is very important to all of the economic agents i think a hernia refinance rate may boost carry trades with investors cashing in on high interest rates in russia compared to the rest of the world but analysts say central banks monetary policy is hard to predict which is helping to limit home to money different estimates which makes it a little bit harder to follow policy makers i think the central bank here. has created kind of a deliberate ambiguity you know it's kind of constructive ambiguity you might even say in their minds at least about policy here and i think they did that in particular and successfully in a way because they didn't want to see large cap large capital short term hot money inflows russian economy growth has been slower than expected in two thousand and ten while inflation has been higher and the ruble hasn't appreciated as much as it could given the current prices but economists believe that.