soon which brightened a few songs from fines to christians. who threw stones on t.v. dot com. in india auntie's available in the grand central shirts in mumbai the taj mahal. polish president to the shooter lane which resembles a beatrice a book. taj mahal hotel. the cement hotel. hotel. on the radio to leave the. church in new delhi hotel.

babyhood tones clearing collections ramona plaza. maidens hotel. pagosa medicine shift promise to taper cash promise. deep three hundreds of russians in the country's far east remain stranded aboard of a boat a brother a group of vessels they all along by an icy trap. the ice breaking with the missing detainees of preparation and now underway begins playing one of the three bases the main track of. 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 of push his agenda through capitol hill.

ime palestinians in the west bank start naming streets off the fallen heroes but critics say the scheme is glorifying people with blood on their. around the world around the clock this is artsy and live from moscow an ice breaker has begun its mission to free three ships and hundreds of people trapped in freezing water off the far east coast two vessels were reached yesterday but three more are still stuck with rescue is being hampered by tough weather for more on this we can all cross live to our correspondent sara first who can bring us up to date hello to you sara specialists have said that they don't know how long it will take to free the ships we've heard reports in some areas the ice is up to eight meters thick has it been any progress so far with those and freeing them from the

ice. yes so we made it the marker of the largest of the ice breaker. three vessels that remain and they've been deciding the past couple of hours which is the three will be taped out but they for the very place to make that decision any minute now they'll start playing one of these three vessels that we've heard from the captain from the department of security and navigation just how complex this rescue operation. will review the ice and meta power now they have to decide which of the three ships will be the first to be to the tugboat slickly be the shore of hope then we'll see what the circumstances or the situation is complex the ships will have to be to one after another at a very short distance from the. bay where these three vessels are. quite dangerous moving. area there is very clear water got.

very thick around that and it's been made worse by the extreme conditions that we've seen recently. i don't know if you have an x. but just what's going to be required of these ice breakers. one or two of the speakers to pins into the situation canal in front of the ship in the ice field until the nearest crack run through some patch of water after that if that ship is still want people to move they will have to cut the ice away from both sides to the vessel free if the ship starts moving she follows an icebreaker that believes in the path for it if the ship feels to move which happens in most cases it's taken in a short links to the rescue operation in the last from several hours to several days that depends on the situation the wind and how you think the ice is and don't how strongly it squeezes the ship. break.

today the cross is making its way to the area but we've heard that it's really going to be a backup to the other two icebreaker predominantly the admiral marker of this already working to free them that way for another three days and then of course going to behave things a complete this rescue operation as quickly as possible especially as we've heard. the weather warnings. the conditions to worsen any further progress so some of the rescue operation is ongoing here hundreds of people being stuck there for almost a week with miles of ice conditions tom we want to take long to get to this point. well it has been slow going but the ice breaks to really have what we've heard about these extreme weather conditions the temperature has dropped to about minus seventeen it's good if they could even lead they've had fools when we've had in some areas the ice up to eight meters thick in fact it's actually quite

significantly higher with the progress of the ice breakers we know that the smaller was that was dispatched actually is so cool stuck in the ice and the other mark had to come to the aid but we know that when the school did the help at the end of last week that the countries told school ministry then issued a warning to all the ships and despite that another a couple more continued and she got stuck in the ice so the ice breakers have been working over the past couple of days to free they spent the night you know made their way to these further three but they have had their progress quite significantly. by the sixteen weather in the because so the extreme weather of course and perhaps even a sense of isolation for the people on board told me how they've been handling the situation so far. with the police about being able to make contact and what we've heard from the this is a k. they've got enough food and water on board so they went in any danger and there's no concerns that they'll be running out to supplies in the messages that they sent

from on board the ships they say they're keeping their spirits high they have had to spend years and they actually said that they're quite eager to get back to what they've been there for a week now so i'm sure the arrival of the admin micro with greeted with through with with great pleasure and they're all going to be looking forward now to getting the ships freed up this means that hopefully in the next couple of minutes actually they'll be looking to tug one of the first ships and begin the process bill and this rescue operation short of the seamen are in good hands of this point art for reporting from the moscow region thank you. well on the way here here on r.t. city paved with the bin bags find out why it's our feeling rubbish as their homes become a dumping ground for the city's waste that's in just a few moments. two years of a democratic dominance in capitol hill have now come to an end a new u.s. congress has been sworn in and the republicans now hold an overwhelming majority in

the house of representatives sees the biggest split with obama's democrats outnumbered by forty nine seats 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 sing several of obama's policies since then including a nuclear arms reduction treaty with russia which was eventually ratified by the senate last month west benedict from the libertarian party says the current bipartisan system is leading america into a dead end. if you look at what the worst policies that congress has delivered most of them have been bipartisan for many years the bailouts of the banks the invasions of afghanistan and iraq but the deficit spending even a lot of the health care programs have been supported by both republicans and democrats the united states is spending itself into oblivion we're going broke

we're doing way too much spending on millet on the military if congress stopped doing anything that would be the second best thing that could happen the best thing would be that they start cutting government i think that republicans will pretend they're trying to cut taxes or cut government and claim that democrats are being a roadblock to it and your only solution is to vote for more republicans democrats have used the same tactics when it comes to various programs if you don't elect more democrats the republicans will stop a so yes they will be playing politics republicans and democrats are both being hypocritical if you really want change in america you've got to look outside the two main parties. that was a benedict executive director of the libertarian national committee well he usually famed for its shopping cutting edge fashion and love of big business something's smelling a bit off in new york residents are starting to complain about mountains of waste being left on many street corners of the big apple. dives headfirst into the

reality of a city sky high in rubbish. you're standing next to a pile of garbage taller than yourself how does that make you feel. while the world marks the new year one thing marking new york are melton's of. striking a huge blow to the city's traditionally glamorous image you can't even cross the street with. people. to discuss. anthony is a mailman his job takes twice the time these days sadly he notes his salary has not . been one instance however mounds of garbage. as one new york. unsuccessful this weekend want to jump out of the window did not turn fatal

unexpected software into piles 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 but it will world recession is exactly what the trash invasion has turned the big apple and while some officials have graded themselves plus for handling the situation new yorkers are outraged kerry. says. 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.

ten minutes past the hour. balancing. modern technology. we explore the world of the siberian. the west bank city. streets. but some of the titles are causing controversy after being named after people involved in planning suicide bombings and reports being seen by some growing extremist. in palestinian ramallah they're naming their streets to celebrate the city's one

hundredth birthday this is home and right for this isn't the norm 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 the one law there were normal numbers for houses and lives for the sticks 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 read on this issue here it really is a topic or a fact there or 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 warts 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 these rady 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 his the fear of those trying. 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 . treating ramallah after her was unanimous rachel was part of the international solidarity movement

a group israelis charged aids her mass and other palestinian extremist groups that people are. fed up with the way that they have been doing the past fifteen years. that there is something polls show her mask growing in popularity in the west bank as talks between rival palestinian faction fatter and israel deadlock hamas is changing us is trying to speak with the. language of the. stance 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 of palestinians here understand policy r t . all right now let's take a look at some other stories making headlines around the world and a u.s. presidential panel has found that a series of cost decisions helped to cause the b.p. oil spill one of the worst environmental disasters in history the report concluded that bad management led to

a failure in safety procedures an explosion of 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 in turkey have arrested a would be hijacker after he was overpowered by passengers on a flight from oslo to istanbul it's believed the turkish national claim to have a bomb when he tried to force his way into the cockpit and demanded the jet return to norway police say the bomb was found to be a fake a turkish airlines plane was carrying about fifty miles. north korea is calling for unconditional talks with the south to allay fears of conflict on the peninsula seoul has dismissed the offer as insincere tension is at a high of a pyongyang's shelling of a south korean island in. november which killed four people the north claims the attack was in response to south korean military exercises in the area. now you

might not think of it as a fertile ground but crane is planning to start developing parts of the contaminated noble zone for agriculture scientists believe that plants on crops there are immune to the radiation caused by the nuclear disaster from twenty five years ago but as r.t. is alexy reports huge doubts remain over safety issues 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 chair noble exclusion zone which made nature develop here rapidly after the one nine hundred eighty six fallout ensure noble 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 plant life is immune to radiation. we still don't understand how it's possible 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 century 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. those well familiar with chernobyl like the idea. that half a million people work to clean this land of radioactivity now we're being told this is dead land this is not true just look at nature's riches and the exclusions. 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 see no possibility of this

law to be changed. the dominant view remains that the nearest save 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. r t reporting from chernobyl ukraine well from healing and protection to marriages and good harvest in ancient times sharman who are in charge of almost every aspect of life now in russia's far east there are still very important they are very important rather to native people but only a few of them are still left parties are shown thomas went to see how they adapt to modern times and how they keep the 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 practiced the faith were persecuted now there are only three recognized shaman living in all of us want to live through wealth 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

shonen has his own mission. to help 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 age and mysticism is a problem for the sherman earth if you will from 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 lucy trying to make the best of it all life is a delicate balancing act for the cuttin people. where in interesting people when we're in trouble we do three different things at the same time we turn to shame. 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 i think even if you

don't feel maybe some protect what it created the spiral in the middle is a symbol of may the warmth of the fire in your name protects you and may your three spirits be united the spirit of the womb the spirit of man and the spirits of the earth in your group you know sean thomas hearty now and when i was back with the headlines about half past the hour next there was the business news with sure. hello welcome to our business program i'm sure out of. the food and agricultural organization has warned that the world is facing a food price shock this comes after f.a.r.'s benchmark index of agricultural commodity prices shot up to a nominal record last month surpassing the levels of the two thousand and seven two thousand and eight food prices the surge in the food index is based on rising costs for corn sugar vegetable oil and meat the situation has been made worse by

inflation and increasing economic challenge in developing countries including china and india. however the f a o and food aid agencies are drawing comfort from relatively stable prices for rice one of the most important agricultural commodities for the global food security. and russia is the leading export or of energy resources but also one of the most energy efficient economies in the world but both states add commercial businesses have modernization projects in the pipeline in a bid to improve the country's competitiveness archies column by a 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 he's played some we need fifty

when 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. 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 coasts drain the desire to conserve fuel there is no other remedy tool and energy efficiency apart from letting consumers be the real economic price for the energy they are 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 billion anyhow prokhorov project to build an inexpensive hybrid car in southern russia but there's still a long way to go for the last twenty years we've been reducing energy consumption g.d.p. by roughly three to five percent but you know

a lot of other countries moved much much faster and down this road and. right now you know our energy inefficiencies are everywhere it's public buildings. and budget consumerists electricity gas flaring etc it's tremendous being eco friendly goes hand in hand with energy efficient. recently russia's natural resources ministry drafted a bill to make factories recycled materials they currently throw away by selling them to biofuel plans right now russia uses twice as much energy than china to produce the same amount of goods and russian companies are struggling to learn how to go in clean could bring in the green. markets. european markets.

after the u.s. panel investigating the gulf of mexico oil. russia's inflation in two thousand and ten grew eight point seven percent that's according to preliminary data of the federal statistics service the figure fail to meet the government's seven point five percent target and almost equaled the previous year's inflation in a bid to curb price growth in two thousand and eleven experts believe the refinance rate hike is in the cards touch an employee reports. russia 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 easy money if huge inflation which has risen above target and currently stands that's more than eight per cent 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 her refinance rate may boost carry trades with investors cashing in on high interest rates and russia compared to the rest of the world and it's a central bank's monetary policy it is hard to predict which is helping to make money you have different estimates which makes it a little bit harder to follow policymakers 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 in successfully in a way because they didn't want to see large cap large capital short term.