sergeant of the israeli defense forces. during his service scorched a street fight. from the colonel of the armed forces participated in keeping down a military revolt. the sergeant of the us army. tried to become an american by getting part in the. ranks and reasons differ but one thing brings them together once they disobey. download the official. touch from the top story. life on the go. video on demand.

costs and feeds now in the palm of your. question. today. fleda. these are the images. from the streets of canada.

could have you with us is our t. commission live from the russian capital top stories now this hour a russian icebreaker is towing one of three ships stuck in ice to safety four hundred people are aboard the ships which have been frozen in there for a week. in new york residents fearing paul's rubbish heaps fill the streets taunting the city known as a center of glamour of fast turning into junk yards. and in russia christmas bells

ring in the holy night as the orthodox faith marks the birth of christ thirteen days later the most christians thousands of the leaders are gathering for mass in moscow's main cathedral. and we'll have coverage of that mass a little later here on t.v. now regarded as one of the greatest writers of all time and the untold story has made a significant imprint on the true history of one hundred years on from the russian novelist death his award winning biographer a.n. wilson says tolstoy's message still stands today that's in our interview next. first as a biographer what attracted you to tolstoy. he's a giant he was the great giant of the novelistic form greater even than dostoyevsky who i suppose the great dr so that's what attracted me to him and the fact that ever since really become a serious reader in my teens it was his novels i regarded as the greatest tell

stories books i'm thinking specifically of war and peace consistently tops these lists of the best book ever do you agree with these kinds of rankings you can't really compare war and peace with any other novel he himself said it wasn't a novel and it isn't really a novel it's a book about everything it focuses yes all the years you know five campaign culminating in the battle of our salutes and then the invasion of eight hundred twelve but the further it is on you realize that it's a novel about the whole of russia and also it's a novel about personal regeneration so it's really about everything. there aren't many books that you can say are really about everything tolstoy was this much f. a lost affair as of right out what do you thinking compass is his philosophy in life well i mean it's a very interesting question what compass is toast or philosophy of life and i answer it in two ways if you think of that really quite early work of his.

the cossacks there's a moment in that we're now living in who's been hunting. for the dia and there's all covered in that is beautifully described fantastic scene and he's all alone he doesn't quite know where he is in the caucasus covered in that it's very hot very sweaty and he suddenly gets down in the hole. where the self has been lying and he has this strange feeling of life. reason. with which he's connected. he's not sure whether the future life whether there's life after death but the significance of life itself for each one of those most street is a biting him just as for him justice for the. warriors and justice of the muslims that they're supposed to fighting there's an extraordinary significance in every single life and he has all his thoughts about being an heiress to tract being

a member of society in wall street they mean nothing to him what matters is this feeling of the sacredness almost the holiness of life and the importance of trying to live for other people now that's a very very early story and then when you get to the end of tolstoy's life and career the thousands of people who were following his coffin when he died and will no doubt get on to this. they weren't following him because he was a great novelist they were following him because he had taught not only russia but the world how it ought to live how we should be less selfish how we shouldn't be wrecking the planet we shouldn't be fighting wars. so this early story in which anyone has the sense of of the goodness of life the significance of life and how we should live more simply and more response to nature and to our conscience that really runs through the whole of his life and he essentially and underwent this transformation didn't he from high society author to spiritual on

a case. well what i was trying to say by mentioning because archy is that it's always there from the beginning actually this feeling that we are called to a deeper truer life away from the absurdity of society and so forth the tolstoy family were very grand i mean some of them were advisers to the emperor the family . on whom old prince bolkonski are more in pieces but it's his maternal grandfather was also very grand military and political figure tolstoy himself lived almost entirely in the country at his estate and yes my apology on the he never really. played a big part in the political life unlike his cousins caught in petersburg or in moscow but you're right to say there was this huge crisis in the middle of his life we need finished anacreon you know which was a fantastic success as was war and peace and i made him very very rich which he

hadn't been before he'd been land it and it had peasants and it had a states but he wasn't very rich he then became a multimillionaire as we would say. and he had a crisis what's the point of it all there's a moment in his autobiography where he said he couldn't even be in a room in the room with a piece of rope for fear that he would want to hang himself he then thought the way to live was to try to be like a peasant and for a few years he pretended that he'd by the way set up schools not only on his interstates but for vast acres and miles around the us and i probably on the starting education he was the great pioneer of russian education and even now they sometimes in some russian schools use his p.c. to teach people to read. so it wasn't just sort of pious try dreaming but having pretended to be a peasant he then went back to being the reasonable man he was and he thought what is due to christianity and the church is teaching on ethics how to live.

the miraculous stuff meant less to me and it was out of that was here volved his core philosophy of life which as you say is an excuse and he felt that. all governments not just the governments of the sars the particularly evil in his eyes all governments are based on violence and the only way that we as individuals and we as society is to get away from a system of the military of war solving problems of torture is in ourselves to forswear violence but also to forswear the idea of authority so he was an extremely subversive figure and an extremely conflicted person if i'm not mistaken here there's an anecdote that i remember hearing about it's about tolstoy that he was walking along the road one day and he came across a gang of rock breakers you know people who break rocks with other rocks and he

thought to himself. how much he envied them because as poor working people they were so much closer to god than he was and you can imagine this rock breaking hearing this story and thing here you have no idea of the privations and hardships of my life exactly and there was a great deal of un realism about him which was why his wife for example fantom so maddening in the second half of his life and you know for example in part of the great creed he built up apart from being a vegetarian and a pacifist and so forth was that sex itself was evil. well he was an extremely highly sexed man and even when these tracts calling upon the world to forswear sex were coming out his wife was having her tenth or eleventh child and so forth making her look absolutely ridiculous of course as well as making him look ridiculous. and did his contemporaries frequently see him as ridiculous well he. ridiculous isn't really a word one uses of these great giants and whatever one slightly dismaying feature

of him is that he didn't have a sense of humor certainly not about himself but i think over the six question he did make himself ridiculous yet also i was a deeply religious man but he did get into quite serious conflict with the orthodox chat well he was religious in this way that you get in the novels i think if you think of pierre or prince andrew in one piece if you think of you have been in and out or in. their worldly young man. soldiers or land owners of people very much like himself as to trap. with women trouble and all that and then they reach a crisis in their lives and they turn to what's it's all about to member prince andrew thinking he's dying. and then what it's all about is this great stride you can switch. and identify with the ministry of nature tolstoy was full of that to the end of his days where he parted company with the church was over the claim

that for example the miracles were literally true or that the church had the right to dictate to men and women what they believed in what they thought and how they should behave and so he fell out with the church in a very very big way and they eventually after he wrote the novel called resurrection which has a lot of the literature of the orthodox church in it the extreme indicated him didn't make any difference to him because he hadn't been going to communion anyway but he was excommunicated it meant he couldn't have a church funeral. it which was quite a big deal in eight days it was a big deal for his wife who was who was an orthodox it wasn't for him he never wanted to be buried in church grounds anyway he was buried in the place the states where his brother thought he'd buried this green stick when they're playing it but a game in childhood on the green stick was written the secret of how we should live the secret of human happiness so it's very appropriate he should be buried there he alone stood up against this extremely powerful regime and told the truth in

a world of lies and this was a fantastic example for russia because in all the terrible years which followed his death he died in one thousand and ten the civil wars the first of all the civil war the revolutions and so forth the tradition of tolstoy lived on and it enabled the dissidents when they courageously began to emerge and sternness times to look at his example and see that it's only it is one voice telling the truth look at a lot of our look at social needs and they would guided by the influence of tolstoy and that's really what we have to celebrate. and you said that he was in essence an a k if told so he'd be alive today what do you think he would be doing well. he wouldn't be very surprised that for example the americans just as the russians did before were trying to defeat the afghans nobody's ever defeated the afghans so he

behalf amused by that he wouldn't be very surprised that the bag because of the world. have made a complete mess of things and that what we call civilisation was collapsing because of the bangs and he would be saying just what he was saying in one thousand and two female self live will simply try to love people try to live for others and wilson thank you very much thank you. i.

was right because we're all going. just. children now see eat salads and murder by the end of elementary school five hundred thousand bottles by the age of eighteen. show video game. twenty four hour news channels. every day formulate a staples. in. shakespeare.

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one of three ships to safety. in new york. city known as a center of glamour false turning into junk yards. and here in russia christmas bells ring in the holy knights of the orthodox faith marks the birth of christ in thirteen days later than most christians thousands of believers a gathering for mass in moscow's main if he. brings you up to date for the moment

we'll bring bring you live coverage of the events there at crisis a because in central moscow in the meantime we've got the latest from the world of sports with. great to have you with us ports today i mean you know me let's take a look at some of the stories we're covering this hour. on top of the world team russia trying to ice hockey champions for the first time in eight years after a thrilling come from behind win over canada. great expectations when we catch up with all black legend sean fitzpatrick who looks ahead to this year's rugby world cup finals in new zealand. a long winter no problem russian tennis chiefs serve all but new form of the game. more not just

a moment but let's start with the news that russia has been crowned world youth ice hockey champions the red machine blitzing canada after a slow start to claim their first under twenty title since two thousand and three that big things are expected over russia in buffalo but heading into the third period the game looked well and truly up the canadians secured a three nothing lead by the end meaning the final twenty minutes was needed. charges to produce just hitting five on should goal to claim you talkies just when . the victory comes of a particularly good time for russian hockey because the senior team helping struggling over lates just a year after back to back world titles and new blood was seen as parliament no problems on that front then with russia's thirteenth. so president dmitri medvedev earlier offered his congratulations in the fire is a twitter account. the pressure will be firmly on new zealand to win the rugby

world cup for the first time in twenty four years when the competition gets underway and nine months time richard caught up with former all black great sean fitzpatrick who says he expects his country to break the drought on when the william webb ellis trophy on home soil. thank you very much shawn feel time all looking in the autumn internationals well it's really very difficult to see boss new zealand as they were just fantastic the other playing very well applying the very much of the very well laid the got a. blend of youth and experience. so the moment of doing everything well the very commercial got a real focus on what they're doing and you can see that the weather cline very good coach coaching set up. was there continue the having a break from now until the start of the first day. and they merge the countdown to the world cup team of the month yeah they're good to. read in the game we'll look

but at the end of the autumn series against against wales but other than that they played some sublime rugby but bit of a wake up call against australia in hong kong but that was purely because you know i might if you child was on the field it didn't work out well graeme henry's worst nightmare must be have done casserole richie mccaw get struck down by illness or injury out of the tournament i've had people saying you know who would play stand with you never got to apply stand he's a level of anyone else we just saw in the autumn series here how much of an influence he was on the game and how easy it was for him he looked as he was you know just cruising around the field in the afternoon it's a rugby look like he had just stepped out of the shell bicycle. you know he's a key player for us obviously and along with richie mccaw i think he could be the best kept in the world rugby at the moment and the crucial bit if they do fall over we have to be able to apply some we saw a nice seven. impossible. so you know hopefully we've done everything we can of one of the falls i believe that the super fifteen is crucial in terms of the number

ten cruden and colin slide from canterbury who's going to tiger. i think is important for them to develop sonny bill williams to get super fifteen under his belt is really important but you'll see players in the super fifteen who come from nowhere. it's been twenty four years since new zealand won the world cup on home soil so must be a lot of pressure on the all blacks going into the world cup in new zealand in nine months time to try and finally win the walk up again. after every world cup you know we're going to win the next one. you know we expect we will but it's a win and a very top of the lows it's a national disaster. nothing's nothing's different twenty eleven is all going to be exactly as i was playing in america or playing england or france and i say. we expect we will break to work you know is a. little bit to the country in eighty seven and won the world cup there was huge

pressure on so that even with the world cup. to continue what do you expect the challenges to come from the usual suspects i think realistically is probably only four or five teams that can win the world cup and that's not going to speak for anyone else. but you know you look at france you look at a strike i get really nervous betting along with a coming from. overseas the current world champions of africa they showed in sr a couple of weeks ago dangerous they can be just for the physicality of the game and. dupree. for e use for those sort of players in the world class so they're going to be right up there and just finally i mean what are your hopes for woke up. one who will cup obviously but i'm a i especially being a new zealand just sort of new zealand hosting the world cup because i think it will be sensational you know you've got four and a half million people in every one of those people and a lot of people don't realise they should actually be in the rugby is such

a religion. the have a based on their lives. and it's a great event combination of the twenty third of december with. a lot of trouble with your breaks when i. have as much. ok let's move on to tennis now where maria sharapova has made a shock exit the e.s.p. classic in new zealand the russian's first ever tournament in the country coming to an abrupt end in the quarter finals courtesy of. twenty three year old strop of sorts early on conceding the opening set in just twenty nine minutes on a six two scoreline garion fetter an all in taking advantage of her opponent's slow start in the ensuing set losing out the match six two seven five. will be on the plane home number two seed on reigning champion yeah i mean that with meyer is still going strong simona halep on able to put up much resistance in their

quarterfinal match up six love six to one. now russia has had its fair share of tennis stars recently but the sports heads are not for success in a new form of the game beach tennis from cost of reports there may be no sea in sight as yet but there's plenty of this on the stuff. that western part of russia is not your typical place for beach status especially in winter when it's minus ten outside and could only be found on the pavement so that the best friends would not slip and fall down however that hasn't stopped in st petersburg holding a christmas ornament. this force was born in northern italy over thirty years ago particularly in revenge on a place the world's top beach tennis players still call home today a resort holiday maker has probably seen a pair of people hitting a tennis ball with

a wooden paddle on the beach well it's now an official sport with establish rules and regulations one that's gaining popularity in colder places like russia as well look at that it's not only the city but when we started playing beach tennis in st peter's bank we only had four rockets in four people now take a look at how many people a hand for the aping many people a curious to give it a try and find it fan and that's what we're doing we have huge numbers of people who wish to try out beach tennis because it's banned because it's easier than making a tennis. well fun or not beach tennis is starting to attract athletes from its much older sibling regular tennis while its only three years old in russia drastically as an infant stage the country's national teams are already competing for top honors on the international scene currently dominated by italy. it is not a scrappy little italians had the support for fifteen years now so they are obviously the leaders well we've only been doing it for three years and we haven't had the opportunity to train a lot in moscow for instance we only have outdoor facilities in summer it's

a great thing that we now have an indoor facility in st petersburg where we can keep training in winter time making beach tennis official in russia is a major push towards advancement into the masses but will that be enough to make it popular in the biggest country on earth much of which is covered by snow six. nine months out of the year obviously not as this music port requires some infrastructure investments to adjust to the harsh climates in russia and make any headway in international tournaments and this is where private capital comes to the rescue namely a former athlete himself and now a successful entrepreneur. who founded a beach sports center in st petersburg look at some of the sure prison walls we originally around a food business and our first profits were spent on providing for our families and to maintain a decent standard of living today luckily we have moved forward and don't need to address any survival needs and what we'd like to do is find

a way to do business in the areas of personal interest with all that put together business self-fulfillment and fun too why not russian tennis players like that as when i even get a coffee to go and maria sharapova to name just a few have already made a name for themselves in their regular game will there be to colleagues follow suit and make russia and major player in the sport well the abundance of tournaments in twenty eleven will make that evident room on cost artie st petersburg. car i thought your law for now but if you happen to be a new chip a little later why not type in r.t.e. sport news on you'll be kept busy for hours with all the sports there weather is up next here though.