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in russia christmas bells ring in the holy night as the orthodox faith marks the birth of christ thirteen days later. thousands of believe are set gathered for mass at the country's trial in moscow to celebrate all the details coming up in just a few moments. also reporting this hour russian icebreaker toes one of three ships imprisoned in ice to safety four hundred people aboard the trapped vessels have been stranded for a week. it's the start of a difficult rescue operation we'll bring you all the details of it in just

a moment. just because we're on a financial research mission to mean that we're in a moral recession. new york succumbs to rubbish residents are outraged at the high rise refuse heaps now growing in the city of skyscrapers. with news from russia and around the world this is r.t. here in moscow good to have you with us in a very happy christmas to all orthodox christians yes christmas may be over for many christians across the world but for some orthodox believers the holy day is under way in the russian orthodox church uses a different calendar from the west so celebrates the birth of christ on january seventh and we're bringing you live pictures of the lavish and spectacular mass that's taking place at the moment in russia's main orthodox church of christ the

savior cathedral in moscow on the banks of the moscow river and there we can see the patriarch of all russia. conducting the service at the moment in front of over ten thousand believe in the congregation. also seen pictures of president medvedev and his wife attend. the ceremony which is going to carry on until the early hours of the morning here in moscow till about two or three in the morning. and i understand that in many other churches around the country the vigils take place throughout the whole of the night and at dawn. and it's a spectacular setting as you can see christ the savior cathedral. the marja cathedral in russia. and oversee the centerpiece of the russian orthodox church celebrations here in the country.

really. looking. over well as we bring you the live pictures from inside the cathedral we now go live to outside cross to save a cathedral there in moscow and joining our correspondent katrina which have a very happy christmas to you tell us what's the atmosphere like now that midnight mass is being celebrated it's on the way. have a christmas below thousands of people have been gathering around and outside the country's main cathedral christ the savior cathedral to get inside closer to the altar to get closer to the patrick of moscow and all of russia to be able to listen

to his. inspirational speech at christmas speech on this night he's leading the ceremony of these leader e.g. well of course the old people were in festive mood and one thing which definitely distinguishes christmas for russians and in russia is that unlike the western ceremonies which have grown to include more commercial. aspects to these holy day russian christmas remains more of a really just and in the first place it's a very cozy warm solemn event when people gather want table to the chair the presence of their body works pretty much like in the rest of the world but still it's a very really really just and very. very family event for them and when we asked these people many with their kids to come to these cathedral what behold the demand for them they said what they were celebrating had a very deep and very intimate theological meaning but still

on this very night that felt like a magic was about to happen and they couldn't help but feel like kids only knew interview to r.t. . explained what a russian christmas mass. and what makes it what distinguishes it from that one the catholic christians. everybody who wants to can go inside the cathedral and share the prayers with his holiness but ricky real and with other priests who are liberating with him and most of the people like not to go to the main cathedral but to their own parish going regularly to celebrate with their own priest to have. probably. celebration food after. the greek to. greet each you know at this point it's very you know merry christmas really.

all the difference in dates is because russian christians also talks christians celebrate christmas following the julian calendar named after julius caesar while catholic christians celebrated following the group korean war new calendar and that means. all the docs churches across the country celebrated thirteen days later than catholics on december twenty five previously the russians were also celebrating christmas as the rest of the world on december twenty five but it was before the revolution of nine hundred seventeen after that the holy day at all was banned throughout the country along with other religious celebrations and almost a century after that it was again celebrated publicly of course this doesn't mean that russians hadn't been celebrating christmas in those eighty years but it wasn't

made public and only after the collapse of the soviet union in one thousand nine hundred ninety one. christmas was again a public holiday for all of russia and today some eight hundred thousand mourners trees and churches are held to christmas vigils and more than turnout million russians are attending one apart from those services those vigils are taking place at the moment tell us more about how christmas is marked by russian orthodox believers. well of course it's not all about christian it's not about church vigil so many don't have an opportunity to get to the central moscow and to be able to get inside the temple to watch this leader and so many prefer to stay at home together want table with their family members to watch the slightest ceremony broadcast live on t.v.'s and of course there is a feast which marks the end of a forty day fast for all the docs christians it is believe though that you cannot start your dealer before the first star appears in the night sky which marks the

birth of christ jesus and after that there is the officially the start of the so-called christian tide which is two weeks for russian orthodox christians two weeks between christmas on january seventh and twenty on january nineteenth. it is known in russia and what is actually a traditional pagan holiday and was disapproved of by the church was still very popular with russians and he's popular nowadays ethnic songs and dancing and games and carnival state plays at this time but all this is of course the hand and these minutes russian orthodox celebrate gathered for a major mass for this lavish ceremony and many churches across the country to celebrate by far one of the most important for all christians across this major

commitment the birth of jesus catarina thanks very much indeed for that. in central moscow outside cross to save you cathedral by the way we'll be bringing you more on how russian orthodox believers celebrate christmas and you can watch full live coverage of mass in crisis if you can theater on our web site that's our dot com stay with us here on the news continues as i say will be bring you more on how russian orthodox believers celebrate christmas later and of course live coverage there on the web site r.t. dot com i'll continue now with the rest of the day's news an ice breaker off the far eastern coast of russia returning one of three ships stuck in freezing waters to safety through extreme weather a second vessel is trying to follow while the third remain stranded four hundred people aboard the ships which have been frozen in for a week now tom barton is following the developments. it seems that things are beginning to move maybe just slowly the ice breaker that's managed to smash

a path towards the ship stranded in the ice is now towing one of those ships out of its having been freed out of this search zone and they're going to try and hook up a second ship to that our team managed to contact the captain of one of those toads ships he said that currently everything is going ok but part of the icebreaker is telling us towards clear waters right now the situation is normal we are getting out of the ice one of the other ships trying to free us but was unsuccessful we are very happy we will be home soon we hope everything will be all right we're hoping to reach clear waters by friday night the third ship which is slightly larger has about three hundred people on board they think that at the moment they're not going to be able to pull it out with the existing icebreaker we're going to have to wait probably three more days preferred ice breaker to arrive all of this has been monitored from moscow and from all four it is locally and we spoke earlier to one

of the people at the federal fisheries off forty who has been monitoring the situation. with enormous effort and icebreaker reach the three vessels break in a canal through the ice that's towing one of the ships and they have started to leave the icy blockade they have been followed by another three stranded vessels one of the two ships arrive in a safe zone the icebreaker will return to the biggest of the three vessels the soldiers to mark this ship is actually bigger in size than any ice breaker so additional help will be needed to pull it out next to ice breaker is expected to reach the ship by january the ninth so as we can hear it's been a long process getting to these ships is going to be a difficult process getting them out but it is now underway this region the sea of a hot spot just off the far east of russia is known to be a difficult place for ships in the winter but that has been much aggravated by the weather conditions this year. ferocious gales and also very low

temperatures about minus seventeen at the moment in this region have led to a lot of ice forming up to eight meters thick in some places and that has simply truck ships in in case them other ships have also run into trouble on the first icebreaker that was sent there wasn't strong enough requiring this extra help that was sent on the ships themselves the crew that we've spoken to and reports that we've heard say that things are currently all right there's no immediate danger to the crew there's enough food and supplies for the moment but they just want to get out of this situation now and get on with their jobs so everyone has their fingers crossed is really looking to try and get these ships towed out. and the city of skyscrapers it's now piles of garbage that towered over the streets of new york residents are outraged a glamorous city is beginning to look more like a junkyard. dives headfirst into the big apple's rotten reality. 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 cross the street with a baby carriage or older people cannot even walk in with a 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 every very hard because the blood 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 gets 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 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 very upset about it it's gross it's ridiculous then a good enough job for taxes that we are praying for 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 forty new york. just remind you had to r.t. dot com for more news blogs and analysis and of course live coverage of the service taking place across the savior cathedral in moscow also there for you at the moment

estonia attempts to see the russian territory on a coin find out more about the controversy surrounding yesterday's new euro currency on the website. and russian scientists in this trip of tiny astral state humanity's quest for more distant from tears its space mites the paving the way for a mission to mars. was the site of the world's worst nuclear disaster but now that ukraine has plans to develop parts of the contaminated chernobyl zone for agriculture scientists believe that some plants have actually become immune to the radiation caused by the explosion at an atomic plant twenty five years ago but as artie's and reports not everyone is convinced products from the air should end up being sold in europe 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 sad about flora and fauna some say it is the absence of anthropogenic karma 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 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 in 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 you know 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. artsy reporting from chernobyl ukraine time now for some other international stories this hour police are investigating possible bombings at two separate government buildings in the u.s. state of maryland the first device was addressed to a governor in downtown annapolis while the second was sent to the department of

transportation forty kilometers away officials say the possibles didn't explode but caused a flash of light and smoke leaving the staff of open them with minor burns both buildings were evacuated. the white house report says bad management leading to failed safety procedures caused last year's oil spill in the gulf of mexico the industry to change the way it operates to prevent it happening again blasted a b.p. oil rig in april leaked millions of gallons of oil into the sea before finally being kept in july investigation found several other for this other b.p. were also at fault. in china twenty four children have been taken to hospital with lead poisoning caused by factories chinese media suggests at least two hundred children have high lead levels in their blood thought plants in the eastern province of and we have a course of the poisoning too in the area have been shot. to australia now predictions of more heavy rain there in the country flood water has

begun to recede in the northeast of the country where water levels in the city of rockhampton reached a peak that was lower than first fit hundreds of homes are under water with more than two hundred thousand people affected the floods of that at least ten people dead in queensland since november. two hundred ten people have died in ivory coast since november's disputed presidential elections the latest figures come out of fourteen more were killed during ethnic clashes when once up to two thousand additional troops to protect the headquarters of. the man internationally recognized as the new president blockade remains around the building despite west african envoys reporting that incumbent leader had agreed to lift it. show and. mystical messengers between humans and spirits they have been called upon for healing and spiritual guidance for centuries and it's an ancient tradition still alive in some parts of russia despite modernization causing a fall in the number of practicing sharman it's hard to short thomas travel to meet them. 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 way of life to put it there so that there are answers does always had a very powerful chime and around the neck to protected them gave them blessings and ensured security and safety in all circumstances and every day life on a journey and that's. a showman 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 shaman living in all of us want to live. with more i help people find faith in the fact that their wishes will be fulfilled their family relation is in conflicts that 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. 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 true unity with nature in the spirit i myself am from a remote northern region that will. trying to make the best of it all life is a delicate balancing act for the cuttin people. we are an interesting people when we are in trouble we do three different things at the same time we turn into a sham and we pray in a church and then make us more. matts is

a unique way of keeping a tradition that has been part of your couture for centuries even if it actually made us some protect what it created this spiral in the middle is a symbol of fire that made the warmth of the fire in your name protect you and may your three spirits be united the spirit of gloom the spirit of man and the spirits of the earth in your group here chant thomas r t well now back to the russian orthodox christmas we've been following celebrations as midnight mass vigils got underway in the past hour the church here follows a different calendar from the west marking the birth of christ on january the seventh and we've been bringing you live coverage of a vigil that's being held not only here in central moscow but in thousands of russian churches across the country and abroad and as you can see right now we're bringing you live coverage as live pictures of the midnight service taking place in christ the savior cathedral which is on the banks of the moscow river in the heart of the russian capital. this is russia's main orthodox church it's the tallest

orthodox church in the world by the way and here. it is holding up to ten thousand in the congregation along with the president and his wife and we saw a little earlier. and the ceremony conducted by the patriarch of moscow and all russia care all that's not him but. another priest at the moment taking part in the proceedings. and. carol not long been in the job he's the second patriarch since the end of the soviet union was in throne and as the head of russia's orthodox church on the first of february back in two thousand and nine. and as i said a little earlier the the church celebrates its christmas thirteen days after the majority of christians it's because it marks a religious feast using the older julian calendar whereas western countries use the

sixteenth century. come in this case your little confusing just joined us and seen christmas celebrations taking place right now it's twenty four minutes past midnight so christmas day has officially begun here. in orthodox russia. spectacular images and pictures of the ceremony taking place there. in the cathedral. which interesting enough finish construction in the year two thousand is would you believe just over ten years old. the original cathedral was destroyed on the stand ins order of the bolshevik revolution destroyed to make way for a monument to socialism and indeed became a public swimming pool but now as you can see it is the center of celebrations of orthodox christians throughout russia. on christmas day russia isn't the only country celebrating. christmas day today of the orthodox churches include macedonia

. and many orthodox christians around the world. no doubt tuning in to our coverage here to as they celebrate christmas moment. as now listen and enjoy the spectacle that's taking place across the city. but you. know. i usually hear we use mass issue of urea k.c.'s some i appreciate. ca's some way just. my lucille but you'd be up by. steve you're pretty good yeah. yeah just over. here. is probably very. pretty cheesed. every year.

and i was referring to him a little earlier that is indeed a picture of you also in russia. midnight showing the essential mosque in rome live coverage here i want to just remind you follow the mass on our website. don't come and of course we'll be back with more coverage of that christmas services being held in crisis even cathedral here in moscow at the top of the us stay with us here on hearty. thank. you.