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a rescue is underway on russia's far east coast as ice breakers try to save hundreds on board the last of five vessels that became stranded more than a week ago. the end is now in sight to this very difficult and drawing sea we'll bring you all the details in just a moment. also among the week's main news the unexplained mass deaths of birds and fish around the world feels good to focus it but some experts say it's sensation

hungry media is refusing to that side speak up. the string of terror linked to arrests across europe raises concern that the news and background checks for the teen extremists in. the immigrants in the americas and work visa lottery are getting the green card he's leading that suit read it will help to adapt to their new home. with r.t. and this is our weekly news of you welcome to the program. but first more than three hundred people stranded on board a ship in the freezing waters off russia's far eastern coast are still awaiting rescue it's the last of five vessels that became stuck more than a week ago when they became trapped in the ice. bottom has more on the rescue mission. the operation is now in its final stages or at least approaching them

there are two ice breakers currently trying to get ready to tow out the last of these ships on december thirtieth the first ships became stuck there in the ice at the height of the drama there were five ships stuck in the ice two of those managed to get free themselves two of them were towed away and now we're left with just one the largest of the ships with three hundred people on board and it's required these two ice breakers to come together to try and move it the last ship stuck in the ice is a supply ship used to resupply the ships at sea so it's obviously a very big ship one of the other ships being towed away now the will be ready to to start that operation they've been there obviously for over a week now. all these three hundred crewmembers. there is no immediate danger to them there they're in an ok state we managed to talk to the captain earlier and he told us about his hopes everything depends on the weather when the wind comes

down the rescue operation will become quicker right now the crash an icebreaker is on its way here we have enough water and food supplies that can last us for four months. it was the weather that really caused all of this crisis in at the beginning very cold temperatures for the season about minus seventeen degrees and a lot of very high winds have created ice formations very fast and very thick ice which made all the ships get trapped in the first place and then slow down the rescue efforts. live from moscow this is r.t. and later in the program we report from iraq's slums quickly to scavenge for illegal life in junkyards untouched by the billions of american dollars being pumped into the countries in construction. and where in gaza where just the whole population remain unemployed struggling to feed their. family's despite of israel's

claims to ease the blockade. a series of mysterious mass animal deaths around the globe have been baffling scientists and stone speculation the first incident to be noticed was when that birds began falling from the sky in the american state of arkansas. then flocks of birds dying italy as well and fish into new zealand triggered some far fetched online guesswork. calls range from pollution to signaling the beginning of the end of money based that this various told up to it's happened before and they thought it best a geisha is needed. it's impossible to say for sure what's happened to the birds and fish until proper investigations are held in fact i don't believe that these events are interlinked they followed one after another and that attracted universal attention it's not the first time that the world is observing such phenomena it's happens in other countries too at the moment the investigation in arkansas claims

or not topsy has revealed the bird suffered from internal bleeding but the research is yet to be completed we could also be dealing with some new virus or so you believe is another possible explanation but i repeat that flu investigation is needed to establish the cause of what's happened and find a scientific explanation for it. security is being tightened britain's media transport hubs it's the latest in a series of measures european nations increasing fear and terror attacks authorities say the while several serious attempts at the way to recent arrests is proof they're coping to say go to school for ports of austria wondering how terror suspects managing to walk straight through news front door. like many other small you would be and downs nuclear genie in southern austria seems quiet and peaceful while never judge a book by its cover. one of its residents is now under arrest suspected of being

the brains behind. recruiting extremists and planning attacks in the heartland of the european union an ethnic chechen was detained at the airport in vienna. to mecca news about the incident went around the world or streams none of the locals seem to know much about it i wouldn't hear anything about it. i'm afraid i wasn't for this. i know nothing about it and i don't care some didn't want to be filmed at all but was it really because of a lack of information. and the deputy chief of one of australia's biggest newspapers has been personally following this case or and with only a voice recorder in he was more successful in getting the locals to share. his with a really big population become unity with. a sinking what what what

comes next i mean this is just my neighbor he was here with me and now he has his arrested because of her suspect. terror plot with his wife and children really appear to be leading an ordinary life one of the most striking facts. is that the suspect has. he claims he lost the laughter being caught up in violence in chechnya well investigators are looking into or no other version whether his hands off while handling explosives this is raising questions all austrians hell well asylum seekers are checked before getting it as one of the most liberal asylum policies in the european union and last year alone the country received over fifteen thousand refugees from across the world with such an inflow of newcomers is becoming increasingly hard to find out who is who you. want to know from the government in how many cases they actually did this background checks to

make sure that this people are not criminal or dangerous second in how many cases austria has received. information from the countries of origin. and search in how many cases asylum seekers actually have been refused the latest arrest is part of a massive police operation targeting an alleged extremist network in late november twenty six people were detained in germany and the netherlands all suspected of recruiting so-called jihad just can't get it in financing terrorist organizations it can be here in. and it can be in any other town in europe. to get more information seekers the e.u. is no making deals with countries of origin including russia but many experts warn with hundreds of thousands of refugees already living in the union because

sequences of policies of some of its member states still lie ahead. vienna austria. still ahead few fruits of a diseased soil ukraine plans to tell anything surrounding the chernobyl disaster zone. scientists claim it's harmless that's saying something since the trouble. the us is pumping billions of dollars into regenerating iraq but with thousands they're still living below the poverty line and have yet to see any movement in living standards starting sébastien by our ports some are forced to live in dumping grounds scavenging through waste just to earn a few dollars. at seven am every morning fatima crouch is outside her house and along with her sister and cousins begins to sort through garbage displaced from southern iraq that miss family is too poor to send her to school and so she works

eight hours a day sorting through baghdad's landfill collecting plastic and metal that will be shipped abroad for recycling a reward for carting forty pounds of trash around two dollars and fifty cents behind me says acres of baghdad's trash to many this is just waste but for the families here this is not only their livelihood but also their homes over two thousand people live on baghdad's landfill are. making their homes out of the garbage that the rest of the city throws away there's no running water or electricity and certainly no access to medical treatment if someone gets sick they have to be taken to hospital the same way they get drinking water by donkey cart can you believe in iraq you would live in a shack meat from garbage people who threw the change so we could see that iraq is still a wonderful place by god if you will treat humans gone and we have a new government but the situation was reliving in shacks america spending fifty

three billion dollars on the reconstruction effort in iraq but the residents of our jet haven't seen a dime of it what they have seen though is the sectarian violence the drove them from their home five years ago. we used to live in abu ghraib you know then america came the war increased in iraq people started killing each other and so we fled because we were freed in two thousand and five gnomes family moved to the landfill and has been living there ever since too afraid and too poor to return home only the american occupation turned iraq into a battlefield as well as sowing the seeds of political corruption how can americans stand back and watch without intervening in this situation everybody knows about the failure of the iraq economy this is having a terrible impact on the ground. both socially and economically. experts worry about the children who grow up too poor to go to school without an education and they're easily preyed on by criminal gangs and terrorist organizations who lure them with money and promises of a brighter future. how can it fulfill

a dream when they leave in fear i can't accomplish anything nothing good security for everyone to go back home if there is no work we only need security that's it iraq remains a very dangerous place where kidnappings and murders are part of daily life for these families living on a trash heap is still better than living with sunni neighbors back home but until that is possible until american reconstruction dollars reach the quarter of a rexx population that lives in poverty children like that will continue to collect trash in order to survive sebastian mire r t in baghdad while the us piles billions abroad is leaving the tool in the u.s. for those in choose to make america the new home thousands of immigrants who secured the sought after green card finding being sidelined in the store explains their education and experience is being ignored condemning them to a life of them paid work. in the united states and here in new york

every year countless people play the lottery. and train for a chance to win or a mega million dollar fantasy and believing a few dollars and a dream could buy them so for the life a ticket that could change their lives every year more than ten million people also play a different kind of lottery and fifty thousand when i meet one of them my name is on one gemini and her husband teenage son and seven year old daughter you see here . are immigrants from nepal they entered and won the united states diversity visa lottery this lottery is a congressional mandate. it's supposed to be an opportunity for people to come to america from countries with historically low rates of immigration jackpot with permanent residency the prize is not cash but green cards and this startling

experience was due to a lot of we had to start from scratch from zero once we got here two years of struggling with joblessness after finding their education in nepal doesn't count in the u.s. setbacks they never expected this to we didn't know people used to say you're educated it will be easy america's a big country with a lot of facilities life will be better but in reality everything they've put in. yes to hire. experts who work on immigration issues a lot of the winners really are given no resources from the government that invited them here and the struggles of jimena and her family are not unique for most people we have encountered it's been very difficult they reflect a group of immigrants who come to the u.s. not because of a job lined up or a family sponsoring them but for many because of the vision of what they can achieve they really have that american dream of coming to the u.s. they know that they've invested in their education and they think that the united

states is the place to put that skills those degrees and that ambition to work with the greatest possible return. when they find is maybe something though yesterday of an ethnic neighborhood like this one that has southeast asian music restaurants and fashion many struggle with is finding the economic opportunities that are any better than what they had in their home country or even finding jobs that allow them to survive here we're seeing a lot of the downward mobility of immigrants and often very highly qualified and. finding foreign degrees an experience don't count for many u.s. employers these immigrants end up taking anything it means engineers and business. managers and up his cab drivers and cashiers according to a study two out of five ford educated immigrants are either in this situation or unemployed all together it's an american dream they want to wake up from if you got if we had known this we wouldn't have come life was much easier in my country

people who see their plight firsthand argue the government should help more i don't think it's a state department's responsibility and i think that the united states is going to lose out relative to other countries taking that step possibly losing out to countries such as canada and germany unless they make sure winning the lottery actually pays off lauren lyster r.t. new york. well so have we dive for cover on the outskirts of moscow. red light to go through a link in a voice over explains that moscow is being hit by a ten megaton bomb that's amazing most of the city of the say even though you know this is just part of the visit to the bank it certainly feels very real to. update now on some of today's world news where u.s. congresswoman has been seriously wounded after being shot in the head outside a grocery store in the state of arizona six others were killed in iraq pages

democratic are real good foods was getting voters she said to be in a critical condition aides was killed in the carnage as well as. police have arrested a twenty two year old man over the shooting. but he is on the way in southern sudan in a weeklong referendum that could see one of africa's poorest and most troubled nation split into the christian dominated south is widely expected to choose independence from the main. clashes on the run up to the recall about. two thousand and five steel which ended decades of civil war that claimed two million lives displaced twice as many. and police in mexico found fifteen headless corpse is outside a shopping center. among more than two dozen bodies discovered handwritten signs were there thereby indicating the deaths were related to rival drug wars victims were all men. it's now two years since israel's military offensive on gaza

life is still better for its residents israel says it's easing the blockade of the region but unemployment is still around forty percent forcing people into innovative ways to make a living party's point. a group of girls a woman up breaking new ground literally. they've signed up to work as ditch diggers to help support their families that right then the work is very hard line. it is even harder these women are they families breadwinners and with two out of three people unemployed in gaza the burden of responsibility on their shoulders is heavier than the shovels in their hands. that only my family has no one to take care of us and we need money that's why i'm forced to dig plants. three hundred women have signed up their dig holes for water reservoirs on farms in gaza and the pay little more than fifteen dollars a day hard work for private construction game and better that my husband has to

provide for two families seen people if i don't do this work then what will i be left with probably not very much which is often the fate of thousands of gazans left disabled from israeli operations they too have no choice but to work in order to survive. i have a family of twelve to feed and there is no other way for me to me go even besides using this route with a multitude of future it is so i scream. they survived by selling cigarettes sweets and mobile phones madhu abu wider makes a living repairing watches. with a goat who both found his job i prayed for it i mean. the non-handicapped people have trouble finding a job in gaza today at the end of december it was two years since the last israel gaza war since then border controls in and out of gaza have been eased and more

goods allow to pass through but many gazans complain it's done precious little to improve their lives in the next few months the number of trucks going into gaza is expected to reach four hundred four times what it was two years ago but gazans still cannot cross into israel and their economy remains idle. r.t. israel. check out r.t. dot com for more on the stories we're covering as well as blogs with years and much more here's what's just a click away today rediscovering resumes beauty. numbers of tourists coming transpire the country's picturesque landscape sightseers replace soldiers from georgia. also how israeli army secrets are now squak away us troops in the shadow social network sites. details on.

if. you might not think of the contaminated chernobyl landscape as fertile ground cranes plant developed parts of it for agriculture scientists are divided some of the crops there are the radiation caused by the disaster twenty five years ago. and with the risk of it. takes up the story 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 harm in the church noble exclusion zone which made nature develop here rapidly after the one nine

hundred eighty six fallout ensure nobile 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 are able to grow. at the very beginning of the earth when life started. on the surface so. how 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 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 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. alexi russia ski r.t. reporting from chernobyl ukraine. where it's only a few decades since much of the world feared total annihilation with a soviet and america tonic superpowers hovering over the red button and today many countries including russia lead the charge to get rid of nuclear weapons but reminders of those don't they still exist as peter one of reports ah it's a door like no other designed to stop a nuclear blast is it here doris was a pretty big thing as a shock wave or one of her stray but here's

a way to board one point five goals are the same as the interest was current was a mix of myself was it has a war sickness about six meters or frame force of corporate if you had been lucky enough to escape the initial explosion inside or enough food in air to last about two weeks it was to command and control all the. surface forces and nothing more. but you know what sixteen days later nuclear war all fires in the radiation level decreased as a level where when you can walk and breathe in special protective suits those stationed at the shelters would have had less the ninety seconds to put on a suit should radiation be detected inside and i can tell you that they aren't easy to get on in a rush stock nor are they particularly comfortable to wear. it's

not just these purpose built facilities they were designed to protect in case of a nuclear attack one of moskos iconic landmark is also there to protect the biggest shelter in a war that has a mosque or metro system the station is. constructed as a bunker and it can see through eyes of people who is. inside. strike the museum prides itself as being very hands on encouraging visitors to reach out and touch the past which. it's not like an ordinary medium where nothing can be teched here on the contrary everything can be taxed is just going to hold in a hands or where the equipment needs when the bank was operational. the complex extends kilometers underground creating a rapid war and below the streets jam packed with people comes here deep underground visitors to the bunker get

a chance to experience what it would have been like if moscow would ever being hit by a nuclear attack and this facility how to beat the red lights are staying out the sirens wailing and a voiceover explains that moscow is being hit by a ten megaton you kill a bomb decimating most of the city i have to say even though you know this is just part of the visit to the bank it certainly feels very real peter all of a r.t. moscow. georgia's capital with its centuries of history is currently undergoing a make over while the authorities are trying to see it ultra modern european style city locals say it's wiping out the city's heritage next hour sarah ferguson behind the new facades discovering how the superficial innovations putting their own town danger of destruction. back into the headlines after a short break to stay with us here.