those efforts to rescue the lost. also among the stories the. deaths so. far. apocalyptic theories some say science is struggling to come up with the answers. asylum policies under fire last year's string of terror arrests accusations that

lacks the blame for the spread of an extremist threat. and we report from iraq where people driven by the war make a landfill sites and then like. you all with r.t. as we're highlighting the top stories of the week and off today but first more than three hundred people are still awaiting rescue stranded on board of a ship that is in freezing waters off russia's far eastern karst it's the last of five vessels that became trapped in the ice more than a week ago. and is following 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 the 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. to all these three hundred crewmembers there is no immediate danger to them 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 cross 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 slowed down the rescue efforts. reporting that now it's been pounced on by conspiracy theorists puzzled scientists and it start up a media frenzy the alarming trend of unexplained mass animal deaths in different parts of the globe has still got everybody guessing it all started on new year's eve with reports of black birds falling from the sky in the american state of arkansas and then there were flocks of birds dying in sweden and italy and finally millions of dead fish from brazil to new zealand have triggered some free food online speculation experts have suggested a range of explanations from

a changing climate to parasites and poisoning conspiracy theorists a secret government experiments could be behind the deaths but some even claiming it's a sign of looming on again filmmaker and blogger danny schechter says media hype is taking the focus away from the real scientific courses. when one set of incidents happens followed by another set followed by a third set suddenly it becomes a trend then it becomes a much bigger story in the media but it's still sort of a mystery it may be that each example is actually specific to a particular local set of circumstances we don't know they're calling it. you know for a flock of birds coming up with new catchy words a new ad lives and the like obviously it's it's just something that intrigues audiences even if there isn't a lot of explanation it seems to be a pattern of this sort of thing where you have alarmist headlines followed by

a few examples which then you know lead to sober conclusions about the dramatic events region then there's no follow up for so you know if we really never find out what really happened and this is the in attention of the media maybe even the amnesia of the media the refusal to speak to the people who are most in the know because all of this is sort of titillation for the public and yet it could be a very serious. you are with and still to come in the program the misplaced hope of immigrants in the united states. they really have that american dream and check 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 and that ambition to work with the greatest possible but in reality getting a green card is only the start of an adventure which ends up making many people long for the life they left. mysticism with

modern technology armstrong thomas and coming up on r t we explore the world of the siberian shawmut. security is being tightened britain's main transport hubs fears of an attack of by terrorists on european countries authorities say they foiled several serious attempts that the wave of recent arrests is proof that coping you go to is going off reports now from austria where the asylum policies have come under fire for letting potential terrorists to walk straight through europe's front door. like many others small you would be and downs 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 it. we couldn't extremists in plotting attacks in the heartland of the european union and the ethnic chechen was detained at the airport in vienna as

. to mecca news about the incident went around the world or the streams really none of the locals seem to know much about it. we didn't hear anything about. i'm afraid i wasn't. 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 christopher has been personally following this case or and with only a voice recorder in no t.v. crew he was more successful in getting the locals to share. his with a really big population become unity with us so that people are 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 a suspect. so terrible what would his wife and children

really appear to be leaving an ordinary way if one of the most striking facts about this latest case is that the suspect has no hands he claims he lost the after being caught up in while in chechnya now 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 the green late last year as one of the most liberal asylum policies in the european union 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 we want to know from the government in how many cases they actually did as background checks to make sure that this people are not criminal or dangerous second in how many cases austria has received.

information from countries of origin and uncertain 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 belgium germany and the netherlands all suspected of recruiting so-called jihad list candidates in financing terrorist organizations it can be here in one year and it can be in any other town in europe in an effort to get more information asylum 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 unsequenced. policies of some of its member states still lie ahead. vienna austria. thousands of immigrants head to the u.s.

every year in search of a better way of life the u.s. government attracts newcomers through official visa lotteries granting them green cards but as artie's lorna lister reports for many people the quest for the american dream can turn out to be a grim reality. in the united states and here in new york every year countless people play the lottery. and touring for a chance to win for a mega million dollar fantasy and believing a few dollars and a dream could buy them so for the life of 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 owen 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 the jackpot with permanent residency the prize is not cash but green cards and this startling experience was due to about us 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 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 it within the foot in the. u.s. to hire. experts who work on immigration issues say lottery 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. i think that the united states is the place to put that skills those degrees and that ambition to war with the greatest possible return. when many find is maybe something no year already an ethnic neighborhood like this one that has southeast asian music restaurants and fashion what many struggle with is finding 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 goods . finding foreign degrees and experience don't count for many u.s.

employers these immigrants end up taking anything it means engineers and business managers and up as 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 do think it's the 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 our new york. from the image of the american dream at risk to a dream community in denmark facing the threat of being destroyed very briefly state of christiania it's coming under pressure from the danish government that's in just a few minutes here on our plus. blockaded

by. the sea left with little choice find out what palestinians in gaza are forced to turn into as they try to eke out a living. when defending its record and their. war the u.s. is quick to point to the tens of billions of dollars it spending on reconstruction but between rampant corruption and the grossed inefficiency poverty stricken iraqis say they see little sign of improvement to their daily lives it means many are forced to do whatever they can to scrape by sebastian my reports. 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 six acres of back that's trash to many this is just waste but for the families here this is not only their livelihood but also their home over two thousand people live on baghdad's landfill. 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 made from garbage people who threw the chain so we could see if it's iraq is still a wonderful place at least by god if you will treat him is gone and we have a new government but the situation much reliving and shocks america is 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 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 names family moved to the landfill and has been living there ever since too afraid and too poor to return home not only the american occupation turned iraq into a battlefield as well as showing 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 zero. 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 i fulfill a dream when i leave in fear i can't accomplish anything nothing good security if

you really want to go back home there's no work 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 can still better than living with sunni neighbors back home but until that is possible until american reconstruction dollars reach the quarter of a population that lives in poverty children like fatima will continue to collect trash in order to survive sebastian meyer r t in baghdad. now you can always check out the dot com for the stories we're covering and a lot more here's what's awaiting for you online right now. for the scene from our hollywood blockbuster but the training of russia's special forces is quite real and it takes blood sweat and years of experience to. finally cops on camera find out why the u.s. police are trying to stop being filmed by the public after

a number of scandals come to light those details at dot com. for centuries people over dreamed about a life governed not by money and power but by ideas of peace and freedom while one neighborhood in copenhagen sees residents living according to those ideals but now that utopian community faces being raised it to the ground if locals don't compromise on their principles. reports. i get tired of pushing papers around nine to five are you sick of posting to the government telling you what to do well then welcome to. a country where things get done by the people for the people it began

in one nine hundred seventy one when he pees in freethinkers squat in forming military barracks their aim was to build a society from scratch where the only government would be the residents themselves no home ownership no violence it's a co-op community forged by the fifteen hundred strong locals perfect for people like filmmaker knows best who has lived in christian yes since it was founded if you have this ability to administer yourselves then you also got bigger responsibility for your surroundings and that is something which is lost in large cities today for new this is the most peaceful and welcoming place you could find in denmark possibly in all of europe we want to keep up some of the virtues of the village where people know each other and also dependents and feel a responsibility for each other so what's their secret to peaceful coexistence people actually take responsibility for the area themselves they don't expect. an authority or some sort of guy from the from the city to come and take care of

things we would do it ourselves in fact christine he seems to be extremely attractive to mose danes a recent newspaper poll found one hundred fifty thousand copenhagen residents would love to up sticks and settle down in this year old utopia. such a lot of fairy tale atmosphere here and we have also saying you shouldn't know what's around the next corner that should be some kind of surprise unfortunately the biggest surprise right now comes from the city authorities who want to string the acts of christine mia the land is owned by the state and the state and the state can do anything about the land if they want to have more housing than if they want to. be possible to build something in the area of posting here that's the crux of the problem residents pay their taxes to the state and disservice speed to christian year but they do not own the houses they live in you're not allowed to make any money off your house and here the house is owned by christina and you live

there and rented from christine yet you can't sell it on because we don't want to speculate and interest and money in this place but that's something copenhagen city council wants to change by forcing residents either to buy out or move out even if we live in this house which we use many years to build up i'm ready to give it up if it has to be a fight against the privatization ideas i don't want christie added to be privatized for now the courts are deciding and although peaceful coexistence and tolerance are two of these communities cornerstones its residents refuse to bow to big brother without a proper fight it is. christine you copenhagen denmark. for many palestinians in gaza every day is like a life under siege it's been denied aid supplies and access to the sea by israel for years strangling the life out of the local economy and with unemployment at

forty percent many are forced to grasp at anything they can to provide for their families artie's pulis live reports. a group of gaza women are breaking new ground literally. they've signed up to work as ditch diggers to help support their families that have land and the work is very hard but life is even harder these women all the families breadwinners and with two out of three people unemployed in gaza the burden of responsibility on their shoulders is heavier than the shovels and they hands about that only my family has no one to take care of us and we need money and that's why i'm forced to dig. 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 than my has been tested 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 aid miller did have a family of twelve and there is no other way for me to meet grooving besides using this route with a multitrack future it is just so ice cream. they survived by selling cigarettes sweets and mobile phones madhu abu wider makes a living repairing watches looking at them with a goat who both found this job i prayed for it i mean. the non-handicapped people have trouble finding jump 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 allowed 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 police fear r.t. israel. right now it's just one in twenty four minutes past the hour here in moscow you with r.t. let's take a brief look now at some other major headlines from around the world six people have been and twelve others including a u.s. congresswoman were wounded after a shooting rampage in the state of arizona the gunman opened fire on a public meeting held by democratic gabrielle giffords one of her aides was among the dead as well as a nine year old girl and a district judge a suspect is now in custody. well authorities are looking for a possible accomplice. ballots in the sudan have closed after the first day of a weeklong referendum that could see one of africa's poorest and most troubled nations split into a christian dominated south is expected to vote for independence from the mainly

muslim north deadly clashes have marred the run up to the weeklong the vote is part of a two thousand and five peace deal which ended decades of civil war claimed two million lives and displaced nearly twice as many others. the u.s. court has ordered a social networking site twitter to hand over records on wiki leaks staff members and supporters the records sorting clude online activity messages addresses and bank account details the order has caused a stir within rights groups while wiki leaks condemned the move the government of iceland said it would lodge an official complaint. or they're seen by some as a mystical connection between humans and the spiritual world in some places in the past sharman were involved in almost all aspects of life from healing the sick to ensuring a good harvest now in times of financial crisis though the ancient cures are in demand as ever sean thomas has been weak has been to meet some of them rather in russia's far east. 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 protected them 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 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 through both 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 head certain posts with the engine symbols of the sharman adorning them standing right next to power lines from the modern world there's a contrast between the modern technology and aged mysticism 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 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 an interesting people when we're in trouble we do three different things at the same.