we've got the future covered. because the nuclear treaty between moscow and washington has given the go ahead by the russian parliament in the second of three readings. russian lawmakers are saying the new strategic arms reduction treaty will be ratified before the end of the month join us for the details later in the program. also this hour potent excepts part of the blame for last april's presidential plane crash but says it will still launch its own investigation claiming the official report is lacking. and the gaps in the legal system afghans are shipped to the u.s. to stand trial on terrorism charges despite no extradition treaty being in place.

with news from russia and from around the world this is r.t. in moscow the pivotal nuclear arms reduction pact between moscow and washington has passed another significant milestone on its way to becoming reality after russian lawmakers approved it in the second of three readings the treaties signed between presidents medvedev an obama last year has already been ratified by the u.s. senate and now needs a final say from the russian parliament from when a town in africa reports. this is the biggest treaty over it's going signed in the past twenty years went to the world's biggest nuclear powers will be significantly reducing the number of warheads thirty nuclear arms by a third and delivery vehicles by almost half and of course it's also very important step and warming relations within russia in the united states an exam an example for other nuclear powers to fall this example now back in april when the treaty was signed washing lawmakers helps that they were ready to ratify it in the form that it was right away but the unites united states senate was not that unanimous in its

decision barack obama's opposition in the senate wanted to sink down the treaty to make amendments to it and even though they failed to do so when vets are fired the t.t. back in to set late december two thousand and ten they attached a resolution to it that is worse eleven pages worth of remarks to the treaty and now question more makers counteract those remarks the resolution by the u.s. senate suggests that the treaty should not so restrict nato or the united states from deploying its anti-missile defense shield to europe however this is something that russia opposed to from the start russia always wanted to go with signing the streets you connect offensive and defensive nuclear weapons and to make sure that they too or the u.s. do not proceed with their plans of deploying a.m.d. to here without russia's participation so the resolution by the russian lawmakers

suggests that in case after rectifying the treaty the u.s. proceed with the plan that russia will be able to pull out of the treaty i believe . the american side of the they will proceed with the strategic not regional but strategic missile defense system small not the current president not the current government but probably the next president the next. reach has a completely different strategy on this issue and in case it happens yes of the treaty may be damaged and yes there may arise conditions for us to to pull out of this treaty books again we are not there yet and we still have time to make better agreements and to avoid any misunderstandings and there will be today in the second reading the documents war approved by the lower house of the parliament the last three d. will take place on the twenty fifth of january and after that it will be given to

the upper house of the parliament for the signing. of poland has acknowledged it's partly to blame for last april's plane crash in southeastern russia which killed president lech kaczynski and members of the country's political elite but also says the interstate aviation committee report is incomplete and now intends to carry out its own investigation and hopes to reach a joint conclusion with moscow poland's prime minister said he wishes the fallout from the charge of the won't damage his country's relations with russia the official report concluded pilot error of bad weather and pressure to learn from passengers being the main causes of the accident but poland claims russian air traffic controllers should have banned the plane from landing they were limited from the flight global magazine says warsaw may be trying to shift the blame but he can't find fault with the report. i think that the polish government is i think desperate to put at least some of the blame in somebody else's direction

but incidentally i completely go along with the russian verdict on the on the air traffic controllers powers incidentally the air traffic controller did not clear this aircraft to land he had with withheld clearance for the aircraft to land and he wouldn't have had permission to stop an international flight like this one anyway if it had been a russian air force aircraft the controller could have told it to divert an international flight especially of this status the controller would simply go along and do everything that he could to help the captain achieve a safe approach but it's a very very emotive happening for for the polish people however i can tell you this if they try to carry out their own report in order to allocate a little more of the blame in the russian direction i think apart from some minor technicalities they will totally fail to do that. one former polish m.p.

believes politicians in his country could use the tragedy to score points in the upcoming parliamentary elections. the political temperature in poland is hard for many reasons because of the social economic situation and first of all we are approaching the parliamentary elections i am afraid that frankly speaking very all this could firstly made. this debate of the election more court. and could be the main one of the most important bones of. contention between the major political forces and secondly that this could. negatively. impact on polish russian relations i'd like not to be a prophet. but such a. system. you with r.t.

will live here in moscow still ahead for you this hour back from the stars as three astronauts readjust to living with firmly back on the ground we get a chance to ask them all about life in orbit and. behold the giant woolly mammoth. coming up party from scientific discovery to artistic symbol of culture we'll talk all about the matter. but first afghan citizens seized from their home country shipped to america and locked up on charges of terrorism are now finding themselves standing trial in u.s. courts but with no official extradition treaty in place it could be america that's breaking international law. as this report. he's the hero of the streets of kabul and also the symbol of american injustice mohammad jawad was only twelve when he was captured and locked inside guantanamo seven years later he was found innocent and freed but the damage had been done and he has

a fair attack in society. he cannot talk write. anybody he want to sleep. all the time. he want to be a long karim was one of the few journalists to speak with jawad but now jawad lawyers say he's being threatened don't talk to journalists or we'll send you back but afghan authorities say they've had enough of american intimidation more than a new government in the doctrine of the constitution six years ago it was acceptable that american troops would soon afghans want tournaments but to date no wait that's according to the law it should have always been no way because there's never been an extradition treaty between afghanistan and the states not then and not now the basic thing when we speak about extradition is that there is a faced between two countries about the legal system it's very difficult for me to

see that there is a meeting between the american legal system with the afghan legal system and why should they be argues a recon when the afghan justice system is so corrupt the new constitution was adopted in general two thousand and four and while it allows kabul to enter into extradition treaties with other countries until today no such pact exists between afghanistan and the united states. the miracle in courts are different you know also afghans. who gain support afghans being tried and prosecuted by the united states. the implications are far reaching i guess afghanistan would be an easier country. for someone who has committed a crime or committed a crime that the united states wants to prosecute them for. to be without fear of being brought back to the united states for that issue but afghans argue justice is

still being served. during the last nine years we've had many cases with the united states where they ask for people we agree we've sent back many afghans accused of drug smuggling to face charges in the states. since two thousand and one there were new crimes in afghanistan drugs and terrorism to counter these kinds of problems the afghan government needed and wanted to cooperate with the international community but will that need and want translate into action every time because for as long as no extradition treaty exists they really can be no guarantee of justice between both countries r.t. karpal. russian nuclear experts will not be taking part in an invited talk of iran's nuclear facilities that's according to sources in the country's nuclear agency russian foreign minister sergey lavrov said that while tehran's initiative deserves attention such a visit should not be considered a substitute for official inspections all six party talks iran had invited experts

from the e.u. china and other members of the un's nuclear watchdog but not the u.s. to expect the facilities representatives to climate early this month western powers suspect iran wants to use its uranium enrichment activities to build a nuclear bomb iran insists it only wants to produce nuclear energy well let's get more on this now from dr walter posher is middle east research at the german institute for international and security affairs thanks very much indeed for joining us so the e.u. declined the offer this month and now it looks like russia isn't going either what kind of message is this sending to iran. well i think the more important message was the one iran sent out to the world it was i think the remains half expected such and such a reaction because there is nothing which can substitute inspections higher but the iranians wanted to show two things to their own domestic public that this we are

ready to negotiate we want to negotiate and negotiating actually is a good thing so transparency is something this is an important message lesser to what the international community but. the domestic public you have to see it but the second step the iranians did it again to which their own public namely to boost . the blast about their own new newly achieved technological progress which is not true but again it sends a message to do also of course inside iran who are highly critical of any engagement with the international community that both things iran can to solve comfort them and it wants to negotiate are important but they're also be yet another hidden agenda here where some with the western diplomats are saying that iran is actually trying to create a rift in the six party talks members by inviting some in fact only two out of the six were invited and then clearly snubbing the others would you agree that that could be an agenda. well that's an agenda that's all the time ongoing day

do so from ever there has been a start in negotiations or talks or whatever and it never worked out it never worked out so certainly there may be some people in iran who thought that they could create a fish or already if perhaps the are lucky but i think the remits dems are quite realistic now they never managed to really break out. five plus one formula. the behavior of russia and china just shows once again that it doesn't work and i think there is much realism on the arena side but you're right they try to use you saying earlier they're trying to prove to their own people that they are prepared to negotiate but of course it looks as if they're negotiating with the wrong people i mean on the one hand it looks like they're trying to be open about their nuclear ambitions but at the same time when they go in exclude for example the u.s. and other key countries like france britain and germany there's surely actually

being far more closed about it all than not achieving anything. oh absolutely the point is slightly different though and i think the iranians on one hand when they were spoke out this invitation they were very very fair off the fact that in fact it is them at the u.n. their relationship with us that counts ultimately because it's the one which are the driving motor of it the once the problems between iran and the u.s. are sorted out things can move on slowly but there are two messages first. never put think question be the principle of to negotiations and negotiations are of course p five plus one meaning also with the u.s. but on the second book again did try to see if their domestic atmospherics to domestic circumstances in which the government acts in order to be able to go with a better backing also better public backing to istanbul to the end of this month or

i can we talk about briefly obviously they are trying to send out a positive message but the same time there is definitely a lot of negativity in the message to iran sending out what hopes of you got for this forthcoming meeting in istanbul. well that depends very much on which perspective you look at it if you look at from the old days failed opportunities we have had in the past if you look at it strictly from the nuclear issue. has to be frustrated if you look at it however from the changes and from that uranium behavior we've seen so much from. i think one should go with cautious optimism into the negotiations. began as a certain issue only willingness to negotiate and sending. signals to what the international community is not a substitute for a negotiation that not the guarantee that no go she asians india will be successful

however there is a try and so much of so many times but the iranians big try sometimes to even try to hard but sending the right signal to the wrong time or the wrong signal at the right. isabelle intended but not good enough good to hear what you have to say on this thanks very much indeed we really appreciate it dr walter porche middle east research at the german institute for international and security affairs joining us in burning thank you. now to some other international stories this hour in our teacher newseum president ben ali has dissolved country's government and called for fresh elections in the next six months a state of emergency has been declared across the capital as police clash with thousands of protesters who demand the leader step down the president has already announced he will not run for reelection in twenty fourteen after a quarter of a century in office clashes over food and fuel inflation and high unemployment are left more than twenty dead rights groups say that sixty have been killed. the

victims of severe flooding that has left more than five hundred people dead in brazil are being buried in the southeast of the country rescue workers say that the death toll is likely to rise as are still struggling to reach remote areas cut off by mudslides thousands have been left homeless in what has become the country's worst natural disaster in decades. well having had time to climb times to life back on earth the most recent space meant to return from the international space station had been speaking about the out of this world experience. had a chance to quiz the crew of three about life in orbit. hundreds of people have turned up here today to welcome back the crew of t m a nineteen and it's the hundredth mission that's been to the international space station and i have all three of them here with me go to your chicken shannon shannon walker and douglas wheelock have all spent six months in space conducting experiments and doing maintenance to the space station and when they arrived here today they laid some

flowers at the statue of eureka current as it is fifty years since he was the first man in space so all three of you first of all you've been up there for six months what would you say you've achieved in your time in csma not six miles just a little less than six one of the facility just going to do it with you know it's an easy of. the four was a base in some ways unfortunately for. maybe a much greater if you're going to go. on to put in the us since me since i was six months in space pasts like just one day but they were lots of challenging and interesting tasks during that time one of the first was a problem with docking with the new russian module where we had to work to repair it for one and a half hours before we could actually dock with the i assess the crew showed firmness uncomfortable and acted like a real professionals also during one of the space walks some equipment broke the

work to repair it was really tough and one should praise the courage and professionalism of all the six crew members that were in space at the time we carried out lots of experiments and we're satisfied with the work being done. with . when he returned here today you were showered with gifts and flowers how do you rate the response you've received as it were back here on earth i think. quite overwhelming i mean it was a wonderful response. people star city are always so. yes ticking kind of way i think the best part about today was the schoolchildren that are here because what we do is for the future and they're. you know they're part of our future and so in their enthusiasm it's everything. just lastly a bit more of a somber note the u.s. congresswoman recently shot in early serving that gabrielle giffords was married to one of your fellow cosmonauts mark kelly and his brothers on the international space station as we speak how would you have

a comment about that sure well look of course we feel especially close to giffords because she is part of our nasa family as well and it is a tragedy although we've heard something encouraging words about her recovery coming out of arizona but for the lives that were lost really him senseless violence i believe it's you know the what happened in a small shopping center in southeastern arizona it really affects us all of course having spent some time with scott onboard the space station his twin brother mark is married to cover rio always feel especially close to that family and that connection so we're praying for her and we're. hoping for the best of outcome and so my all our only message would be let's maybe we think about peaceful discourse rather than the solution of things through violence because that's never a way to solve many thanks to all of you feel time and from everyone here at this

space center welcome back to earth thank you. so interests have long been fascinated with mehmet carrying out numerous studies to none all these experiments only been possible thanks to the siberian region where ninety percent of remains are found it was discovered mammoth is a big trade that making it in the jewelry business and even known for its meat. these artists are hard at work creating masterpieces from one of the earth's most rare and unique substances mammoth tusk. it has been a long tradition in you to make things out of mammoth task we know that from history in ancient times these things were taken by ships to russia and other countries so since we have these rich resources it is only natural that we should make things from this material. the use of ivory is a controversial issue as it has been linked to savage hunting techniques and dwindling elephant populations these practices have led to an international ban on

the ivory trade but the people of you have found a loophole of sorts leading them to say mammoth ivory is perfectly acceptable. mammoth task is fossil which cannot be restored have been dead for ten thousand years most of the fossils are in northern reaching us that's where the material is delivered from as far as we know a lot of these fossils are dug up but we are the only ones doing it legally because it is so scarce each year large expeditions are sent up north when there is a break in the weather to search for newly exposed tusks if you get during the. beaches surface and that's where we dig and this is you have to work with a shovel and pick axe. from a tree you think it's. in it with a special stick and realize that it's. the biggest with sixty kilos but they can be as big as one hundred and twenty or even one hundred and thirty kilos. did indeed roam the entire planet but ninety percent of the artifacts have been found right

here and that's because of the extreme weather conditions found here. to find their bodies largely intact. i took part in almost all the recent excavation projects i was the project leader my first big expedition was to the trans polar reaches of the river. we excavated an almost. man with a leg and a body of a wolverine when you're digging and suddenly see some flash or hair you get very excited what if you found a huge big mammoth in some instances the giant animals are preserved so well the meat itself is still edible. so a man with meat preserves its taste back in one thousand nine hundred ninety when we dug out of memphis leg we gave some pieces to dogs and they ate them of course both the taste and smell of the men must meet a quite foul and it's not advisable to eat it but there are some people who claim the eighty's and they were even pitches in some newspapers. though you shouldn't

expect to find mammoth meat on a menu any time soon the wildly popular giant animal is still contributing to the accordion society today from artistic creation to scientific research on the legend of the mammoth lives on in your qute sean thomas artie. a little later we go back to the u.s.s.r. to reminisce about music art and culture in this week's moscow but first dimitris here. that retreat so russia had its first week of trading how did it go that's absolutely right because russian traders were not very long holiday afternoon and when well the russian markets group three point four five percent the best emerging market the world will have more on that in a second first of all global oil demand is increasing at almost twice the pace of supply according to the u.s. energy department this is led to predictions well may reach peaks not seen since two thousand and eight west texas land is currently trading at just around well ninety one dollars

a barrel harry chilling garion from being pete berry parivar says there are fundamental obstacles to a prolonged oil rally. we're looking for a new trading range for w t i at least a level shift from last year in a loose eighty to ninety area and i know this is being tested right now but we see a number of fundamental obstacles before all prices could rally the way they did in two thousand and eight all right now what kind of oil prices are you expecting at the end of the year. but we're looking to average closer to ninety five dollars again we have to get over some obstacles as i was saying earlier we're looking at relatively elevated inventories in the o.e.c.d. countries we're looking at opec that has fair production capacity of six million barrels per day and of course we're looking at supply that's relatively decent heading into two thousand and eleven we'll see a lot of production coming out of russia colombia china and more importantly brazil so these are factors that we need to contend with before we could rise the way we did in two thousand and eight when spare production capacity was virtually nil

inventories were extremely low and the refining system didn't have the ability to refine what opec could produce than. b.n.p. pari bar there with their assessment the best performing asset class last year was precious metals and best among those was palladium but analysts believe the rally is not yet exhausted for this metal despite doubling in price in twenty ten forecasts from japan standard bank and credit suisse highlighted continuing demand from the water industry as car sales in china gain momentum metal is also being sought as best a safe haven amid european debt concerns in the us printing money the lady m. is currently trading at around well just under eight hundred dollars an ounce just off a ten year high bank predicts that price could almost double by the end of twenty one. take a look at the stock markets right now wall street is trading well flat to positive this hour the biggest jump in u.s. industrial production and rising retail sales are being offset by high inflation

and news that china is raising bank reserve requirements to try to cool down its economy. and your. stocks well mixed a vis our miners were largely low on we could commodity prices they are am holding this is gaining where the ground's five point three percent this after the results from intel on thursday. here in russia the closing figures who are riding with a slight correction but overall the week was very positive the my sixty three point four percent the r.t.s. around five percent making russia the best performing emerging market of the year to date but in more detail on that friday trade partners gold was among the losers on the my six down two point four percent as precious metal futures fell for the first time this week solar's outperformed the market on reports that the carmaker increased retail sales by thirty seven percent last year on the street the senate energy majors were trading in the red with gas from down point seven five percent. russian stock markets indeed came out strong in their first week of trade after the

prolonged new year holidays especially with one of its traditional drivers as well as a two year high sales traded john heinz will from citi bank explains to the stocks that were the main drivers i would say this week were luke oil and ross left these stocks and a lot of the large energy names in two thousand and ten lagged the market in general this week both of those stocks traded above key resistance levels and were able to hold those levels we saw quite a bit of demand and then one of the reasons why the russian market did so well this first week commodities were generally very strong crude oil held above the ninety dollars level. we've seen brant closing in on the hundred dollar level once again so i was very supportive for the russian market also metals were quite strong. so for now the headlines are next with bill but after a short break to stay with. the

. machine would be so much brighter if you knew about someone from first impressions .