the latest news and the week's top stories here in our t.v. russian led investigation concludes pilot error was mostly to blame for the plane crash that killed the polish president last year to call the internationally back finings incomplete. russian the u.k. look to the north sea oil giants ross nafta m.v.p. seal a multi-billion dollar deal to extract the untapped riches of the arctic together. and russian lawmakers approved a key nuclear arms reduction deal with washington ratified before the end of the month after a counterbalancing changes made by the u.s. senate to the new start treaty.

this is actually going to live from moscow i am here on marina joshie welcome to the program the report on the causes of the plane crash in western russia which killed president lech kaczynski last april has caused outrage in poland warsaw has launched its own probe in an attempt to prove some of the way weiss with russia the interstate aviation committee found the polish crew bad weather and pressure to land were to blame for the tragedy and he said now it has more. for the first time the last seconds are heard before a polish president lech kaczynski plane crashed down all on board. no no no no no.

the crew ignored warnings from the aircraft's automated system to pull up and advice from air traffic controllers to land at an alternate airport plus were inexperienced flying in bad weather the interstate aviation committee highlighted what they found to be the main causes behind the tragedy in their final report lesson of a failure to make a timely decision to land at the reserve airport based on multiple we coming day sions about poor weather conditions at smolensk airport descending lower than the safe minimum height necessary to make a second landing attempt failure to react properly to automatic amounts those are the reasons which led to the tragic crash of the aircraft into the land and the death of those on board. the findings also claim passenger pressure on the crew to land as soon as possible played a vital role in the incident here is evidence the crew was afraid of disappointing

someone if they didn't land. it's not clear whether the navigator was referring to the polish president or the commander in chief of the air force who was in the cockpit and later alcohol found in his blood poland was not satisfied with the draft report compiled by the i.a.c. which found pilot error was to blame and insists various factors at play caused the accident but aviation experts have confidence in the findings my experience with the russian investigators has been very good they're very high quality organization that i believe that it was the investigation was generally carried out in accordance with the international civil aviation organization annex thirteen which is the international standard for accident investigation who did russia have a turbulent history and it was hoped politics wouldn't cloud the investigation but i think what the what the polish. government wants to be able to present to the

polish people is that this was not purely the fault of the polish crew and that russia take some blame for it as well i don't think this is very much to do with the facts i think it's all to do with politics the case is far from closed as the next chapter to find those accountable for the tragedy is open and. the committee concluded that no single person can be blamed for the accident but now that the final investigation report has been delivered a criminal investigation can be launched and perhaps more light shed on the crash that killed the polish president his wife and most of the country's political elite and he's now a r.t. moscow the polish reaction to the findings was not all negative some found the conclusions fair and thorough artie's caterina's are looks at the political reasons behind the differing opinions. to bring closure to

a very painful chapter in recent russian polish history the final report has opened a pandora's box of doubt denial and political mind games from rational disbelief. of the investigation is incomplete the chicago convention gives us the right to settle on a joint conclusion of the opportunity to strive for the acceptance of our comments the convention guarantees us the opportunity for discussions to find a common ground and we plan to ask moscow for consultations that would lead to a joint report acceptable to both countries to emotional outrage. today we see the consequences in the shape of the reports blaming polish pilots and poland in general for this catastrophe and making it a one sided matter without any evidence we're dealing with speculation without any basis. but is this grief talking or shrewd political experience some believe mr kaczynski the twin brother of the deceased president and himself

a failed presidential candidate could be attempting to use this tragedy to his political advantage. in poland is hard for many reasons. and first of all we are approaching the parliamentary elections i am afraid that frankly speaking all of these. may. occur in their more heart and could be their main or one of the most important goals of contention between the major political forces well some of owning our political leverage in their sights others say the cause of the disaster is clear cut the. mistakes and failures were the reason that they were also. i would say. the.

mistakes and failures were the reason that both poland and russia have insisted on keeping this debate from influencing the recent fine ties but with the story far from over it looks like some in poland are keen to keep things for. polish newspapers and build their front pages with strong action minded words war against the report tossed curses the aviation committee we will find out the truth and so on but these headlines now that are how catchy are just words what actions the polish government will choose to undertake and how they will affect relations between russia and poland remains to be written. catherine as r.t.e. warsaw poland and every nation security expert chris yates as the investigation was thorough and carried out to a high standard. there is nothing more to be said quite frankly i think the. committee that did this investigation. job.

they found. that the primary blame should be. true. but you know there is more important law in the transcript of the conversations between pilots. during the. final approach to the aircraft into the airport. that is the new condition for this airport and quite frankly with that sort of information being given to the pilots the pilot should then made the judgment to follow traffic instruction transferred to another airport nearby where better visibility better conditions for the landing might well have persisted and coming up in the program here in our team nine years of pain and torture with no one side by doubt why the infamous u.s.

detention center in guantanamo bay is still open and what it's doing on cuban soil in the first place. plus we've got the latest are we respond originally in astonishment fighting extradition from the u.k. to sweden fearing he might eventually and out in an american prison. b.p. may be a lesson popular in the u.s. after the gulf of mexico oil spill but it's still doing big business elsewhere the british based all giant has secured a multi-billion dollar contract with russia's rosneft the two companies have agreed to explore and extract the vast untapped natural resources of the arctic or diesel or am it reports. it's a deal that both parties a calling a groundbreaking strategic global alliance russia's biggest oil company rosneft has signed a share swap deal with b.p. it's the first major equity linked partnership between a national and international oil company when it's done in five percent of b.p.

in exchange for a nine and a half percent share in the russian oil major ross next chairman deputy prime minister told r.t. it's the beginning of a new direction for the company. is working on a new strategy aimed at transforming the company into an international energy holding our deal with b.p. is of course part of the strategy they've gained a great deal of experience including the gulf of mexico oil spill cleanup operation b.p. has learned from this experience and our joint venture will be carried out with the greatest level of measures aimed at protecting the environment we've been working with b.p. for many years they're competent and have strong experience of russian companies the aim is that b.p. will team up to develop three areas on the russian arctic shelf that's potentially a lot of oil and gas down the which rosneft owns the license to exploit it's

a huge area around one hundred twenty five thousand square kilometers and it won't be easy to extract the resources the arctic the highly inhospitable environments and requires sophisticated technology and billions of dollars of investment but aside from the cash b.p. c.e.o. bob dudley says they've also got the life experience has been working with us now for twelve years now and we've been working on the arctic for since two thousand and five with ross staff working with our capabilities our expression capabilities and i think to be honest we learned a lot about what happened in the gulf of mexico shaken the company to the core we're going to really focus on safety and respond as. for environmental care what we do the russian government's behind the deal and prime minister putin says all parties are ready for the challenge but. i would like to let you know that the government of the russian federation supports this joint operation this is

a project that could become global and have a significant influence on the world's oil and gas industry russian's arctic reserves are estimated to be five billion tons of oil and ten trillion cubic meters of gas such a project may require tens of billions of dollars of investment and state of the art technology and we are fully aware of the recent home which is the optics a highly contentious area with many parties wanting a slice of the potentially lucrative piii but experts agree this deal will trigger a month but what lies beneath the exploration area that they're talking about is in the south car sea it's off the north coast of russia as far as i'm aware it's not territory that is disputed by anybody so i don't see this as being contentious in that sense it's being branded around the world as a breakthrough deal opening russia up to billions of dollars of investment now and opening a potential door to similar ventures in the future arguably this deal improves the

u.k. energy security and it also puts b.p. on a server financial footing following the massive losses it sustained from the gulf of mexico oil spill it's also a huge vote of confidence for the russian oil exploration industry you're at it's r.t. . and russian lawmakers have broad the new strategic arms reduction treaty with the us one step closer to rav occasion they gave the deal a green light during a second of three readings in the state duma the start treaty was signed between president obama last year and the two country's nuclear arsenals by a third it was ratified by the us senate in the sand after months of heated debate on capitol hill congressman. added several key changes forcing russian lawmakers to counterbalance that was a man meant to keep the tree intact to have a stadium as foreign affairs committee told r t there are fears washington could still to repeat zero agreements in the future. but they have been ready to break if . any further amendments or conditions unfortunately our american colleagues made

their own choice they amended the senate resolution just the very dramatically they left no other option but. our decisions on the twenty fifth of january and we are going to rectify the treaty as it is and. to add two more statements by the state duma. to be included in the british occasion document but this time i believe the risk is quite obvious on the american side that they will proceed with the strategic not regional but strategic. defense system small not the current president not the current government but probably the next president the next government which has a completely different strategy on this issue and in case it happens here so the

treaty may be damaged and yes there may in the conditions for russia to to pull out of this treaty but again we are not there yet and we still have time to to make better agreements and to avoid any misunderstandings and that will be. and you're watching are you going to live from moscow don't forget there's a lot more for you valuable in our web site twenty four seventh's but here's some of what's online right now at r.t. dot com. propagandised sunday january the sixteenth marks the twenty and it was your universe for your first gulf war but was it a fight to free kuwait or to secure access to the country's oil reserves take a look back at our site. plus an easy way of getting around during winter gerri sleds you glide through the snow or any other terrain check it out are you dot com .

and this week portugal's prime minister repeatedly insisted his country won't be asking for a bailout from the e.u. because it doesn't need one shows a socrates said the country was on track to restoring its economy and vowed to continue with strict stare any measures such as pension cuts and tax increases his comments follow speculation the portugal is next in line for a loan after greece and ireland the eurozone is currently in the grip of a debt crisis that is threatening the walks financial stability and exports to europe portugal's demise could worsen the spanish economy financial advisor marco pierre poly says a bailout wouldn't solve the fundamental flaws in the concept of the eurozone. this is not in any calling the way a final solution for the european debt crisis it is just buying time for these countries so that hopefully they will be able to get on control of their fiscal

situation and the markets will start to to believe in them again that they're able to service that moving forward in reality what's happening is burdening this country with. a lot more debt to service on the jury is still out. whether they can actually turn their fiscal position around over the next few years you can't save all the banks and save all the countries because at some point someone's got to all which is the other option which we've been pursuing so far is that we just carry on printing money and everybody carry on printing money and we end up with hyperinflation and most currencies then become worthless so at some stage someone's got to. but what we're doing is patching up patching up patch it up hoping that the issue's going to go away pushing the can further down the road the europeans have to start thinking about a complete reform of the european structure. several international envoys are taking part in a tour of iran to nuclear science despite many key powers including russia turning

down tehran's invitation russia's foreign minister sergey lavrov insisted such this is shouldn't be substitutes for official u.n. inspections western powers say the offer which was extended to representatives of manny members of the un's nuclear watchdog not the u.s. was an attempt to divide them there is international concern over iran's nuclear ambitions but insists its program is peaceful and the offer was merely a goodwill gesture that experts believe any attempt to cause a rift will ultimately fail to. do so from ever there has been a start in negotiations or talks or whatever and didn't have a doubt certainly there may be some people who thought that they could create the fish are already if but. they never managed to really break out. p. five plus one formula. the behavior for just shows once again that it doesn't work i think it's half expected such

a reaction however the iranians wanted to show two things to their own domestic public that this we are ready to negotiate you have to see it with a second step the iranians did it again it's their own public namely the blood. about their own newly achieved technological progress which is not true but again it sends a message to do circus inside iran who are highly critical of any engagement with the international community that both things iran can to solve confident and it wants to negotiate important. and this week marked nine years since the opening of the twenty first century's most infamous u.s. prison in guantanamo bay cuba the spy president barack obama's election promise to shut down the detention center is still holding and mates the prison has become a welcome mike and for human rights abuses and as john haas reports he was far from happy at having america's dirty work carried out on its soil. it's

a place forever immortalized by images of torture known by its abbreviation get america's notorious detention facility in guantanamo bay cuba has been the source of world condemnation where abuse lack of legal recourse and indefinite detention is the norm it's also been the subject of decades of strife with cuban authorities who argue the forty five square mile military base violates cuban sovereignty and amounts to a military occupation the greenland under which the u.s. has to be on cuban soil to kuantan a moment let's hear a piece. from earlier the earliest years of the twentieth century the plot amendment was imposed following the u.s. occupation of cuba after the spanish american war in one thousand nine hundred three was extracted from the then she'd been government under under threat under dress and in clear contravention of international laws like the vienna convention

the us government threatened to continue its occupation of cuba unless cuban authorities agreed to lease the land for america's military base indefinitely or for as long as it paid the cubans its yearly runs after the cuban revolution swept the island nation one nine hundred sixty it's revolutionary leader fidel castro cashed only one check and he insists it was an accident no checks have been cashed tents in protest no such she would never be signed today knows a treaty signed today would never be internationally recognized today the united states. will hunt down. and punish those responsible after nine eleven the bush administration swiftly turned its military base into a detention facility declassified documents show the u.s. government used cuban soil to evade national and international law to interrogate terror suspects a strategy journalist pepe escobar argues is convenience you can ship to cuba

and never bring them to the u.s. mainland and they are going to live there for ever in a state of legal limbo most of the remaining one hundred seventy three prisoners at guantanamo bay have been detained there since the facility opens nine years ago awaiting a trial. president obama recently signed away his right to bring detainees to u.s. soil making it unlikely that any of them will see a trial or freedom any time soon some argue the u.s. violates cuba's sovereignty for this reason because this is the only latin american country for the past over this past fifty years has said you know straight to the eye of the american government or as they would say the american empire a country cubans believe should give rights to its detainees and give back the land that's rightfully their is this our t. washington d.c.

the fans lawyers for we can leaks founder julian assange claim he could be sent to guantanamo bay or even face the death penalty if tried in the u.s. that's according to legal papers released on tuesday a lot of court has set a date for the hearing of a songes case for the beginning of february is fighting extradition to sweden over sexual assault accusations claims the charges have been fabricated in order to eventually prosecute him for espionage in the u.s. over their own niece of classified government documents why do you repeat m.p. told r t the case has become over politicized. i'm sure there's lots of political maneuver. the powers that be a very difficult position the americans want to get their hands on a sign that authorities now think the game's up people can see what the european arrest warrants are. quite know what they're going to dave are fairly confident that they're going to come up with come some kind of cynical fix that will allow him either to go back to australia or possibly to go back militarily to suakin if

some kind of deal is done about what charges will be laid against him but what they want today i'm sure is put to bed this whole pub media publicity about the european arrest because this is just this there are other legal instruments coming through which remove freedoms in other areas of life all down in the name of integrating europe's legal systems. the shooting massacre into sign arizona has led to calls for gun control laws in the us to be reexamined r.t.l. or harf and it's also known as the president took to the streets of new york city to find out how people feel about guns in today's society. do guns kill people or do people kill people this week let's talk about that i think it's ok you know god's not concealed weapons with a different. walk here in public with a gun is probably not a good thing but i don't have anything against hunting but about the argument that

you should be able to have a gun for protection you can use other objects for protection i think but what if the bad guy has a gun while sex for you is that possible in a violent society though. like politics you know people who don't agree with policies but you know there's things that need to be done and laws that need to. think politics or guns are more violent and deadly i think politics or. do you think it's something in you know a country's culture that promotes violence. and it could be. war at several places at that same time sweden is being. curious so i guess that makes it more. natural and to see. whether you think guns or people kill people i think we can all agree on the bottom line that violence is

rarely the answer. something to look at some other stories from around the world and tunisia has sworn in its parliamentary speaker as an interim president after weeks of widespread unrest forced the former leader from power as his first act in charge for a cold on the prime minister to form a unity government hundreds of security forces are patrolling the streets in an attempt to restore order and chaos and looting on the streets of the capital on friday president ben ali it fled to saudi arabia and officials say he won't return to office. the first official vote count from the sudanese referendum to decide whether the south will seek independence from the north has gone in favor of a new state ninety seven percent of the country's diaspora you were voted for session for results from inside the country will be announced at the beginning of next month it's hoped the vote will land a cycle of devastating civil war. in brazil troops have joined rescue workers in

the desperate search for survivors as floods continue to devastate the southeast of the country efforts are being hampered by renewed heavy rains more than six hundred people have died in what's become the country's worst natural disaster in forty years and we have national mourning has been declared for the victims. of police commander and his bodyguard have been kidnapped by gunmen in eastern mexico officials say the motive behind the abduction is unclear about it comes a day after a deadly shootout with a drug gang in the same state fourteen people were killed after authorities surrounded a property being used as a. house by alleged gang members thirty four thousand people have died in drug related violence in mexico over the past four years alone. well that's news for this hour i'll be back with a recap of our top stories in just a few moments don't go away stay with us.

on. this history still keeps its secrets but now it's time to reveal the city and the soviet functions house on the embankment on our team.