in israel which is available in some of the. hotels your recent. the latest news on the week's top stories here in our team a russian lead investigator concludes that pilot error was mostly to blame for the plane crash that killed the polish president last year but worse the calls internationally back finings incomplete. russia and the u.k. look to the north as all giants rosneft and b.p.c. are multi-billion dollar deal to extract the untapped richness of the arctic to gather. and russian lawmakers approve a key nuclear arms reduction deal with washington they'll ratify before the end of the month after counterbalancing changes made by the u.s. senate to the new start treaty.

this is the line from moscow i'm marina joshua welcome the report on the causes of a plane crash in western russia which killed president last april has caused outrage in poland warsaw has launched its own probe in an attempt to prove some of the blame lies with russia the interstate aviation committee found the polish crew bad weather and pressure to land were to blame for the tragedy. and he's now a has more. for the first time the last seconds or heard before polish president lech kaczynski plane crashed newsman downscaling all on board. the. who 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. a failure to make a timely decision to land at the reserve airports based on multiple becoming day sions of 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 blind poland was not satisfied with the draft report compiled by the i.o.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 and actually team which is the international standard for accident investigation who did russia have a turbulent history and it was hoped politics one car of the investigation i think what the what the polish government wants to be able to present to the polish people. were. 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. but polish reaction to the findings was not all negative southbound the conclusions fair an authority artie's catalinas are looks at the political reasons behind the differing opinions. state of bringing 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. the investigation is incomplete the chicago convention gives us the right to settle on a joint conclusion and 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 called for many reasons. and first of all we are approaching the parliamentary elections. frankly speaking of all these. moral court and could be the main or one of the most important battles of contention between the major political forces while some of the 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. the. mistakes the failures were the

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

blame should be. truth. you know there is more important line in the transcript of the conversations between pilots. during the. final approach of the aircraft into the airport. there is new condition for this airport 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 might well have persisted and coming up here in our nine years of pain and torture with no end in sight find out why the infamous tamzin center in guantanamo bay is still open and

what it's doing on cuban soil in the first place. because we've got the latest founder julian assange is fighting extradition from the u.k. to sweden fearing he might eventually end up in an american prison. and b.p. may be less than popular in the u.s. after the gulf of mexico oil spill but it's still doing big business elsewhere the british based oil giant has secured a multi-billion dollar contract with russia's ross now the two companies have agreed to explore and extract the vast untapped natural resources of the arctic artie's lore and it reports. it's a deal that both parties are calling a groundbreaking strategic global alliance russia's biggest oil company has signed swap deal with b. . 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 night in 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 charcoal and they know our capabilities are 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 focus on safety and response from the technology for their environmental care what we do the russian government's behind the deal and prime minister putin says all parties are ready for the challenge. 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 risks and. the optics the highly contentious area with many parties wanting a slice of the potentially lucrative pie but experts agree this deal will trigger a month but what lies beneath the exploration area talking about is in the south korea's 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 sense it's being branded around the world as a breakthrough deal opening russia 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 o.t. . and russian lawmakers have brought the new strategic arms reduction treaty with the us are one step closer to ratification they gave the deal a green line during a second of three readings in the state duma the surgery was signed between president and obama in april last year and should slash the two country's nuclear arsenals by a third it was ratified by the u.s. senate in december after months of heated debate on capitol hill congressman added several key changes forcing russian lawmakers to counterbalance those amendments to keep the treaty intact to have a state duma's foreign affairs committee told r.t. that the us is responsible for the lengthy ratify. process constantine cause the child also expressed fears washington could tear pito the agreement in the future for the amended with the senate resolution just the very dramatically

they left no other option but to amend our decisions on that mean to feel of january and we are going to. be treated as if these. two to add two more statements by the state duma. should be included in the british . document. my believe the risk is quite overt 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 yes the treaty may be damaged and yes there may in the conditions for us to to to pull out of this treaty but again we are not there yet and we still have time to make better

agreements and to avoid any misunderstandings and that will be our invasion. and watching r.t. live from moscow don't forget there's a lot more on our website r.t. dot com twenty four seven from your table there but let's take a look at what's there right now. gulf propaganda sunday january the sixteenth marks the twenty year anniversary of the first gulf war was it a fight to freak away or to secure access to the country's oil reserves take a look at our web site. plus an easy way of getting around during winter a crab gerry's lets you put lights through the snow or any other terrain check out our. 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 there's a socrates said the country was on track to restoring its economy and valid to continue with stricter staring 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 to block financial stability and experts fear portugal's demise could worsen the spanish economy financial advisor marco pierre probably says a bailout would solve the fundamental flaws in the concept of the eurozone. this is not in any kind a 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 in control of their fiscal situation and the markets will start to to believe in them again that they're able to service their debt moving forward in reality what's happening is burdening this

country with these countries a lot more debt to service and the jury is still out on 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 fail but what we're doing is patching up patching up patches up hoping that the issue's going to go away pushing the can further down the road the europeans have to start thinking about complete reform of the european structure. and several international and boys are taking part in a tour. iran's nuclear sites despite many key powers including russia turning down to iran's invitation russia's foreign minister sergei lavrov insisted such visits shouldn't be substitutes for official u.n.

inspections western powers say the offer which was extended to representatives of many members of the un's nuclear watchdog but not the u.s. was an attempt to divide them there is international concern over iran's nuclear ambitions but iran insists its program is peaceful and the offer was merely a goodwill gesture but 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 a fish or or rift but. they never managed to really break up. the peace five plus one formula. the behavior of russia and china 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 but the second step

the iranians did it again to which their own public namely the blast about their own 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 be solved comfort them 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 despite president barack obama's election promise to shut it down the detention center is still holding inmates the prison has become an unwelcome i can for human rights abuses and as john hodges reports he was far from happy at having america's dirty work carried out on its soil. its 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 green under which the u.s. has to be on cuban soil to kuantan ammonia literary piece. from earlier earliest years of the twentieth century the plot amendment was imposed following the us occupation of cuba after the spanish american war in one thousand nine hundred three was extracted from the den tube and 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 it's nearly 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 sense in protest no such she would never be signed today knows a treaty signed today would never be internationally recognized. 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 convenient 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 right fully there 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.

according to legal papers released on tuesday a lot of court has set a date for the hearing of a scientist case for the beginning of february and he's fighting extradition to sweden over sexual assault accusations assad claims the charges have been fabricated in order to eventually prosecute him for espionage in the u.s. or the release of classified government documents while european m.p.'s told our team the case. has become over politicized. i'm sure there's lots of political maneuvering inside the powers that be a very difficult position the americans want to get their hands on or silenced authorities now think the game's up people can see what the european arrest warrants are about me. so my guesses are quite know what they're going to do fairly confident that they're going to come up with come some kind of cynical fix that will allow him are there to go back to australia or possibly to go back one terribly to sweden if some kind of deal is done about what charges will be laid against him but what they want to do i'm sure is put to bed this whole problem

media publicity about the european arrest because this is just this there are other legal instruments coming through which remove our freedoms in other areas of life all done in the name of integrating europe's legal systems british m.p.'s have warned tales of thousands of asylum seekers are untraceable after a home office blunder one in seven may be left to live illegally in the u.k. because the border agency has built up a backlog of unsolved files robin simcox from the center for social cohesion says e.u. regulations make managing the situation near impossible. britain has essentially lost control of who is coming into the country and once you can secure your borders you can't secure your country and this is a outrageous situation that's about to develop i think is a huge problem with the brits inability to deport generally. being part of the european union we often call and deport people but country of origin because it may

contravene the european convention on human rights on top of this there is a systemic problem where the huge backlog of cases and we have something like a haul for a million backlog of cases simply can't be processed and can't be dealt with quickly enough so you have a lot of people and that's immigration last year into the u.k. was around two hundred thousand people more coming to the u.k. than leaving it. on top of the asylum seekers and the backlog and of course we're going to have a massive problem we just need to be much much stricter criteria on who should be allowed into the u.k. and i don't think we've got it in control in anywhere near enough because it is. i started to look at some other stories from around the world and tunisia has sworn in parliament speaker as interim president after weeks of widespread unrest forced the former leader from power as his first act in charge. of the prime minister to form a unity government hundreds of security forces are patrolling the streets in an attempt to restore order and they were looting of the streets of the capital on friday

president ben ali fled to saudi arabia and officials say he was returned 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 in europe voted for secession full results from inside the country will be announced at the beginning of next month it's hoped the vote and a cycle of devastating civil war. and brazil troops have joined rescue workers in a desperate search for survivors as floods continue to devastate the cell. east of the country after its are being hampered by renewed heavy rains and 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. a police commander and his bodyguard have been kidnapped by gunmen in eastern mexico officials say the motive behind the abduction is unclear but 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 safe 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 to be back with a recap our top stories in just a few moments i'm going. to .

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