the latest news on the week's top stories here on r.t. a russian led investigation concludes that pilot was mostly to blame for the plane crash that killed the polish president last year but was internationally backed findings incomplete. russia and the u.k. look to the north as oil giant. b.p. multibillion dollar deal to a struct untapped riches of the arctic together. and russian lawmakers approve a key nuclear arms reduction deal with washington. before the end of the month after balancing changes made by the u.s. senate to the new start treaty.

with the top stories of today and the week this is the weekly on r.t. now poland has questioned the conclusions of a report into the causes of a plane crash in western russia which killed president lech kaczynski last april warsaw has launched its own investigation now aiming to prove that some of the blame lies with the russian air traffic controllers are now reports now on what the interstate aviation committee found in its investigation. for the first time the last seconds or heard before polish president lech kaczynski his plane crash near smolensk turned on board.

the crew ignored warnings from the aircraft automated system to pull up and advice from air traffic controllers to land at an alternate airport plus were inexperienced in flying in bad weather the interstate aviation committee highlighted what they found to be the main causes behind the tragedy in their final report you know where my failure to make a timely decision to land at the reserve airports based on multiple becoming 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 a magic amongst 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 concert. in the findings my experience with the russian investigators has been very good they're very high quality organization and i believe that it was the investigation was generally curat out in accordance with the international civil aviation organization and which is the international standard for accident investigation who did russia have a turbulent history and it was hoped politics will card the investigation 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 no point. 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 cross that killed the polish president his wife and most of the country's political elite and he's now a r.t. moscow. but it wasn't all criticism from the polish side some found their conclusions by the interstate aviation committee fair and thorough. explains why.

stead 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 but back if they let up on 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 motional outrage. but today we see the consequences in the shape of the report blaming polish pilots in 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 with all these. may this debate. morakot and could be the main or one of the most important battles of contention between 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. of the.

mistakes and failures of the reason that both poland and russia have insisted on keeping this debate from influencing the recent fall in 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 plus curses the aviation committee we will find out the truth and so on but these headlines that are 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. well evolution security expert christie gates told us here at r.t. that he doubts any new investigation will lead the polish side to a different conclusion there is nothing more to be said quite frankly i think they

. the committee that did this investigation has done next job and they've they've they found what they found which is that the primary blame should be one of the truth. you know there is more important lie in the transcript of the conversations between pilot and ground during the. final approach of the aircraft into the airport and that is that there is no condition for landing at this airport and quite frankly with that sort of information being given to the pilots the pilot should then have made the judgment to follow traffic instruction and transferred to another airport nearby where better visibility better conditions for landing might

well have persisted. you are with r t coming to you live from moscow and still to come for your. human rights have some fun in for most of us detention center is still open and what it's doing on cuban soil in the first place. plus the latest on the wiki leaks founder julian assange who's fighting extradition from the u.k. to sweden and might eventually end up in an american prison. well following the b.p. disaster in the gulf of mexico the oil giant is exploring a new horizons in search for profit and russia is now its number one choice b.p. has landed a multi-billion dollar contract with the oil company or sniffed they've agreed to explore and extract the vast untapped natural resources of the arctic together. reports. it's a deal that both parties are calling a groundbreaking strategic global alliance russia's biggest oil company has signed

a deal with b.p. it's the first major partnership between a national and international oil company when it's done after five percent to be paid in exchange for a nine and a half percent share in the russian oil major growth next chairman deputy prime minister told r.t. it's the beginning of a new direction for the company. which 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 are competent and have strong experience of russian companies the aim is that b.p.

will team up to develop three areas on the russian 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 will 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 got the life experience has been working with us now for twelve years now and we've been working for us since two thousand and five with ross staff working with. expression. 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 respond. 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. 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 pie but experts agree this deal won't trigger a mud. 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 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 thorough 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 your and it's are to. the news to teacher arms reduction treaty between russia and the u.s. will be ratified and brought into force before the end of the month that's according to russian lawmakers who have approve the deal during a second round of three readings in the state duma sought start treaty rather was signed by president obama in april last year and should slash the 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 the russian lawmakers to counter-balance those

amendments to keep the treaty intact the head of state do most foreign affairs committee told r.t. that the us is responsible for the lengthy ratification process constantino also expressed fears that washington could talk peter the agreement in the future. they amended the senate resolution just the very dramatically they left no other option but. our decisions on the twenty fifth of january we are going to rectify the treaty as it is and. to add two more statements by the state duma which are to be included in the british occasion document that the story might 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 reach has a completely different strategy on this issue and in case it happens here is the treaty may be damaged and yes there may arise conditions for us to 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 our invasion . now it's quarter past the hour here in moscow you are with r.t. and don't forget there's a lot more on our web site twenty four seven and here is some of the some of the issues and some just waiting for you online right now that article. propaganda sunday january the sixteenth marks the twenty year anniversary of the first gulf war but it was a fight to wait to secure access to the country's oil reserves take a look back on our web site. and easy way of getting around during the winter.

let's go live through the snow war any other terrain check it out at r.t. dot com. well this week portugal's our prime minister repeatedly insisted that his country won't be asking for a bailout from the e.u. because it doesn't need one socrates said the country was on track to restoring its economy and valid to continue with strict austerity measures such as pension cuts and tax increases his comments follow speculation that 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 blocks financial stability and experts fear that portugal's demise could worsen at the spanish economy financial advisor mark or peter poorly says that a bailout wouldn't 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 control of their fiscal situation and the markets will start to to believe in them again that they are able to service their debt moving forward in reality what's happening is burden. 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 file or 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 patching up hoping that

the issues going to go away pushing the can further down the road now 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's nuclear sites despite many key powers including russia turning down tehran's invitation russia's foreign minister sergei lavrov insisted that such visits shouldn't be substitutes for official u.n. inspections western powers say the offer which was extended to the 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 tehran 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 it never worked out certainly

there may be some people who thought that they could create the fish are already if but for now they never managed to really break out. p five plus one formula. the behavior of russia and china just shows once again that it doesn't work i think theory means 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 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 confident and it wants to negotiate are important. the most notorious prison of the twenty first century the guantanamo bay detention center has now entered its tenth year and

there's still no sign that president obama is going to fulfill his promise to shut it down guantanamo has now become synonymous with torture and as artie's reports cuba was far from happy and having america's dirty work being carried out on its own 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 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 agreement under which the u.s. has to be on cuban soil the kuantan a moment let's hear a piece. from earlier 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 den tube and government under under threat under duress 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 cuban 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 the 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 at the 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 opened nine years ago awaiting a trial that afternoon 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. that violates cuba sovereignty for this reason because this is the only latin american country for the past over this past fifty years has said you know then you

straight to the eye of the american government or as they would say the american empire a country cubans believe should give rates to its detainees and give back the land that's right fully there is to handcuff this ari t. washington d.c. . wiki leaks founder julian assange could end up facing the death penalty in the u.s. if he's exadata to sweden that's the fears of his lawyers according to legal papers released on tuesday his attorneys are concerned that washington could seek a further extradition to prosecute a silence for espionage over the release of classified government documents he claims the accusations of sexual assault he's facing in sweden have been a fabricated the u.s. is behind them and one european m.p. told us here at r.t. that the case is becoming 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 the silence

authorities now think the game's up people can see what the european arrest warrants are about you know so my guess is our car know what they're going to do but i'm fairly confident that they're going to come up with some kind of cynical fix that will allow him either to go back to australia or possibly to go back now and terribly to sweden if some kind of deal is done about what charges will be laid against him but what we'll want to do i'm sure is put to bed this whole. media publicity about the european arrest warrant 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 of the tens of thousands of asylum seekers are now untraceable following 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 simcox from the center for social cohesion says e.u.

regulations make managing the situation near impossible. britain is essentially lost control of who is coming into the country and once you can secure your borders you can't secure your country this is a outrageous situation that's a lot about why there's a huge problem with the britains inability to deport generally being part of the european union we often can't deport people but country of origin because it may contravene the european convention on human rights and on top of this there's a systemic problem where the huge backlog of cases and we have something like a half 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 net 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 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 the amount enough as it is that. are not as good as some other world news in brief this hour news years for christians are due to resume crisis talks over the formation of a unity government after weeks of widespread unrest forced the former leader from power it comes a day after the country's parliamentary speaker was sworn in as interim president hundreds of security forces are patrolling the streets in an attempt to restore order amid chaos and looting in the capital on friday president ben ali fled to saudi arabia and officials are officials rather they say that he will not be returning to office. at least fifteen civilians have been killed in two separate roadside bombings in afghanistan in one nine zero wedding guests died when their car was destroyed in a blast in the northern province of but. in the eastern province of sangin six people were killed after the minivan they were traveling in struck a roadside bomb women and children are among the dead. only results from the

sudanese referendum to decide whether the south should be independent from the north suggested voters are strongly in favor of a new state full results will be announced at the beginning of next month the first official figures showed ninety seven percent of the country's diaspora in europe voted for secession it's hoped the final decision will end the cycle of devastating civil war. and in brazil the troops have joined the rescue workers in the desperate search for survivors as floods continue to devastate the southeast of the country itself being hunted by renewed heavy rains more than six hundred people have died in what's become the country's worst natural disaster in forty years a week of national mourning has been declared for the victims. and the 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 all 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. for every cup of our top stories is just moments away stay with us.

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