this week's top stories on our t.v. tragedy dispute the final report on last april is the plane crash that killed poland's president debate this water source says it leaves questions unanswered. to oil giants team up as russia. shares in a deal to jointly explore the arctic's potential energy treasury. and the landmark nuclear treaty between moscow and washington and moves another step forward as russia's parliament approved it in the second of three readings.

you're watching the weekly as we highlight the top stories of this week. the final report on last april plane crash in western russia which killed the polish president lech kaczynski has caused some controversy this week or so says the interstate aviation committee report is incomplete while the agency insists it's given the polish side all the relevant information and reports on this. for the first time the last seconds are heard before polish president lech kaczynski his plane crash near smolensk turn on one board.

the crew ignored warnings from the aircraft's automated system to call up and advice from air traffic controllers to land at an alternate airport plus were inexperienced and flying in bad weather the interstate aviation committee highlighted what they found to be the main causes behind the tragedy in their final report there's never a 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 its 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. dense in the findings my experience with the russian investigators has been very good there are 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 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 sat 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. and meantime prime minister donald tusk has acknowledged that part of the blame does lie with the polish side however warsaw intends to carry out its own investigation and is currently setting out a formal response to the findings but as a covering us out of our reports even in poland opinions on the tragic plane crash remain divided. 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 so let me shift. the goal is not a compromise but a complete disclosure of the truth of diplomacy and politics cannot and will not hamper the presentation of the facts our efforts are not to alter the facts facts of facts of the rule polish investigators are working on adding the parts of the report to the missing not changing what is already there to emotional outrage.

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. all these could be 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 vision is a very complicated matter the simple people. interested in so sometimes it's easy for. conclusions. in my opinion. both poland and russia have insisted on keeping this debate from influencing the recent thawing 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 task force is 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 all and remains to be written. catherine as r.t. warsaw poland meantime aviation security expert chris yates told us that the official report presents a complete picture of what happened. there is nothing more to be said quite frankly i think they. the committee that. this investigation has done next period job. they've they've they found what they found which is that the primary blame should be. true. but you know there is one important line in the transcript of the conversations between pilots and ground during the. final approach roof 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 pilot the pilot should then made the judgment to follow traffic instruction and transferred to another airport nearby where better visibility better conditions for landing might well have persisted. here with r.t. live from moscow now b.p. has dubbed as historic its multibillion dollar joint venture with russia's oil far more often enough to the companies will now join forces to exploit potentially shoes deposits of oil and gas buried under russia's arctic continental shelf lore and it now reports from london where the deal was signed it's a deal that both parties are calling a groundbreaking strategic global alliance russia's biggest oil company ross nafta has signed this just 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 made jeff ross north chairman deputy prime minister told r.t. it's the beginning of a new direction for the company. grew. now it 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 a maze 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 russ nafta 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 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 and the company of the core we're going to focus on safety and risk management technology that's new for the environmental care of what we do the russian government's behind the deal and prime minister peterson says all parties are ready for the child. 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 can have a significant influence on the world's oil and gas industry in recent arctic reserves are estimated to be five trillion 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 we are fully aware of. 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 a 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 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 you're and it's r.t. . and still to come here on r.t. in just a few moments cuban fury a notorious one time bag is once again the subject of strife between cuba and the u.s. as have anna says it wants its land back. and a happy ending to an icy saga as three hundred people are total safety after being stranded off russia's far east coast for over two weeks. now the pivotal deal between moscow and washington to cut arms is now one step closer to reality russian lawmakers promised to ratify start by the end of the month after was approved in the second of three readings now the treaty that would see the two

country's nuclear arsenal slashed by a third was signed by presidents many other and obama last year it was given the go ahead by the u.s. senate just before the new year after months of debate congressman added several key changes forcing russia to counter-balance those amendments to keep the treaty intact the head of the state duma's foreign affairs committee constantine crosshatch off told us here at r t that washington is responsible for the long drawn out ratification process but he also expressed fears that the u.s. may one day pull out of the deal. they amended of the sale of the resolution just the very dramatically and they left us no other option but to amend our decisions on that mean to feebs of january we are going to rectify the treaty these and. to add two more statements by the state duma we

are to be included in the british. document but these three may believe the risk is quite obvious on the american side that they will proceed with the strategic not regional but strategic aren't in this defense system small not the current president not the current government but probably the next president. 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 arise conditions for russia 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 ambition. this week portugal's prime minister repeatedly insisted that his country can deal with its own financial problems and doesn't need a bailout and socrates vowed to continue with strict austerity measures such as pension cuts and tax increases portugal managed to relieve some concerns as it

raised over a billion euros in a bond auction but this might not be enough for it to escape the fate of bankrupt greece and ireland and experts or trickles demise could trigger spain's collapse which in its turn could be too big to bail out but a financial advisor marco pierre tripodi says any survival package wouldn't solve the fundamental flaws in the concept of the euro zone. 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 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 patching up hoping that the issue's 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. just after quarter past the hour now here in moscow you are with r.t. now the quantum obey detention center has entered its tenth year of its controversial existence and there are no signs that u.s. president obama will be shutting it down anytime soon the american presence there follows a deal struck over a century ago but calls are growing stronger from havana that the u.s. is violating cuba's sovereignty artes you had half its reports. it's

a place forever immortalized by images of torture known by its abbreviation 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 the kuantan a moment let's hear it 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 it 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 cubans its yearly runs after the cuban revolution swept the island nation one nine hundred sixty its 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 the treaty signed today will 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 during the. pepe escobar argues is convenience you can't 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 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 then you 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 there is to handcuff this r t washington d.c.

. well the music of rap metal band rage against the machine was played for up to seventy two hours nonstop during interrogations at guantanamo bay but ironically the band has always tried to fight the system that kept those prisoners incarcerated. tom morello explains to us. when we learned that the united states government was using rage against machines music to torture people guantanamo bay we sued the state department to get to stop and we were unsuccessful in that suit and pursued over the course of a couple of years and i think it's a thing of the crime my only hope is that that day hopefully at some point not in the too distant future when the war criminals of the bush administration are brought to trial our one day wearing their yellow jumpsuits and black hoods it will be the music of rage against the machine that is popular sells twenty four hours a day. and you can see the full interview with rage against the machine guitarist tom morello in

about ten minutes time right here on. all the maritime drama is almost over for an eye spell and ship that had been stuck far east coast for about two weeks more than three hundred people were trapped on board the vessel that is now being scored through the frozen seas by two ice breakers a pair of other smaller ships have already been towed to safer waters three vessels got trapped in ice in the sea. before the new year extreme weather conditions and technical failures had been hampering the operation. wiki leaks founder julian our sancerre could end up facing the death penalty in the u.s. if he's extradited to sweden but that's the fear of his lawyers according to legal papers released on tuesday the attorney said if sanjay went to sweden it would be easier for washington to extradite him to the u.s. washington wants to prosecute him for espionage relating to the release of classified government documents i started claims that sexual assault charges

against him in the scandinavian country are politically motivated one european politician told 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 a silence authorities now think the game's up people can see what european arrest warrants are about we don't want 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 come sometime in a cynical fix that will allow him either to go back to australia or possibly to go back well in terra later 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 pub 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. now there

always are many more stories for you on our website that's r.t. dot com and here are some of the issues and subjects we've got waiting for you on line right now the economic crisis in the u.s. has brought many businesses to their knees left millions unemployed but find out how government workers in washington have managed to flourish during the recession . and welcome to cardboard town this new game community has its own tyrant and invites guests to build their own identity using cardboard find out more on our web site that's artie dot com. let's get to some other world news in brief now this hour. political leaders are to resume talks the formation of a unity government after weeks of widespread violence that forced the former leader from office it comes a day after the country's parliament speaker was sworn in as interim leader security forces are patrolling the streets trying to restore law and order amid chaos and looting in the capital tunis on friday president ben ali fled to saudi

arabia where he will reportedly not return. and more than a six hundred people have now been confirmed dead following severe flooding and landslides across the southeast and brazil soldiers and military doctors are also taking part in rescue operations to find survivors forecasters say heavy rain will continue for several days in areas already submerged president dilma rousseff has declared three days of national mourning for the victims in the wake of the country's worst natural disaster in four decades. and early results suggest that southern sudan has overwhelmingly voted in a referendum in favor of splitting from the north full results will not be announced until next month but the region is widely expected to secede earlier ninety seven percent of the southern sudanese diaspora in europe voted for the split its hope to end a cycle of devastating civil war would create the world's newest state. well the

recent shooting massacre in tucson arizona has led to calls for gun control laws in the u.s. to be reexamined laurie huff innes also known as the resident took to the streets of new york 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 the deaf and. walking around with a gun is probably not a good thing but i don't have anything it's hunting so how do we prevent people who have guns for hunting from taking them out in public. you have laws against say people can't walk around nude in public what about the argument that you should be able to have a gun for protection you can use other objects for protection i think the more guns you have the more you're able to use them actually. to have it the more you were

you would use it i can't believe how free you are to have guns here in america but what about the argument that if guns are outlawed then only criminals have guns. yeah i guess my own go underground but i still think they should be a lot more legislation on he can and can have guns is that possible in a violent society though. people who don't agree with. need to be done or laws that need to be. think politics or guns are more violent and deadly i think politics are more. you know it's part of humanity's constant struggle to figure out how to. before the bad thing happens prevent it. it comes down to education with whatever the topic as i beg yes but do you think guns or people kill people i think we can all agree on the bottom line that

violence is rarely the answer. are no rick up of our top stories is coming your way in just a few months. repairing

a broken nation. highway construction and humanitarian aid. but as shady officials get the spoils of war it's the people who pay the price. profiteering here is no longer just down to drug trafficking. afghanistan and the dollar. will. bring you the latest in science and technology from the realms of russia. we've got the future covered. down by the official anti obligation to i phone the i pod touch from the top story. life on the.

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