this week's top stories on the tragedy disputes the final report on last april's plane crash that killed phonons president sparks debate as warsaw says it leaves questions. to all of. russia's. deal to join to explore the potential energy treasure. and the landmark nuclear treaty between moscow and washington is another step forward as russia's parliament approves it in the second of three. in the back at the week's top stories and the latest developments this is in moscow

. the final report on last april's plane crash in western russia which killed the polish president lech kaczynski as course some controversy this week warsaw says the interstate aviation committee report is incomplete while the agency insists it's given the polish side all the relevant information and he reports for the first time the last seconds are heard before polish president lech kaczynski plane crashed. right. yet. however. the crew ignored warnings from the aircraft. automated system to haul up and advise

from air traffic controllers to land at an airport plaza or in experiencing flying 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 hear you're actually making a final decision to land at the research airports based on multiple becoming day sions or weather conditions at smolensk airport descending lower than the safe minimum height necessary to make a second lunging attempt at failure to react properly to us the magic mounts those are the reasons which led to the tragic crash of the aircraft into the land and the deaths 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 slammed. it's

not clear whether the navigator was referring to the polish president or the commander in chief of the air force 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 and 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 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. prime minister donald tusk because their knowledge that part of the blame lies with the polish side however also intends to carry out its own investigation and is currently setting out a formal response to the findings but as catherine as ever reports even in poland opinions on the tragic plane crash are divided. state of bringing closure to a very painful chapter in recent russian polish history the final point has opened a pandora's box of doubt denial and political mind games from rational disbelief so let me just. say the goal is not a compromise but a complete disclosure of the truth of diplomacy and politics cannot the moon not hamper the presentation of the facts our efforts are not to alter the facts facts are facts of the rules polish investigators are working on adding the parts of the report to the missing not changing what is already there to motional outrage shippers of today we see the consequences in the shape of the report 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 us political advantage. in poland is hard for many reasons. and first of all we are approaching the parliamentary elections i am afraid at. all this could be one of the most important goals of. contention between major political forces while some of only got political leverage in their sights others say the cause of the disaster is clear cut vision is

a very complicated matter 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 thaw 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 to us versus 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.

warsaw poland. well david. global magazine says poland may be eager to distance itself from the blame but he can't find fault with the official report. i think that the polish government is i think desperate to put at least some of the blame in somebody else's direction but incidentally i completely go along with the russian verdict on the on the air traffic controllers powers incidentally the air traffic controller did not clear this aircraft to land he had with withheld clearance for the aircraft to land and he wouldn't have had permission to stop an international flight like this one anyway if it had been a russian air force aircraft the controller could have told it to divert an international flight especially of this status the controller would simply go along and do everything that he could to help the captain achieve

a safe approach but it's a very very emotive happening for for the polish people however i can tell you this if they try to carry out their own report in order to allocate a little more of the blame in the russian direction i think apart from some minor technicalities they will totally fail to do that. b.p. has dubbed as historic it's a multibillion dollar joint venture with russia's oil firms or sniffed the companies will now join forces to exploit potentially huge deposits of warning gas spirit on the russia's arctic continental shelf emmett's reports from london where it was signed. it's a deal that both parties 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 the stand to be paid

in exchange for a nine and a half percent share in the russian oil. 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'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 shelf that's potentially a lot of oil and gas down the which ross nafta owns the license to exploit it's

a huge area around one hundred twenty five thousand square. to extract the resources the arctic the highly inhospitable environment required 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 since two thousand and five working with. us and i think to be honest we learned a lot about what happened in the gulf of mexico in the company of the core we're going to focus on safety and risk management technology. for the environmental care of what we do the russian government's behind the deal and prime minister putin says all parties are ready for the challenge that you bring. i would like to let you know that the government of the russian federation supports this joint operation. could become global much can have

a significant influence on the world's oil and gas industry russia'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 from the optics a highly contentious area with many parties wanting a slice of the potentially lucrative pie but experts agree this deal will trigger a muddy down beneath the exploration area that they're talking about is in the south car a c. 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 sustained from the gulf of mexico oil spill it's also a huge vote of confidence for the russian oil exploration industry. still ahead for the cuban few. years once again the subject of strife between cuba and the u.s. says have. its land back. happy ending to what i see three hundred people a total safety after being stranded off russia's far east coast for over two weeks . the pivotal duel between moscow and. cart arms is now one step closer to reality russian lawmakers promise to ratify start by the end of the month after it was approved in the second of three readings a treaty that would see the two countries nuclear arsenal slashed by a third was signed by president medvedev 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 and added several key changes forcing russia to counter-balance those amendments to keep the treaty intact the head of the state deal with foreign affairs committee told r.t. washington is responsible for the long drawn out ratification process but he also expressed fears the u.s. may one day pull out of the deal. they amended the senate resolution just very dramatically and they left no other option about. our decisions on that minted fiefs of january we are going to rectify the treaty as it is and. to add two more statements by the state duma which would be included in the british. 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 and in the defense systems more 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 of the treaty may be damaged and yes there may rise the conditions for us 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 there will be. this week portugal's prime minister repeatedly insisted his country can deal with its own financial problems and does not need a bailout shows it socrates valid 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 priests and experts fear portugal's demise could trigger spain's collapse which in

its turn could be too big to bail out but financial adviser mark foley 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 a. gotten 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 burden in 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 fire or 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 patrick 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. the quantum of a detention center has entered the tenth year of its controversial existence and there are new signs that u.s. president obama will be shutting it down any time 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 but is she huffed is has this report. it's a place forever immortalized by images of torture known by. 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 instead of decades of straight cuban authorities who argue the

forty five square mile military base violate cuban sovereignty and amounts to a military occupation the greenland under which u.s. has to be. kuantan more military. from. earliest years of the twentieth century. the plat 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 cuban government under under threat under duress and in clear contravention of international laws like the vienna convention the u.s. 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 early runs after the cuban revolution swept the island nation in 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 and protest no such he would ever be signed today knows the 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 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. 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 fully there is this our t. washington d.c. where the music of rap metal band rage against the machine was played for up to seventy two hours nonstop during interrogations are going to mowbray but ironically the band has always tried to fight the system that kept those prisoners incarcerated it's guitarist tom morello explains. 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 the stuff 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 on that day hopefully at some point not in the too distant future when the war criminals of the bushes. ministration are brought to trial are one day wearing their yellow jumpsuits and black hoods it will be the music of rage against the machine that is pumped out of their cells twenty four hours a day. and you can see the full interview with rage against the machine guitarist tom morello in about ten minutes from now here on r.t. . the maritime drama is almost over for an ice bound ship that had been stuck off russia's far east coast for two weeks more than three hundred people were trapped on board the vessel that is now being escorted through the frozen seas by two ice breakers a pair of other smaller ships have already been towed to safer water it's the three vessels got trapped in ice in the sea of cots before the new year extreme weather

conditions and technical failures have been hampering the operation. we could be founder julian assange could end up facing the death penalty in the u.s. if he's extradited to sweden that's the fear of his lawyers according to legal papers released on tuesday one attorney said if a soldier 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 a claim sex assault charges against him in the scandinavian country a politically motivated one european politician told r.t. 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 assad and 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 but i'm 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 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 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. well in addition to what you see here on screen there are always more stories for you on our website at r.t. dot com here's some of what's online right now for you the economic crisis in the u.s. has brought many businesses to their knees and left millions unemployed to find out how government workers in washington have managed to flourish during the recession . also welcome to cardboardy a town this new role playing community has its own tyrant and invites guests to build their own identity using cardboard find out more on our website www dot com.

other world news in brief for you this hour police in tunisia fighting a gun battle near the interior ministry in the center of the country with reports saying one gunman has been killed another wave of riots is come since political leaders have crucial talks over for me a unity government after weeks of violence forced the former leader from office it comes a day after the country's parliamentary speaker was sworn in as interim leader on friday the president ben ali fled to saudi arabia from where he will reportedly not return. more than six hundred people have now been confirmed dead following severe flooding and landslides across the southeast in brazil soldiers and military doctors are also taking part in rescue operations to find survivors as forecasters say heavy rain will continue for several days in areas already submerged so. declared three days of national mourning for the victims in the wake of the country's worst natural disaster in four decades. but the results suggest southern sudan has overwhelmingly voted in

a referendum in favor of splitting from the north for results will not be announced until next month but the region is widely expected to see ninety seven percent of the southern sudanese diaspora in europe voted for the split so to end a cycle of devastating civil war and would create the world's newest state. the shooting massacre in tucson arizona over killed a nine year old and put a congresswoman in a critical condition has led to calls for gun control laws in the u.s. to be reexamined laura half an asst also known as the resident to the streets of new york city to find out how people feel about guns in today's society. do guns kill people people kill people this week let's talk about that i think it's ok it's not concealed weapons with the different. walking around in public 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 for taking them out in public. you have laws against 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 that there are objects for protection i think the more guns you have the more they are you able to use them. to have it the more you were you would use it i can't believe. for you to have guns here in america but what about the argument that if guns are outlawed then only criminals have guns. yeah i guess it made my old go underground but i still think they should be a lot more legislation on he can and can't have guns is that possible in a violent society though. it was like politics you know people don't agree with. things that need to be done and laws that need to be. politics or guns are more

violent and deadly i think politics some of the things 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 is 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. well i'll be back with a reminder of our main stories for you in just a few moments from now. stay with us here on.

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kinds of reports. i got out of the military in one thousand nine hundred sixty six because the things i saw the things i was doing and this reason we were given for doing it was a personal protest. during the vietnam war an antiwar movement emerged that altered the course of history this movement didn't take place on college campuses but in berets and on ships to penetrated elite military colleges like west point and it spread throughout the battlefields of vietnam. today few people know about the g.i. movement against the war in vietnam. after the army will always set free the army or fun travel and adventure but it really meant the army.