look. let me hold you to let me know it's going. to take. this week's top stories on our t.v. questioning because your feet the final official report in moscow on last april's polish state plane crash in russia claims pilot error but there's anger and political reaction in warsaw. two of the world's energy giants joined forces russia as rossi after the peace walk and billions of dollars worth of shares as they plan to jointly explore the vast undiscovered riches of the russian arctic continental shelf. plus the new start nuclear reduction and honest reduction treaty between moscow and washington your spinal approval as russia's parliament passes the agreement and the second of three readings.

you're watching r t two in the morning here in moscow welcome to the program well the final report on last april's plane crash in western russia which killed the polish president lech kaczynski and most of the country's political elite sparked more controversy this week while the moscow headquartered interstate aviation committee blamed the tragedy on the actions of the polish crew bad weather and pressure on the pilots allowed from some v.i.p. passengers but warsaw says the report is incomplete as ortiz and the somali reports . for the first time last seconds are heard before polish president lech kaczynski plane crashed.

the crew ignored warnings from the aircraft's automated system to pull up and advice from air traffic controllers to land at an alternate airport class or 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 let's let 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 its magic amongst those other 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.a.c. which found pilot error was to blame and insists various factors at play caused the accident but aviation experts have confidence in the findings my experience with the russian investigators has been very good they're very high quality organization that i believe that it was the investigation was generally carried out in accordance with the international civil aviation organization annex thirteen which is the international standard for accident investigation the committee concluded.

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 has acknowledged that part of the blame lies with the polish side however warsaw is currently setting out a formal response to the findings at a scout there are reports opinions on the tragic plane crash are divided in poland said 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 diplomacy and politics should not hamper the investigation of facts for us facts are the most important investigators will add to the report the parts that are missing but will not change what is already there

the strange a catastrophe was not and does not have to be a blow to good polish russian relations. 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 this could be one of the most important battles of. contention between

major political forces well some of owning up political leverage in their sights others say the cause of the disaster is clear cut. very complicated. simple people. interested so sometimes it's easy for. conclusions. in my opinion. both poland and russia have insisted on keeping this debate from influencing the recent fine ties but with the story far from over it looks like some in poland are keen to keep things for. polish newspapers 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 now that are how catchy are just words what actions the polish government will choose to undertake and how they will affect relations between russia and poland remains to be written. catherine as r.t.e. warsaw poland. well david lear mt from 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 craft to land he had with with hold 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 tried 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. a huge multi-billion dollar deal between b.p. and rossi after all see both jointly develop potentially massive oil and gas deposits along russia's arctic continental shelf where the two parter chemicals lines take stakes in each other in a share swap as part of the partnership which was described by b.p. as historic artes nor ever looks at the agreement and how it could change the

future of energy production. it's a deal that both parties are calling a groundbreaking strategic global alliance russia's biggest oil company rosneft has signed a share swap deal with b.p. it's the first major equity linked partnership between a national and international oil company when it's done in five percent of b.p. in exchange for a nine and a half percent share in the russian oil made. ross next chairman deputy prime minister. told r.t. it's the beginning of a new direction for the company. is working on a new strategy aimed at transforming the company into an international energy holding our deal with b.p. is of course part of the strategy they've gained a great deal of experience including the gulf of mexico oil spill cleanup operation b.p. has learned from this experience and our joint venture will be carried out with the greatest level of measures aimed at protecting the environment we've been working

with b.p. for many years they're competent and have strong experience of russian companies the aim is that b.p. will team up to develop three areas on the russian arctic shelf that's potentially a lot of oil and gas down the which rosneft owns the license to exploit it's a huge area around one hundred twenty five thousand square kilometers and it won't be easy to extract the resources the arctic the highly inhospitable environments and requires sophisticated technology and billions of dollars of investment but aside from the cash b.p. c.e.o. bob dudley says they've also got the life experience has been working with us now for twelve years now and we've been working on the arctic for since two thousand and five with ross staff working with our capabilities our exploration 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 risk management technology for the 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 reasons arctic reserves are asked. needed to be five million tonnes of oil and ten trillion cubic meters of . 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 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 down beneath the exploration area they're 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 that sense it's being branded around the world as a breakthrough deal open in 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 earth earth 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. and still ahead for you this hour on r t the fury of a tourist part of a bay is once again the subject of strife between cuba and the u.s. our savannah says it wants its land back. and a happy ending to an icy saga as three hundred people are told to safety after

being stranded off russia's far east coast for over two weeks. the breakthrough treaty between moscow and washington to cut nuclear arms is now just one step away from reality russian lawmakers are set to approve the start to agreement by the twenty fifth of january past the second of three parliamentary readings in the duma for the treaty was signed by president medvedev and obama in april last year it would see the two countries nuclear. arsenal slashed by a third within seven years the new start was passed by the u.s. senate just before the new year after being strongly opposed by republicans congressman added several changes forcing russia to counter-balance those amendments to keep the treaty intact the head of the state duma as foreign affairs committee told r.t. washington is responsible for the long drawn out ratification process also expressed fears the u.s. may one day pull out of the deal. man that is the

senate resolution just very dramatically and they left no other option but to amend our decisions on the twenty fifth of january and we are going to. be treated as if these. two more statements by the state duma. are to be included in the rectification document but 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 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 invasion. now this week portugal's prime minister repeatedly insisted his country can deal with its own financial problems and does not need a bailout just a socrates valve to continue with stricter stary measures such as pension cuts and tax increases portugal managed to remove some concerns as it raised over a billion euros in a bond auction but this might not be enough for it escape the fate of bankrupt greece and our experts fear that portugal's demise could trigger spain's collapse an economy which could be simply much too big to bail out but the national advisor mark foley says any survival package would not solve the fundamental flaws in the concept of the euro zone. this is not in any kind a way a final so. lucian 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. 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 now the europeans have to start thinking about

a complete reform of the european structure. the controversial u.s. military facility at guantanamo bay has entered its tenth year as a detention center with nearly two hundred prisoners locked up in harsh conditions there's little sign that president obama plans to shut its doors anytime soon well america's presence there follows a century old deal that cuba claims is not only invalid but threatens its sovereignty artie's john haas is reports. it's a place forever in the world of lies by images of torture known by. america's the poorest attention facility in guantanamo bay cuba has been the worst of the world condemnation of youth lack of legal recourse and death in detention is the norm it's also been the subject of decades of cuban authorities are you right my only to be my only cuban sovereignty and amounts to

a new. occupation the to green under which you are this has to be. 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 was extracted from the dense human government under under threat under duress and 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 in one nine hundred sixty its revolutionary leader fidel castro cashed only a blank check and she insists it was an accident no checks have been cashed sense and protest no such she would ever be signing today no such 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 a military base into a detention facility declassified documents show the us government used cuban soil to invade national and international law to interrogate terrorist suspects a strategy during this that they 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 believe there is this are t. washington d.c. . the music of rap metal band rage against the machine was played for days on end at high volume as a weapon of torture during interrogations at guantanamo bay well that's the spy the balance message of fighting the very system which keeps those prisoners captive as 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 hopefully at some point not the two. distant future when the war criminals of the bush administration are brought to trial one day wearing their yellow jumpsuit and black hoods it will be the music of rage against the machine that is popular sells twenty four hours a day. well you can see the full interview with rage against the machine guitarist tom morello in ten minutes time here on r.t. . well there is an end in sight for the last ice bound ship that has been stuck off the coast of russia's far east for two weeks now more than three hundred people were trapped aboard the vessel now being escorted to safety through the frozen seas by two ice breakers two smaller ships also stock have already been towed to safer waters three vessels got trapped in ice in the sea of all before the new year

extreme weather conditions and technical failures have been hampering the operation . and we can leaks founder julian assange could face the death penalty in the u.s. if he's eventually extradited there well that's the fear of his lawyers according to legal papers released on tuesday is currently on bail in england as sweden seeks him for trial on sex charges which were previously dropped but with he says are politically driven one of his lawyers it would be easier for washington to have a song extradited to the u.s. if he was sent to sweden some american politicians want him prosecuted over the release of classified government documents 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 over so. that people can see what european arrest warrants are we don't. know what they're going

to do are fairly confident that they're going to come up with some tone of cynical shakes that will allow him to go back to australia. or possibly to go back now and tara later sweden if some kind of deal is done about what charges will be laid against him but what they want today i'm sure is put to bed this whole pub media publicity about the european arrest one 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 let's take you closer look at some other top stories from around the world gun fights of erupted across the tunisian capital as security forces tried to restore order in the country police clashed with gunmen near the main opposition party's headquarters and the interior ministry the new wave of violence comes as political leaders hold talks to form a unity government after weeks of chaos ended in the president to saudi arabia

dozens have been arrested in recent days including members of the former president's guard under suspicion of using public fear calls for drive by shootings . more than six hundred people are confirmed dead following severe flooding and mudslides across southeastern brazil since one's day alone here a concert of rain on sunday allowed rescue helicopters to deliver food and water to isolated areas of the military is also involved in frantic rescue operations with fears a whenever that the death toll will rise president dilma rousseff has declared three days of national mourning for the victims of the worst natural disaster to strike brazil in four decades. luminary results just southern sudan has overwhelmingly approved to separate from the north in a weeklong referenda of that and that saturday official results will not be announced until next month but most believe the referendum will split africa's

largest country into earlier ninety seven percent of the southern sudanese they aspirated europe voted for the split the independence referendum was promised to the south as part of a peace referendum with the north in two thousand and five that's following twenty years of civil war in which two million died. while the shooting rampage in a tucson arizona that killed six and critically critically wounded a congresswoman has reignited the debate over u.s. gun control laws lori harf and is a reporter called the resident has been on the streets of new york to find the views on an emotive issue once again making headlines. 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 what's the difference. 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 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 and you see it's to have it the more you allude 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. it was like politics you know people don't agree with policies but you know. need to be done the laws that need to be. do you think

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 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. well those were the week's top stories i'll be back with the headlines in just a few moments.

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