but you know it's a good i would. never dream. this week's top stories on our t.v. questioning the catastrophe the final official report in moscow on the last eight holes polish state plane crash blames pilot error but there's. no reaction in warsaw. two of the world's energy giants joined forces russia. billions of dollars worth of shares as they jointly explore the vast undiscovered riches of the russian arctic continental felt. the loss of the new start nuclear arms reduction treaty between moscow and washington there are some final approval as russia's parliament passes the agreement the second of three readings.

we're coming to you live from central moscow five in the morning here welcome to the program 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 the moscow headquartered interstate aviation committee blamed the tragedy on the actions of the polish crew bad weather and a pressure on the pilots to ladder from some of the passengers but warsaw says the report is incomplete and he said the reports. for the first time the last seconds are heard before polish president lech kaczynski plane crashed near smug.

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 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 poor weather conditions at smolensk airport descending lower than the safe minimum height necessary to make a second landing attempt failure to react properly to automatic mounts 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 and 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

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's. 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 of the findings. of our reports opinions of the tragic plane crash are divided in poland a state of bringing closure to a very painful chapter in recent russian polish history the final report has opened a pandora's box of doubt denial and political mind games from rational disbelief. the investigation is incomplete diplomacy and politics should not hamper the investigation of facts for us facts are the most important the polish investigators

will add to the report the parts that are missing but will not change what is already there this tragic 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 reports blaming polish pilots and poland in general for this catastrophe and making it a one sided matter without any evidence we're dealing with speculation without any basis. but is this grief talking or shrewd political experience some believe mr kaczynski the twin brother of the deceased president and himself a failed presidential candidate could be attempting to use this tragedy to his political advantage. in poland is 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 while some of only got political leverage in their sites others say the cause of the disaster is clear cut vision is a very complicated matter the simple people don't know much. so sometimes it's easy for. conclusions poured in my opinion. 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 tossed 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. aviation security expert chris yates told r.t. 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 did this investigation has done next job and they've they they found what they found which is that the primary blame should be on the truth. well from what you know there is more important line 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 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. a huge multi-billion dollar deal between b.p. and the aft will see both jointly develop a potentially massive oil and gas deposits along russia's arctic continental shelf well the two petrochemical giants take stakes in each other in a share swap as part of the partnership which was described by b.p. as historic lower avoca looks at the agreement and how it could change the future of energy production. it's a deal that both parties a 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 the send to be paid in exchange for a nine and a half percent share in the russian oil major ross next chairman deputy prime minister told r.t. it's the beginning of a new direction for the company. 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 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 got the life experience he 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 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 shaken the company to the core we're going to focus on safety and risk management. 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 million tons of oil and ten trillion cubic meters of gas such a project may require tens of billions of dollars of investment and state of the art technology and we are fully aware of the risks and from the optics the highly contentious area with many parties wanting a slice of the potentially lucrative pie but experts agree this deal went to trigger a months 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 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 you're at it. and still ahead for you this hour cuban fuehrer the notorious tunnel bay is once again the subject of strife between cuba and the u.s. has about a says it wants its land back. and a happy ending to what i see saw as three hundred people are told to safety after being stranded off russia's far east coast for over two weeks.

now the breakthrough treaty between moscow and washington to cut nuclear arms is just one step away from reality russian lawmakers are set to approve the start to agreement by the twenty fifth january after it passed the second of three parliamentary readings of the duma well the treaty was signed by president medvedev and obama in april last year it would see the two countries a 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's foreign affairs committee told r.t. that washington is responsible for the long drawn out ratification process he also expressed fears that the u.s. may want to pull out of the deal. they amended the senate resolution just very dramatically and they left no other option about.

our decisions on the twenty fifth of january and we are going to rectify the treaty as it is and. to add two more statements by the state duma. to be included in the. 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. defense system small not the current president not the current government but probably the next president the next government which has a completely different strategy on this issue and in case it happens yes the treaty may be damaged and yes there may arise conditions for russia to to pull out of this treaty but again we are not there yet and we still have time to make better agreements and to avoid any misunderstandings and that will be our with. all this

week portugal's prime minister repeatedly insisted his country can deal with its own financial problems and does not need a bailout say socrates' valve to continue with stricter sturdy measures such as pension cuts and tax increases portugal managed to relieve some concerns that it has a raise over a billion euros in a bond auction but this might not be enough for it to escape the fate of bank of greece and ireland and experts fear that portugal's demise could trigger spain's collapse an economy which could be simply much too big to bail out but financial adviser mark up your support he says adding survival package would not solve the fundamental flaws in the concept as a result. 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 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 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 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. now the controversial u.s. military facility at guantanamo bay has entered its tenth year as

a potential 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 arcus presence there follows a century old deal that cuba claims is not only invalid but threatens its sovereignty hoffa's reports. 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 greenland under which u.s. has to be. 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 dress and in clear contravention of international laws like the vienna convention the us government threatened to continue its occupation of cuba unless cuban authorities agreed to lease the land for america's military base indefinitely or for as long as it paid to cuban its yearly rents after the cuban revolution swept the island nation in 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 a 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. 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 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. well in addition to what you see on screen here there are always more stories for you on our website at r.t. dot com and here are some of what's on live right now the economic crisis in the u.s. has brought many businesses to their knees and left millions unemployed but find out how government workers in washington have managed to flourish during the recession. in the welcome to car bordertown well this new role playing community has its own tyrant and invites guests to build their own identity using cardboard we'll find out more on our website our team dot com.

there is an end in sight for the last ice bound ship that has been a stock off the coast of russia for easter for two weeks more than three hundred people were trapped aboard the vessel now being escorted to safety through the furs and seas by two ice breakers two smaller ships also stock have already been towed to safer waters the three vessels got trapped in ice in the sea of a horse before the new year extreme weather conditions and technical failures have been hampering the operation. now we queue leaks founder julian assange could face the death penalty in the us if he is eventually extradited there that's the fear of his lawyers according to legal papers released on tuesday assad is currently on bail in england sweden seeks him for trial on sex charges which were previously dropped but which he says are politically driven one of his lawyer says it would be easier for washington to have a extradited to the u.s. if he was sent to sweden some american politicians want him prosecuted over the

release of classified government documents and 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 or so which authorities now think the people can see what european arrest warrants are. so my guess is our know what they're going to do are fairly confident that they're going to come up with come sometime in the cynical fix that will allow him are they to go back to australia or possibly to go back militarily some kind of deal is done about what charges will be laid against him but i'm sure this whole problem media publicity about the european arrest because this is just this there are other legal instruments coming through which removes freedoms in other areas of life all done in the name of integrating europe's legal systems and staying. with the u.k.

the whereabouts of tens of thousands of asylum seekers are unknown to our home office blonder well the border agency has simply shelved almost half a million unsolved cases with some of them dating back to the ninety's robin simcox from the center for social cohesion says the u.k. has lost control of its borders due to new regulations britain has essentially lost control of who is coming into the country and once you can secure your borders you can't secure your country this is a outrageous situation that's a lot of why there's a huge problem with the britons 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 on top of this there is 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 that immigration last year into the u.k.

was around two hundred thousand people more coming to the u.k. than leaving it. on top of the asylum seekers and the backlog and of course we're going to have a massive problem we just need to be much stricter laydown much stricter criteria on who should be allowed into the u.k. and i don't think we've got it in control in anywhere near enough as it is that moment. well let's take a closer look at some other top stories from around the world flights have blocked it across the tunisian capital as security forces try to restore order in the country police clashed with gunmen near the main opposition party's headquarters and the interior ministry this new wave of violence comes as political leaders hold talks to form a unity government after weeks of chaos ended and the president fleeing to saudi arabia dozens have been arrested in recent days including members of the former president's guard under suspicion if you sing public fear calls for drive by shootings. more than six hundred people are confirmed dead following severe

flooding and mudslides across southeastern brazil since wednesday well a lol in near constant rain on sunday allowed rescue helicopters to deliver food and water to isolated areas the military is also involved in frantic rescue operations with fears away over 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. preliminary results suggest southern sudan has overwhelmingly approved two separate from the north in a week long referendum that ended saturday official results won't be announced until next month but most believe the referendum will split out because largest country in two earlier ninety seven percent of the southern sudanese diaspora voted for the split the independence referendum was promised to the south this part of

a peace referendum with the north in two thousand and five that swallowing twenty years of civil war in which two million people died in. the shooting rampage in tucson arizona that killed six and critically wounded a congresswoman has reignited the debate over u.s. gun control laws artie's lori horford is the 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 guns 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 in these seats 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 who don't agree with policies put in all these things that we've done and laws that need to be so do you think politics or guns are more violent and deadly i think politics and move out of the ring 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 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 those where the week's top stories all the back of the headlines in just a few moments.

is filled with joy. with parades and marches. inspiring be confusing us. but it was everything really that good and was allowed to speak out. though she shared her thoughts of me with her diary it all became evidence in the trial for counter-revolutionary activity. the evidence which condemned to label. the diary of a soviet school on.