polish prime minister calls for opposition to end of wrangling over the investigation. also in the program tonight internet freedom was questioned in europe as a swiss bank was found guilty of breaking banking secrecy rules after he held wiki leaks exposed massive tax evasion scheme. in this new need to separate us within the courts it's our strength as a new unit seems to me to be better reaffirms rush's commitment to the mideast peace process as he wraps up his to the region. and superpowers in talks as the chinese president meets his u.s. counterpart anxiety swings washington over the growing influence on the global

stage. evening from moscow you're watching r t it's ten pm wednesday night my name's kevin now in our top story the polish prime minister donald tusk told his country's parliament the political game should not affect the pursuit for the truth in the investigation into the plane crash that killed the former president this comes as the country's parliament savelli wait in the final report into the tragedy of his catarina reports tonight from moscow. there's been a lot of reaction of course to the investigation into the presidential plane crash that happened in april last year just outside the russian city of smiley and scott a lot of outrage was initially heard from poland but today's address by the polish prime minister actually comes as the voice of reason the polish prime minister was

mentioning to his colleagues that it is unwise to try and politicize this tragedy that the quest for truth couldn't be more political mind games in sight and that opposition members should keep that in mind when they sensationalize the investigation because he made it clear that politicizing this tragedy is not influenced benefits. once the truth to be complete and we realize that it will be inconvenient for many there is a complex number of causes for the crash it's convenient to blame the pilots that are under pressure the others it'll be convenient to blame the russians but it be the whole truth the organization that seeks the truth mustn't be influenced by forces in poland that wanted to be convenient for them there are more and more people specifically within poland's political elite that do believe that

politicizing all this tragedy should be put aside and that the truth and no matter how bitter will be very hard to accept for the polish side what needs to be in order for both sides to move on. to handle the difficult truth and this is a difficult truth we have. things in this report which help us to shift some responsibility away from the situation in our state a nation committee will publish the entire transcript although the entire conversation between the pilots of the polish presidential plane and the air traffic controllers in those recordings it is evident air traffic controllers did. morning pilots again for landing they did offer them to use a back up airport as was in their schedule they warn them about the life and missions let's have a listen to the recording what are the weather conditions fog four hundred meters visibility temperature and pressure please temperatures plus two pressure seven

forty five seven for fun if there's no opportunity for landing thank you but if it's possible try to landing approach weather permitting if not we will proceed to the second circle one a one when you have enough fuel for a second circle after the landing approach yes we will making a landing approach is the captain's decision at the height of one hundred meters you have to make a decision minsk and vitebsk will be requested for a sidetrack have you ever made a landing at a military airfield of course polish one a one at one hundred meters be ready to proceed to a second circle yes sir flaps and wheels down i control horizon make a second circle make a second circle make a second circle where is it make the second circle what i would call emergency crews it has been said by many of the already figures both in russia and poland and within the international aviation committee that no air traffic controller has that authority that at the end of the day it is the pilot's decision and therefore the pilot's responsibility to make

a choice about where the landing will take place and specifically of course with the pilot of a presidential plane and it does appear that those pilots made a decision a decision of course that ended in tragedy. as a corresponding country in a constant it says a columnist from the polish newspaper v. board he says it's beyond doubt that the polish pilots were to blame. there is not much room for debate in what regards the main aspects of the investigation it is obvious that the primary responsibility for the crash lies with the polish pilots who should not have landed. the finding of the intrastate commission the polish government certainly does not contest that polish public opinion is divided almost equally in three groups those who accept the responsibility of the polish pilots those who believe that russian air control is responsible and those who are not sure there is a small minority who still believes in the cover up and mysterious reasons but this

is not an important segment people which public opinion obviously it is difficult to accept that the responsibility of the polish pilots hopefully will be room for more negotiations between the governments. to produce a full round array of all the relevant circumstances. of a constantly give it a columnist with the polish newspaper reports speak to. a swiss banker has been found guilty of breaking the country's strict banking secrecy rules after he handed wiki leaks data about tax evaders a judge in a spirit court sentenced rudolf elmer to fine of over six thousand dollars british investigative journalist tony goes ling told us he believes this trial was an attempt to prevent further revelations about the scale of the bank's illegal dealings. the reason is to try to make sure that any bankers who are thinking of

leaking information whether to investigative journalists or wiki leaks on the internet anywhere have a second thought and that's the whole point of this case i think this case is going to send shock waves across the swiss banking system because this chap rudolf has come up with some incredible information it looks like we have forty politicians and many other business people around the world who have literally been hiding large amounts of their assets in the swiss bank accounts i mean this is something that they've been getting away with for decades and he is really the first person you ever come in and leak this information out to the public i don't think there's much doubt here that there's massive tax evasion been going on and the swiss authorities have been too relaxed on it for far too long and now they're going to get their comeuppance. and just let you know about a news event coming up on first day revelations said to continue wiki leaks is to shed new light about u.s. russia relations you can be the first to find out about these latest diplomatic

cables will be covering the story as you'd expect in full here on r.t. . russia is a co-sponsor of the mideast peace process and will continue its efforts to settle the conflict president dmitri medvedev reiterated russia's position of the meeting with the king of jordan as he wraps up his tour of the region at his cattle groucho is following that visit for us. of course jordan for russia is more than just a middle east partner in this region they have a very close very special relationship a visit is part of major appropriations for the russian jordan economic summit which is due to take place in march these here and to leaders will see them talk how they go into both straight konami ties their cooperation and added to spirit today they also discussed plans for the construction of a nuclear power plant in jordan which several countries are beating to build and russia among those countries but of course all of that was on the sidelines of talks on the major on the top priority subject regional developments in the middle

east and the israeli palestinian conflict. there's no need to separate us within the culture its strength is in our unity only in this way can we try to find a compromise which will satisfy both sides palestinians as well as israelis determined that it has a reserve rated one in palestine or russia's position on the conflict which actually hasn't changed since nine hundred eighty one then soviet union recognize palestine as an independent state today dmitry medvedev was looking for a month from the middle east peace process is obviously stalled at the three other members of the middle east quartet washington brussels and the united nations have so far been unable to persuade israel to make any form of concessions and russia is very keen to get engaged in talks with israel and palestine and palestinian president mahmoud abbas in an exclusive interview to set that russia had very good chances to become a key. peace negotiator. really recognize

palestine in one thousand nine hundred eighty eight it was also recognized by ninety other countries what do we expect from russia now there are two things the first concerns the middle east quartet it's necessary to do everything possible to boost its activity so that it's similar to the role of the european union we would like russia to convince the u. . because it's the only country that's against the final statement containing new conclusions it will help us to have a better substantiated discussion with israel while promoting the peace process russia could also insist on its position in stopping the settlement activity in its relationship with the us and israel and on getting back to the negotiations table i think that russia is ready for that that's what president medvedev has reaffirmed during this visit. also the visit up the russian president to jordan coin sides with the orthodox church celebrations of it be funny this is one of the twelve major orthodox holy days and this side forty kilometers outside of amman the

capital of jordan where we are now is the place where thousands of christians applause every year because it is believed to be the site where george baptized jesus christ this is the first stand to make from a very of is making a pilgrimage to this side as an orthodox christian is known to celebrate all those with all the days that he was always very keen on visiting the holy orthodox christian sites across the world. catron coach over for tea there's the russian president took a dip in the holy waters of the jordan river for the a perfectly orthodox christians are plunging into freezing waters at home to. the first day called a hearty group of what israel's mission the ocean with the song called trade your their existence. i could tell you one thing fully exonerated right now we are a fearless reporter diving enjoys the waters along with russians marking the if and even peter will team in

a few minutes time. the chinese president hu jintao is in the u.s. for a four day state visit with bilateral talks having started over economics trade and human rights some say the u.s. president obama is under pressure to clarify whether the countries are partners or rivals foreign affairs columnist simon tisdall says that u.s. officials are not shy away from challenging china at this time. i think barack obama has a lot to do to persuade the american public and the american congress that he is sticking up to china he was accused when he went to beijing in two thousand and nine of territory and it was a bit unfair but he didn't get very much achieved and he's had his whole succession of administration officials in the past week for being trotting out a whole shopping list of demands or requests or the wish lists for trying new direction and a whole range of areas as you mentioned you know on the economy on security and on human rights and other issues which are which seem to matter more to obama than

they do to president merican press reports supporters fishel say that obama is going to be much tougher this time around was going on very diverse reception from as to who is behind the scenes has been much tougher pushing some of these issues for free trade practices access to the chinese market and so on but whether he'll get anything substantive out of it in the short term is i think questionable. thoughts there a foreign affairs columnist simon tisdall from london a bit earlier and you can have your say about what you think about us china relations or what might their future be on our website r.t. dot coms question i've been asking you all mike thanks for taking part if you haven't the influencing the results of the been changing all night this is where we are this past ten moscow time not that many changes over the last less than half of you now that's forty three percent of you choose again that least serious option that quote china will own half of america's territory twenty four percent of you meanwhile predicted a fragile alliance between the two countries and

a slight increase in the number of u. twenty two percent now picking the most pessimistic nuclear world war and only eleven percent of you thinking the u.s. will freeze its debts to china those results as they've been changing throughout the view if you do influence them you'll have your say go to our web site r t dot com. next media freedom in the european union is in decline that is the finding of an international organization defending the rights of journalists its annual review suggests that in some e.u. countries reporters are under pressure from their governments and are often forced to reveal their sources when such countries latvia and artie's alexia is asking about some journalists in the baltic state. with professional persistence latvian

t.v. reporter. interviews a local politician in twenty years as a journalist she has done hundreds but one of them got her in serious trouble an expose on a security breach in latvia state revenue body and that with police in her apartment was forced they opened their doors and went into my flat and then they showed that they had a security search they had a search warrant one say took my computer and information and i got they also acquired information all of the my information sources that you by a law i am allowed to protect and that was the biggest problem for me as a journalist because i could not protect my information sources it was a story shock to many in latvia a country more used to press scrutiny just a couple of years ago latvia boasted one of the highest freedom of press ratings in all of europe being placed seventh on the annual reporters without borders index but for one reason or another in twenty ten this country is down on the very same

list this incident is far from an isolated case say experts this one received a lot of public attention but it is not the only one the skull of from the van spills cars school and economists was charged by the secret police and she was actually arrested for two days for disseminating alternative opinions of all to the future of the local currency. devaluation of launch was imminent we are losing the last. support for the alternative information the liberal information. among the cross alters this country lot of. other journalists who defined the insist freedom of the press is not being deliberately strangled he believes the reason is down to economics. newspapers when don't crowd to the recession he others turn to their owners for money to survive so the. storage is single handedly shifting look people editorial policies to their own preference

simply for the sake of three hundred three dollars in their heads directly he press freedom. there are other theories however some believe that latvia is spearing down the freedom of the press ratings simply because the people behind the index are biased but not good believes that as long as nobody has been punished over the forceful search of her apartment concerns about pressure on the press may not be groundless. ski r.t. reporting from brega in latvia. let me update you on a couple of world news stories in brief tonight a suicide bomber driving an ambulance with explosives and crashed into a security headquarters in central iraq it's left at least thirteen people dead more than sixty four others were wounded it happened in the ethnically mixed city of baquba north of the capital baghdad it's the second suicide blast in the last two days on choose day almost fifty people were killed after a bomber attacked a line of police recruits in the city of tikrit. haiti's former dictator called

duvalier as being brought before court on charges of corruption and embezzlement the charges relate to his fifteen years in office until one thousand nine hundred six and judges may take up to three months to decide if there's enough evidence for a trial known as baby doc duvalier is also been accused in the past of ordering torches and killings of political enemies that he had expected to return to the country after twenty four years in exile in france. orthodox christians are celebrating a perfectly a holiday which marks the baptism of jesus thousands of believers are plunging into frozen lakes and with temperatures plunging to minus fifteen degrees celsius it takes courage to brave the icy waters as you can imagine well anyway peter oliver went for a bit of a discovery. in the tradition of the author talks church here in russia the nineteenth of january is the date of the know what that means to people who worship the orthodox church is that was the date that jesus was baptized now to celebrate

that here they jump into the freezing cold rivers of russia now here in moscow where i am at least could a hole in the ice on the mosque of our river to make sure that bush prison people can jump into the river and celebrate dot's feast day of the epiphany no it's not just a religious thing this is now become something of a health kick if you will for people that want to come into the water to believe that the the icy temperatures can have some health properties for you can make you feel better in yourself the way it works in the religious sense is that it will see you again it will cleanse you of your sins and it will set you up for the new year your life to the blessing over the ice pool by a priest is headed essentially into a filmed and simulation of the season of chase's crisis because it's a place where i take my own turn getting in the world to see it's about money miss fifteen here the air temperature in moscow plus for apparently the temperature of the world is so i guess it's going to be

a little bit warmer there's nothing left to do now but we'll get him. to see how this course. was. very very. close. let's see how did that the first day pull that howard robertson when he read mission of the russian winter sound you're there exists and. i can tell you i'm feeling very exhilarated right now. we share the assy moscow. and all in the course of duty. the u.s. with its insatiable addiction to oil has been trying to diversify its energy sources and natural gas is one alternative clean burning in cheap there's much money to be made from it but the extraction process requires chemicals to be pumped into the ground there seeping into water supplies vats sparked the anger of many as

artie's christine found out for. first there was big oil. heavily relied on by big boys big toys and big business. now it seems that big gas is next with scenes like this popping up all over the country where companies drill for natural gas by fracturing the shale below the earth. and extracting the natural gas from it it's sold by many as the best option compared to coal and oil natural gas story is very american most of our oil shortage now are sixty five percent of our cities it's green earnings so it's greener than your coal or. it's affordable this is lee fuller of the independent petroleum association of america speaking on this panel at the heritage foundation to protect his industry and its huge profits from

regulation and oversight he says public disclosure of the toxic chemicals pumped into the earth will only lead to public misunderstanding and panic people can be scared of chemicals if you give them enough fear they can be responsive to fracking became exempt from the federal safe drinking water act of the energy policy act of two thousand and five largely with the help of then vice president dick cheney the former c.e.o. of halliburton a corporation deeply involved in the fracking industry many lawmakers here on capitol hill have fought to try to get the fracking industry regulated but time and time again they've faced fierce opposition from other lawmakers and lobbyists and whose best interest it is to have those industry secrets kept hidden so why regulate this practice especially when there's been so much talk about the shale you nair's and others who have benefited from natural gas drilling got a copy of the check. oh my look at that four hundred thirty

four thousand. dollars just like that and it fell out of sky but less has been said about the polluted drinking water of hundreds of other people people like pat for not only endemic pennsylvania this is a catastrophe you know we're basically living at ground zero for a catastrophe and everyone is overlooking it because they're listening to the gas well companies who are saying everything is fine this is great some residents save their water to show others what they're dealing with others say they can light it on fire and in louisiana seventeen cows grazing near a drilling site were found dead after the fracking fluid runoff got into their drinking water so how much power does big business really have. when it the oil and gas industry it seems they will allow nothing to stand in the way of their quest for a freer hand and a quicker profit in washington christine for south r.t.

. just like you know sports i heard about the farmer in twenty minutes tonight he's got to news from the australian open with him plenty of scope as for the big names including roger federer but we're talking business next from moscow. hello welcome to our business program. the recent deal between b.p. and ross nafta could spark investor interest in other state assets under the agreement the two companies will carry out exploration and russia's arctic shelf artie's tom barton brings us the latest from ross nafs headquarters in moscow. frausto sponsors are very happy the deal that's being signed they say that essentially what's going to happen now is a whole new industry is going to be. the industry of offshore arctic drilling which didn't exist before in russia they also say that this one of the first one billion dollars of this invested will be fielded by b.p. and they're happy about that b.p.

for its part is also happy because they feel that they've got the expertise and the technology to make that work and get it back later on it's called a global and arctics to teach it partnership and what it really means is that exploration there's a lot of oil there it's estimated that is about a fifth of the world's oil reserves are under the arctic explorers here people from this deal from b.p. and most never reckon they might be able to start drilling in five to seven years other experts say that's a bit over confident it could be as many as twenty years before they could actually get drilling but the deal is very much of mutual benefit for both both sides rosner if needs be b. for its expertise and specifically its advanced drilling technology and b.p. needs rosner after its gulf of mexico oil spill last april and needs to generate new revenue in the future. the russian oil industry could face new tax

rules as soon as march a draft law backed by the energy ministry would reduce export tax for crude oil by about seven percent while raising it for oil products the ministry wants to make the change this year without a phasing period any budget losses are expected to be covered by an increase in oil export volumes experts warn the measures could mean lower volumes for light or products on the local market and a jump in fuel prices. look at the markets in russia the stocks closed mixed on wednesday extending their losses and retreating for the third time in four sessions this is after citi group earnings resulted in mr analyst estimates curbing appetite for riskier assets the r.t.s. was up a point ten percent in the my sex was down two point zero five percent energy majors did help the indices. and russian markets are seeing some profit

taking after the oil fueled rally early in the week. at v.t. b. capital explains who wednesday's winners were the leaders again. view williams and rose from have percent zero percent. you can see. names of retailers. more than three percent was a popular name here and losing some ground as investors for their portfolios system was also one of the names. again almost four percent. and that's all the business news for this hour but you can always find more stories on our web site that's r t dot com slash business stay with us.

wealthy british style. that's not on the time. market why not come to. find out what's really happening to the global economy with mike's cause or for a no holds barred look at the global financial headlines tune into cars a report on our.

minds. would be so much brighter if you knew about someone from phones to impressions. please for instance on t.v. dot com. the for. in the czech republic is available in a hotel as science central hotel prima vera denise and most regal to full stop aida which i am a taste in bosnia and herzegovina multis available in. me and the children of each . big china.