in the. week's top stories on our t.v. i look for my general ratko blood denies charges of genocide in front of the hague tribunal. finds handing him over has done a little to speed up the new member. nations extension called the military campaign in the libya and deployment of attack helicopters boston suns a ground invasion that could be next in the country. also spreading hysteria over a killer few companies cripples european pressure to bear markets pushing spain from a chilly accuse of starting the deadly bug outbreak to the brink about. the man suspected of shooting dead journalist anna politkovskaya is officially charged

investigators claim they have enough evidence to prove the chechen a fugitive told the truth. but the stories that made headlines this week you're watching the weekly welcome to the program now prosecutors in serbia want to question rocco as a potential witness in their own investigation into what happened in the balkans conflict in the one nine hundred ninety s. a form of bosnian it so general is in custody at the hague where he's accused of eleven counts of war crimes including genocide this week he made his first court appearance before the trial you know he didn't make a plea but he told prosecutors the charges against him of what monstrous and i think his next appearance will be in a one month lot as had been on the run for sixteen years before being. arrested in

serbia just over a week ago you said his extradition was he hopes of joining the union but it also used reports the e.u. dream doesn't appear and is close. but still waiting for the green light serbia's arrest an extradition of former bosnian serb army chief outcome law which was one of the key conditions for a chance to get one foot in the european union's door a potential membership could mean billions of dollars worth of grant aid and for struggling serbia it's a lifeline but what two official belgrade is a step closer to the e.u. is actually no step at all and they go secure and this is a very very good news this is a very courageous decision by the serbian president this is one additional step for the integration of serbia into the european union one day is really i know you're so that is your. other steps remain to be taken your right to say that the rest of

the political chief of croatian serbs go and had such he was still in hiding electro legislation with engagement in regional cooperation with neighbors preserving president boris tadic there's no task to challenge him to take on in the quest for e.u. membership sure that. arrest. in the next few weeks. before. this is a crystal clear this is a fall from being a whole international nations but while officials prepared to jump through yet another year of hope most wonder if the list of conditions will ever and some officials are also talking about the fact that. serbia has to recognise the fact or recognise its own problems across the world before it can really get into the e.u. as long as the treason paul or and his party the list of demands will be endless still serbia hopes in. carte ration will be rewarded and to news to beat

a path to the e.u. or the offices of the e.u. delegation to serbia proudly displayed or flags of all of their member states and serbia really wants to join the group but the list of conditions for a possible accession seems to be neverending and for official belgrade membership this is always visible and always out of reach catherine as our belgrade serbia. well it says that he needs more than the official thirty days to study the charges against him put asunder says no matter how much time he's given he simply not able to take part that you. can't even read one has to go through thousands of pages to be able to testify in court with that at least simply unable to do that he has difficulties with speech to how will he even sold with his lawyers it's impossible you can watch the full interview with. the son of former bosnian serb general that called garbage on our website of course that is. dot com.

this week nato intensified its bombing campaign in libya and decided it would last for at least another three months a u.n. report has accused me of war crimes and the rebels are also guilty of similar abuses meanwhile britain and france have deployed low flying combat helicopters to the country the move has operations closer to the ground pointing concerns over a land based offensive because russia's foreign minister warned that pushing the boundaries of the u.n. mandate in libya may lead to future resolutions losing the credibility. we expressed our opinion over this escalation of the military operation we think what's happening is a shift towards a ground operation this would be very regretful because the violations of the security council resolution already taking place are more than enough to think about the attitudes towards the un's decisions. colonel gadhafi claimed from the

outset that opposition forces in libya were western puppets peace activists crist's ninety or so is the nato continuing bombardment gives credence to these claims. what they are effectively saying take it there are fears we're going to keep bombing you keep killing civilians keep bombing libyan towns and cities until you go it's entrenched gadhafi because he from the start was saying that the popular movement in the east of the country was a was a movement that was sponsored by the west and he used that to bolster his position the the war has been lengthened the war's been deepened and it's actually. a strong if not stronger position now than he was when the west first got involved . during a nato is intervention in libya colonel gadhafi loyalists have been using cluster bombs now these are banned weapons they're dispersed in many minds over a wide area with civilian casualties almost inevitable and as our reports it's

embarrassing for madrid because the money trail behind the weapons that leads right back to spain. this one strike it cost a bomb can spread thousands of small explosives if a wide area is fired into populated areas if they were in his right or recently he always guarantees civilians one of the many reasons more than one hundred countries the fans their production the markings on the shells found in the libyan city belong to the spanish company insta loves and there were arms that one twenties that are prohibited that were purchased by gadhafi that were used against a residential area and these about that and they were produced by a spanish company and finance press punished banks cities how did you get up the forces come to acquire spanish made armies in two thousand and seven and still ours and make the most of the lifting of sanctions against libya as the tripoli regime fell back into favor with the west spanish company what

a contract to supply get out these forces with their custom nations until two thousand and eight and spain signed up to the international convention banning the use. we're living in now once again the enemy and it is part of nato finds itself i think a regime that it itself helped to arm and the trail goes back much further to spanish banks which provided the financial firepower to instill laws and to make their deadly weapons the people who want to bring this forward uses are kind of a way to illustrate what there is between a bank. civilian deaths in conflicts without legislation remains a direct connection between civilian deaths the weapon produces and the bands that finance them and therefore to the banks customers ransom not really transparent about what they are using the saviour's money for so it's not that easy to find

a recent report by spanish n.g.o.s it's. we feel that as many as fourteen banks in spades unfold with funding weapons but she says the v.a. is the spanish banks. if i don't think the controversial weapons it's exactly this kind of large scale finance thing they contain is now trying to rein in pushing for the development of more right bus policies to ensure the banks are held accountable many of the banks named in the investigation and now coming to say their policies on funding of production are change we've always doubts legislation and it's until that happens in the queue well the bones production will the profits of. sarah. and while the profits of war in dangerous civilian lives and they've got in afghanistan the deaths of innocent bystanders on the planet later this hour here on our report on the controversial. soldiers who killed a number of civilians in

a mistake and on the village. missed this previously seen video of an iranian plane crash during a national. germany is considering a different plane after wrongly accuse the country's cucumbers of causing a deadly cold light outbreak it has so far claimed at least nineteen lives most of them in germany a restaurant is now being investigated as a possible source of negative publicity over a spanish project destroy the country's vegetable exports as aussies ignore any reports that may mean another round of global hysteria. some q. cumbers kill that much is clear and it's also become apparent that although germany blamed spain as the source of the it's not that's costing innocent spanish fruit

and vegetable export is around two hundred million euros a week and it would all be obvious statement sure an absolute lack of responsibility what is happening today is a check made to the spanish vegetable and fruit industry. calling the european health watchdog discredited russia says it had no choice but to ban all fruit and vegetable imports from the entire european union a reaction in brussels called disproportionate. of our colleagues from the european commission say russia's decision goes against the spirit of the frankly i don't know about that but if you convert people after that even though that's not the kind of thing that raises your spirit it's a very delicate time for the spanish economy which is teetering on the edge of needing an e.u. bailout this is decidedly not a good moment for one hundred fifty thousand tons of produce to go unsold. simply because. all. this time.

one person cannot hold back all. cynics say all this is just the media whipping up its latest health hysteria in two thousand and five the united nations warned the world that bird flu could kill up to one hundred fifty million people in reality seven years until the end of two thousand and ten saw three hundred three people die more recently swine flu was the killer encouraged by pharmaceutical companies european countries spend billions of dollars on unnecessary vaccines probably will see a very soon. a large pharmaceutical industry like they did with the swine flu but they have some. protect people against. screening so true. across europe all these health scares and adversely affected economies this looks no different and germany's baseless accusations may be what

finally pushes spain into bailout territory spain will now seek reparations from the relevant or storage fees in europe after its prime minister criticised the european commission for not supporting the country enough particularly after the infection was proven not to have come from spanish cucumbers spain has a titan task ahead of its repairing its reputation as a reliable exports or a freesat in vegetables all over the new position essential to its a lake economy nor avatar to brussels. and continues to track down the latest on that situation in europe you can check out twitter feed your screen and. tweet. about the infection grows no one's taking any of their weekend picnics. underscore comparably on top of things.

you're watching a weekly here now this week saw a breakthrough in the investigation. as an assassination five years ago the main suspect in the fugitive has been officially charged with murder of the prominent russian journalist police say they have enough evidence to prove the seven year old was the one who pulled the trigger i think it's pretty one of the reports. this is the man investigators say fired the shots which killed an employer called skier was dumb had been the subject of a wide ranging manhunt after spending years on the run in belgium he was arrested by police in his home village in chechnya on tuesday and later charged with the murder. the rest was carried out with the help of belgian police where he had been hiding for several years we've been in constant contact with them and it was this cooperation that helped us capture the suspect belgian police triggered the manhunt a market of was forced to leave the country investigators are currently questioning

him in connection with the murder of anna politkovskaya mahmood of two brothers along with a former police officer who were acquitted of the murder in two thousand and nine due to lack of evidence but the russian supreme court and no verdict and ordered the investigation reopened part of course because son told me the family hopes this arrest will bring them closer to finding out who killed his mother of course it's a very important step but we have to wait and see if mahmoud off stilt will be proved but even that is not enough we have no clue who the mastermind of the murder is nor the organizers it's a significant part of the journey but it's certainly not the end and internationally renowned journalist anna politkovskaya was shot dead in october two thousand and six as she returned home she was famous for investigative work particularly reports into human rights abuses former colleagues believe that due to the close family ties of those accused of the murder there will always be some unknowns surrounding the crime as long as one has to point out it's hard to tell

how many people are involved we have three mood of brothers and their own called he's a criminal boss and could easily be the mastermind of the murder of good relatives especially chechens are unlikely to testify against one another politkovskaya murder isn't the only high profile case to see a recent breakthrough journalist nina argument of the things that. along with the conviction of the killers of freelance journalist understand the border and human rights lawyer stanislav michael of chile these type of murders do get solved in today's russia this is definitely a landmark victory into fights against impunity in russian journalist murders not just journalists but also the rights defenders lawyers. and we see that as a very significant step forward mark mood of currently in moscow where his lawyers are preparing his defense while for the family and friends of. their long wait for

justice continues. r.t. moscow started turning our attention to poland now where a military court has cleared seven a nato songs of killing civilians in an attack on an afghan village for years ago the panel ruled that the evidence was not sufficient to support war crimes charges saying that honest mistakes or faulty ammunition might have been to blame because as he said daniel bushell reports the verdict has outraged many observers and fueled calls for the troops to be withdrawn from afghanistan. civilians killed and nato soldiers go free the same old story in afghanistan the threats and for a moment to be different polish soldiers were put on trial for including a pregnant woman and a child. on the sixteenth of august two thousand and seven mortar shells that were fired by polish troops in the afghan villages. as a result six people were killed and three were severely wounded but the soldiers

were cleared of all charges one of the accused told r.t. it's all been a big mistake we didn't see people. sometimes up the sides again it was because. it was. something. also a problem. a grenade mel functioned taliban target by five hundred metres claims a shit ski but prosecutors alleged it was revenge for a roadside bomb which killed another polish soldier earlier in the day experts say it's unlikely anything could go so catastrophic leigh wrong and this is not logical . could not make such a serious error with such a large distance the question is did they decide to open fire themselves or did they receive this command from it but there is no doubt they were shooting at the village nearby. the defendants their commanders who ordered the attack and they

should be the one standing trial activists while the conflict continues civilian deaths from nato bombing or inevitable will only rise and the longer the war goes on their war situation is the answer is i think quite simple to withdraw troops from afghanistan beginning of any process of the opposition of this country because the troops western troops doesn't bring studies agent. i'm going to stand just the opposite as the death toll goes up on both saw its support for nato mission it's a majority in europe say opinion polls will think the conflicts going in the wrong direction. this was already unpopular in the e.u. there's a hundred billion euro because while services are being called. the size of our boys coming back in coffins is even worse leaving the poorest of civilians on punished for the weakens the case sustain afghanistan even the afghan president's

turning against nato after the latest fourteen civilians were killed how many cause delivered his strongest words yet giving a final warning and returning war if it's happens again don't you go shorty. and you can or always give us your thoughts on the stories we're covering just by heading over to. news and analysis updated every minute. need to discover today on a devastating blow to several villages in a central russian republic look at these pictures here as i mean it. happens at nighttime like lights up the night sky or the details on the video waiting for you . and see how one hundreds exercise their first amendment rights of the jefferson memorial in washington by dancing it's after five people were arrested last week for a similar flash mob including an r.t. america presenter with a police action described as aggressive. competition. in

the weekly but the top stories of today and of the week now israeli security forces have opened fire on protesters on the syrian border killing six. has details from. hundreds of palestinians have gathered on the syrian side of the israeli syrian border and along the day today a group of about one hundred and fifty of them made their way to the border face we're being told that they were actually trying to cut that border face when israeli soldiers fired warning shots in the air now those one shots seem only to have inflamed the crowds because israeli soldiers very soon followed up with actually taking aim at some of the protesters and syrian media suggesting that at least four people have been killed there hasn't been any statement from the israeli army they haven't confirmed those deaths but certainly this is a day that they have been preparing for several days now the country is in a state of high alert and has been ever since the call went out for palestinians

from lebanon syria the west bank and gaza to make their way to the borders with israel and for today to try and cross those borders today is the forty fourth anniversary of the one nine hundred sixty seven six day war now that was a war that is well run but it is a war that palestinians refer to as the arab downfall but of course human rights activists are very critical particularly of the fact that it's a great deal if we are to believe the syrian of course four people have been killed today and ten people were killed back on may the victim they criticize an israeli army within very quick to fire at demonstrators. these posts live recording israel's relationship with its neighbors becomes ever more tense looks at the plight of communities on the egypt gaza border and due to israel's decade long blockade civilian population has resorted to underground smuggling just to start. they live comfortably next to the border of the guns and the chips but also on the border of peace and war. they are responsible not only for themselves. but also

for their loved ones. they are ready to take any risk. the streets. watching the weekly here on r.t. were coming from moscow a rebound version of the tried and tested a soyuz spacecraft has just means home into position it's ready to blast off in just a few days it will carry three crew members to the i assess very six month mission on board of course mankind's most remote outpost in the francis and i can all question for us. the twenty eighth expedition to the international space station blast off in just under three days from here at the black nor cosmos drome so far everything is run according to plan very smooth indeed we've got three people

heading up into space from here russian cosmonauts sergei volkov japanese astronaut such. and american astronaut mike fossum and with us is mike fossum son he's going to give us a little inside story as to how it's been living and preparing for a space expedition with an astronaut what is it like actually living with an astronaut day in and day out he's just a normal guy you know we were just talking a minute ago about how he seems like a nice guy and he really is the is really down to earth and i feel like a lot of these guys are they're just they just need to manage to get this job and now he's going into space it's going to school here one of the things you notice about your dad and comes back from a trip up there where you know he's kind of a macho man and so you know he likes to think that he's going to be ok when it comes back but we'll see because you know they're really weak when they come back i'll be up there for six months and his muscles will be his bones of the week so we'll see if he if he takes the wheelchair like so many of the other astronauts do

or not thank you so much for talking with him we will all right guys this rocket is being put into position to hold steady upright for the next three days until launch until then we'll be keeping a close eye on the operations seeing how everything is going to make sure that it is smooth sailing for blastoff on june eighth. lynsey france right there well more stories coming your way next hour here on r.t. as the mission to mars enters its second year a look at the challenges faced by the presidents in the longest ever space flight simulation to the red planet and back. has paid its final respects to its late president sort of your cock ups who got in moscow last weekend after a major surgery thousands of mourners attended a farewell ceremony in the capital so home before laying the party to rest prime minister vladimir putin was among those paying tribute to sixty two year old back up. here for more than five years during which the republic gained its independence

from. its not yet clear who will take its place in the next. ok let's check out some of the headlines from around the world for you this hour and government have a type presidential compound in southern yemen killing at least four soldiers president ali abdullah saleh has also suffered injuries and is left for saudi arabia for treatment is now speculation about whether or not he will return the country has been hit by an rest for three months with at least one hundred fifty killed in the government crackdown. a chain of volcanoes i have started erupting in southern chile causing thousands to flee the area plumes of smoke and ash are rising ten kilometers into the air now so far there's been no reports of any injuries the volcanic chains been dormant for decades and so it's last major eruption in one thousand nine hundred sixty. but if you stay with us here for an in-depth coverage of natural disasters later in the program we interviewed russian

oceanographer who says the phenomenon of stay. previously unseen video footage has now surfaced online allegedly showing the crash of an iranian military jet i mean air show two years ago if you want you may find some of these pictures to starting point in your video was film. by the crew of another plane flying in the show just outside toronto it captures of the moment i and i are seventy six a military plane falls to earth and explodes after a midair collision with a fighter jet seven the crew members were killed in that crash. ok you're up to date for now here on r t i'll be back in a few moments with a recap of our headlines to stay with us.

the live coming next to the border of the gulf of egypt but also on the border of peace and war. there are responsible not only for themselves. but also for their loved one. they are ready to take any risk.

to the streets. which brightened if you mean about someone from funniest impressions. these stunts on t.v. don't come. it's. just so calm.