thomas discovers what makes antarctica so special and attractive for many. parts of it is the bones and slugs of. extradition to the bottom of the earth on our street. this week's top stories are nancy a former bosnian serb army general rusko largish denies charges of genocide and mass murder evolve from the hague tribunal world's deadliest waits to see handing him over will do anything for its e.u. membership hopes. his deployment of our time helicopters and leave it and a three month extension to the mission sparks russian concerns that the military campaign could be moving a step closer to a ground operation. also in the program spain's already troubled economy takes another blow arch mistaken the german accusations that spanish vegetables caused the deadly e. coli outbreak sent the country's exports into a nosedive. and about as i heard of shooting a prominent russian journalist on

a political scheme to thousand and six has been charged with murder investigators claim to have enough evidence to prove the chain fugitive pulled the trigger. hello and welcome to the program this is aussie's weekly review and you're nashville thanks for joining us this week rats could not it has made his first court appearance at the hague crimes tribunal after sixteen years on the run but the former bosnian serb general refused to enter a plea to eleven accounts of genocide and mass murder during the bosnian war in the one nine hundred ninety s. it claimed a long list of genocide charges against him were most true and of noxious meanwhile prosecutors in serbia were under a mission from the un for abuse or to question lodged. as

a potential witness in their own investigation into crimes so i committed against sabs you said his extradition to the hague was kate's ago great hopes for joining the union but as catarina reports this train doesn't appear any less. still waiting for the green light services arrest an extradition of former bosnian serb army chief an african luggage 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 a no step at all and go. this is a very big news this is a very courageous decision by the serbian president faces one additional step for the integration of serbia into the european union one day is really i know go there so that is your. other steps remain to be taken your right to say to the rest of

the political chief of croatian serbs and had d.h. who is still in hiding electro legislation with engagement in regional cooperation with neighbors for serbian president boris tadic there is no task too challenging to take on and the quest for new membership sure that we are going to. rest mr hodges. in the next few weeks. ago for us this is a crystal clear the service of fulfilling all international obligations but while officials prepare to jump through yet another year of most wonder if the list of conditions ever some visuals are also talking about the fact that. serbia has to recognise the fact recognise it's a province of possible before it can really get into the e.u. as long as the trees in power and his party the list of demands will be. and was

still serbia hopes its corporation will be rewarded and continues to be a pair to the new doors the offices of the e.u. delegation to serbia proudly display the flags of all of their member states and serbia really wants to join the group but the worst of conditions for possible expression seems to be neverending and for official belgrade membership is always visible and always out of reach catherine r r t l great serbia and russia could large it shows he needs more than their fair share of thirty days to study the charges against him and his son says no matter how much time he's given it's simply not able to take part in a trial. he can't even read he has to go through thousands of pages to be able to testify in court over the release simply unable to do that he has difficulties with speech to how will you consult with his lawyers it's impossible. and you can watch the full interview with darkon largish they sign up for bosnian serb general the

outcome luggage on our website at r.t. dot com. this week nato intensified its bombing campaign in libya and agreed to prolong the mission for another three months until september also was dated the u.n. issued a report claiming the rebels as well as colonel gadhafi had been guilty of committing crimes in while british and french time helicopters have carried out the first tribes of believe they are giving the nato campaign more muscle gave colonel gadhafi the move has prompted concerns over in river and land base the fact that russia's foreign minister warns that pushing the boundaries of the un mandated leader may lead to future resolutions losing their credibility. when we expressed our opinion over to circulation of the military operation with 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. more than enough to think about

didn't actually choose towards humans decisions. they took the hoped for a quick results in leap year but that never happened and antiwar journalist patrick says that means plan b. is likely government that regime at least something which the situation is getting worse for the west in libya i think when they first thought they could kind of swoop in two months ago and basically bomb the country in for them into democracy i thought this was going to be quite a quick process where they could basically keep their keep a bit of a distance hold bombs into libya get rid of the gadhafi and then everything will be all right no obviously that isn't the case and the introduction of these bunker busting bombs from the apache helicopters are inevitably going to make this it in worse they could bring about severe civilian casualties in libya and i think also reek of desperation but we're making a lot of noise and for a lot of very expensive forms over the last couple of months but those who have done very little else they've ripped the democratic initiative from the libyan

people and taken it into the hands of a small elite of western leaders. so during nato his intervention and lead can all khadafi have been using cluster bombs these are banned weapons that discuss many mines over a wide area with civilian casualties almost inevitable. for three ports and some are saying from the trade because the money trail behind the weapons needs right to spray. just one strike because the bomb can spread thousands of small explosives over wide area is fired into populated areas if the worm is right or recently it always guarantees civilian deaths one of the many reasons more than one hundred countries and their production and markings on the shells found in the libyan city belong to spanish company insta lovers and there were arms that one twenty s that are prohibited that were purchased by the r.c.

that were used against a residential area in these rather and they were produced by a spanish company and financed by spanish banks it is. the forces come to acquire spanish made arms in two thousand and seven hours and made the most of the lifting of sanctions against libya as the tripoli regime fell back into favor with the west . spanish company won a contract to supply get out these horses with their custom missions until two thousand and eight and spain signed up to the international convention banning the use. with libya now once again the enemy spain is part of nato finds itself fighting a regime that it itself helped to arm and the trail goes back much further the spanish banks which provided the financial firepower to instill laws or to make their deadly weapons of war we want to bring this thing forward uses as kind of

a way to illustrate what think there is between a bank. civilians are conflicts and without legislation there remains a direct connection between civilian deaths the weapon could cheeses and the bands that finance them and therefore to the banks customers bernsen looks really transparent about what they are using the savers money for so it's not easy to find a recent report by spanish and years it's revealed that as many as fourteen banks since they don't fold their funding weapons produces the p.v.a. is the spanish bank has been most active in financing producers of controversial weapons and it's exactly this kind of large scale financing they contain is now trying to rein in pushing for the development of more robust policies to ensure the banks are held accountable many of the banks named in the investigation are now coming forward to say their policies on funding and production are to change with

or without sledge islay sharon gets into all that happens in the murky world of arms production all things of profitable business sarah firth r.t. if you're it. ok so into people are reported dead and more than three hundred injured after israeli security forces opened fire on pro palestinian protesters on the syrian border thousands of demonstrators were in their original the forty fourth anniversary of the arab israeli war pulis clear as to details from. hundreds of palestinians have gathered on the syrian side of the israeli syrian border and every long day today a group of about one hundred and fifty of them made their way to the border face really being told that they were actually trying to cut that order phase 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 so this is a day that there has been preparing for several days now the country is in

a state of high alert and has been ever since before we told the palestinians from lebanon syria the west bank and gaza to make their way to the borders with israel and will today to try and cross those borders today is the fourth anniversary of the one nine hundred sixty seven six day war now that was a war that is one but it is a war that palestinians referred to as the arab downfall but of course human rights activists are criticizing israeli army been very quick to fire at demonstrators. and peace activists around attorney if told r.t. that israel's actions risk provoking a new ball it sounded like there was no disapprobation or using live ammunition there were just civilians on armed civilians who were just marching towards the border i think that's the major question is what would be israeli army do this coming september after the u.n. group recognize the palestinian state tens of thousands of palestinians will be

marching towards the fences in the west bank and the big question is whether the israeli army would decide to shoot i think they did today and then we'll see dozens of people who've been killed. that would be the start of another war another intifada. in a few minutes palooka billing during a practice of serving at the frontline are many american veterans have returned from conflicts around the world to hear how they're handling the post-war trauma that's how the lighting of their lives. and also more than a year in space of well sort sort of we'll look at the challenges facing the disciplines in the longest ever space flight simulation for the red lights and. prescriber see the next installment of its one hundred and ten billion euros learning to fly athens has promised to implement strict austerity measures to

stabilize its economy a goal it failed to reach so far public anger is now taking over the cuts turns of thousands of greeks are protesting outside of parliament and professor of political science alliance playings bailing out countries is a dead end europe and the i.m.f. want greece to tighten its belt more and more are so there's no no way greece can get out of the crisis is if you tighten your belt more and more you create a recession and if you create a recession the situation gets worse and worse and it's harder and harder for you to be back in debts i don't see how this money can restart the economy if people spend less and less i think suggested now there's a real danger. we'll have to back out of the euro in order to be able to do that huge currency to have more tourists to sell more products and originally when the euro was greeted left in europe was there much against it because you had

a strong economy used a strong current to jean marc germany forming a monetary union with weaker economies and that is a recipe for trouble. and spain may be a step closer to an e.u. bailout of a different kind of to germany wrongly blamed from the country as the cause of europe's deadly e. coli outbreak the accusations have destroyed spain's fruit and vegetable exports the thing is now being pointed at germans beansprouts as a possible source of the contamination which has claimed twenty two lives and agents an expert and author on globalization and finance scare could spark another brand of international hysteria. when something goes wrong it is only human nature to try and put the blame on somebody else and germany did that very powerfully accusing poor innocent spanish cucumbers of being the cause of the e-coli outbreak now nevertheless i think that there is probably

a more subtle agenda be highly all of this that is closely related to the fact that there are increasing so intrinsic all forces within the european union that already made a lot of people's talk about fractures powerful break ups we just heard in the previous nodes that if greece doesn't find its way around it's cool its financial crisis in might put a lot of the european monetary mechanism the euro very often one could even imagine that germany or many germans or many powerful people in derby are probably wondering why the even got themselves into europe to begin with so i think it's not it's it's rugby league to just jump to the first obvious conclusion of a piece of news the real papers we must try and find all the layers of truth and reason that might give it to the media to respond to specific powers will be assure all those advertisers or the people who actually control the media here is a tendency to push specific story is only one fifth of the entire planet was just

watching a royal wedding then two days later the alleged killing of osama bin laden and now everybody seems to be going hysterical over concern about the e. coli outbreak. but every says witnessing panic buying into shops with prices more than doubling the country's economy has stalled and its currency downward presently shanker no need then imagine say a bailout to keep his culture out russia is ready to help and has lined up three billion dollars towards mainstay of privatized state assets valorous is also asking for a loan from thinks national monitoring family and. and please give us your thoughts on the stories we're covering by heading to r.t. dot com news and analysis updated every minute and here are some of the stories lined up for you there at the moment. a devastating blow to several villages in the central russian republic as and i mean disaster lights out this time the details and media as r.t.

doc. see how hundreds exercise their first amendment rights at the jefferson memorial in washington by dancing it's after five people were arrested last week for a similar flash mob including an arty american presenter with police actions described as aggressive or constitutional. and how a birthday party turned out to be almost a national celebration sixteen year old girl from germany posted an invitation to her party on frey's book forgetting to make it private i doubt on r.t. dot com how all the guests were accommodated. this week saw a breakthrough in the investigation of anna politkovskaya assassination five years ago the main suspect a chechen fugitive has been officially charged with the murder of the prominent russian journalist police say there have been up evidence to prove the thirty seven year old was the one who pulled the trigger to all of the reports now on this latest development. this is the man investigators say fired the shots which killed

anna politkovskaya was dumb mood of had been the subject of a wide ranging manhunt after spending years on the run in belgium he was arrested by police at his home village in chechnya on tuesday and later charged with the murder. of the rest was carried out with the help of belgian police who 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 and mark would of was forced to leave the country investigators are currently questioning him in connection with the murder of anna politkovskaya mahmud 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 nole bad verdict and ordered the investigation reopened but 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 our skills will be proved but even that is not enough we have no clue who the mastermind of the murder is nor about 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 her investigative work particularly reports into human rights abuses former colleagues believe the duty close family ties of those accused of the murder there will always be some unknowns surrounding the crime was done as well as the point of it's hard to tell how many people are involved we have three more of brothers and their own call he's a criminal bourse and could easily be the mastermind of the murder could really civs especially chechens are unlikely to testify against one of. the politkovskaya murder isn't the only high profile case to see a recent breakthrough journalist and you know again of the things that. along with

the conviction of the killers of freelance journalist i understand see a billboard for that human rights lawyer stanislav mark a lot of shows 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 through rights defenders lawyers. and we see that as a very significant step for the mood of currently in moscow where his lawyers are preparing his defense while for the family and friends about a quarter. long wait for justice continues these are all over the moscow. they greeted like true heroes were fun fact chairs and the hope of a new beginning but for thousands of u.s. troops coming home from the transition to civilian life was painfully haunted by traumatic memories. from a soldier who shared a struggle. thank you thank you very much into the infinite world of literature

and here's this twenty eight year old ex marine an american who abandoned her weapon four written words to tell a story she says is kept censored from u.s. citizens he will people may know that it affects us i don't think that they understand the weight. and the toll that it takes on us and seeing the effects of war. the literal facts and the dead bodies that were made jessica could bell's memoir shade it black details a traumatic inhuman account of war in two thousand and four goodell spent eight months in iraq collecting cataloging bagging and boxing the bodies of dead marines at the mortuary affairs unit and experience no u.s. president who's declared war has ever endured if there was a result of an explosion there could be several. body cases so sometimes i would

require us to you know crawl under a truck or crawl into trucks or just as you mentioned. you know you want to. watch this that you can get back to the family could tell pieced fallen soldiers back together after receiving body bags filled with limbs it's difficult to look at but you have to look at that because you have to you know put them in their respective body bag or send them to their respective family nearly four thousand five hundred u.s. soldiers have returned from iraq in caskets more than fifteen hundred flown in from america's other war in afghanistan that was a marine and i think right there for the millions who do make it home alive many like it out are terminated by memories post-traumatic stress disorder depression and substance abuse i couldn't leave my apartment you know i didn't have friends i talk to anybody and i suffer from flashbacks and nightmares and i i couldn't

process that i had a really hard to kind of make sense of it more than six years later but del says she's still searching for reasons to justify the damage and death caused by the u.s. war in iraq as a marine she did what she was told as a civilian she questions why u.s. leaders glorified soldiers as heroes but neglect to speak about the consequences of their service i don't know that the government respects the trends because if there is like that i don't think that they would send us to these places. to carry out what they're asking of us so i don't think that parents like this there from the get go. declaring war is the providence of politicians over the decades us worse have resulted in a reported twenty three million american veterans and many left struggling. just to

life following the battle a shift from fighting enemies the fighting demons. r.t. new york shocking video following and showing an iranian military jet crash has emerged on the internet two years after the tragedy the footage was taken from another plane taking part in a military air show near tehran it captures the moment the russian sixty seven just six military plane some balls out of control and explodes after a media collision with a fighter jet all seven crew members were killed in that much. a major milestone as resurgent future interplanetary travel has been passed this week of eight years since the crew six began a simulation of a first month flight to mars and all without ever leaving the ground six volunteers are taking part in this seventeen month mocked up mission the length of a return trip to mars. with russian and european scientists studying the

psychological effects of long term isolation the crew is now on the return leg after a successful simulated landing and dr patrick flick told us what challenges lie ahead. these guys have been locked away for for a year and they've still got five months to go and it's important to remember that they haven't actually had voice contact with the control center for eleven months now and that's really quite intense so it must be very very difficult indeed i think they really must be at this point counting down the days and wondering what it would be like to reestablish human contact they've really had to imagine themselves into the situation they've really had to convince themselves that they're doing this for real but there's a huge amount that they're learning during this and of course the data that they collect will support scientific studies for many months at least if not years to come obviously the primary aim is to understand the impact upon future long term

space travel but clearly there are other implications for people in long term isolation away from contact. and more space stories coming your way next hour as the next team prepares for blastoff today international space station so bring you the latest from the lunch launch pad and be baikonur cosmodrome well we'll find or find out how the crew members feel before heading into orbit. well you're up to date and out the back and a few moments where the recount five lives size to a radio.

kill innocents here was a big burst of course and that's never a. sharpness cost to me i think of it every day. throughout the flight from memory. the same or so on top of the surprise. i was afraid. i was ashamed that i. i was ashamed that i had to.

go play. in the market. well i don't be out all the cardboard. cut out for i'll go on i want to i think. that i was a good soldier. but now most older on the other side and i think i'm just not good . culture is that so much about the taxpayers and i mean intimidation is in a lot of people and areas saving the hero in the financial and political costs of doing so is it all worth it doesn't your all project need a serious rethink should there be.

too much brightness if a bad song from phones to impression is so. nice for instance on t.v. dot com. if. it is believed to. be easy. to believe. such. a close up game has been to the whole graham richard thank you all the turning point i'm learning more to. this time of r.t. goes to the region where half of the area is occupied by an.