very small shop who they damage the ground. bad choices in crop planting intense cattle pasturing and in favorable weather conditions of all brought about an ecological catastrophe these daily winds that blow over counties contributed to the disaster they carry solid particles of dust and salt from the drying arabs see vast lush pastures have been all that robbed of their moisture. alexanders clad remembers all too well how it started thirty years ago. and a master plan of countering desert invasion was put together. when an emergency state was introduced in the republic almost all farmers schoolchildren and students were involved in seed collection and subsequent sowing works in the region brochure the results achieved proved that it was possible not only to stop does it invasion but also to bring life back but there were not that but it'll take fifteen to twenty

years for this land to become step again. we should remember that it's impossible to revive step in its original form on the open so. the water our goal is not only to reinforce the sandy soil but also to create quality pastures that will foster the development of cattle breeding in kalmykia where. it's a tough task selecting which plants are fit for life in the desert and those that can help turn the desert back into step in bush's was selected by way of trial and error which. was one of the first scientists who proved which plants are most likely to survive here with the cord injury this is a route one of the bushes planted to study the. it would be the roots can grow fifteen to twenty meters deep yet no one can know it's a very convenient plant to use because it grows in the sand and doesn't require watering

. when you get in the world enough scientists recommend planting cuttings of killing you know the same way grapes are planted. on what we were hesitant at first but it turns out that it grows well after all even on certain people can't help wondering but tell us what's the use of planting sticks but after three months the sticks start to blossom. today residents of the county village of pecans kate will start another round combating the desert all they have is an old tractor with soviet era of quick mint attached to fight the invading sands the new agricultural technique of planting cuttings with just the working team is composed of three people two technicians who plant the cuttings and an assistant who stamps on the ground around the plants to make it flat one planting machine can cover up to twelve hectares of sand in

a single shift it is hard work especially considering temperatures often reach forty five degrees celsius one hundred thirteen fahrenheit in the shade in the first year the young plants will shoot out a strong and lengthy root system then every bush gradually gains a territory of about thirty square metres all to itself when the sand invasion is stopped the spaces between the bush rows will be filled with grass this is how a former desert is going to become a pasture. there is a great variety of deserts and some of them instead of being a hindrance can be a natural wonder six thousand kilometers east of moscow in the foothills of the kadar ridge behind lake baikal lies the chara desert it is a unique place siberia. tourists from all over russia visit there even though it's hard to reach the desert is surrounded by rivers and marshes every

july it hosts a festival the real. enthusiastic stay away from the proper roads for the trip to the festival location is an adventure in itself some travel across tighe on rivers and trucked off road vehicles others had through the marshes on foot one group of thrill seekers full by force has chosen an especially difficult route. dimitri balaban of the shy program from kazakhstan is the focus of attention his car is completely unfit for off road exploits yet he has travelled four thousand kilometers to join the band of adventurous. at u.b.s. i was of course i'd never dared to go to such a place on my own. but going with a group is a different thing. besides the experience guys took a look at the route beforehand and said we should be able to make

a point of probably. dimitri ran into problems assumes the cars left the highway and the next five hours were very hard however his fellow travellers tell him it's the only way a rally across tigar is a real test but for the driver and for the vehicle. adrenalin is pumping the car is stuck the wheels are spinning and the terrain is getting more and more difficult now the participants will all experience the fun ships of travelling off road through the siberian tiger the crews will help each other out if not many of these cars will end up abandoned in the swamps forever by the time the convoy arrives it is already late but the drivers for go exhaustion and start repairing their vehicles right away are the good with no i probably wouldn't want to come every year. because you need some time off but almost it's

a very intense kind of experience you can. early in the morning while the campus is sleep. an experienced hiker well acquainted with the area sets off into the sands his task is to check how safe the route is before the new arrivals hit the road to explore the charred desert the shortcut to the desert goes through a marsh land and a pine forest we're going to explain landing in charge of flies over the desert krasnoyarsk up with the passengers are always but will the two actually see sanjay and hear. that legend has it that wants there were two brothers or younger. and older can both were princes and they lived in peace and harmony as even if it was me until they came upon a treasure trove of gold they proceeded to divide it mostly but they could never come up with their hogs one always ended up shorter than the other at this lead to fighting and civil war the gods were greatly displeased with it and turned one

prince into the kadar ridge and the other into the become rich while the gold they were fighting over became a stretch of sand between them and the first groups of tourists are approaching the charas sands. each person has to improvise a way of walking over the difficult terrain where the tiger ends and the desert starts the walk ahead of them is fascinating yet tiring the key to success here is to ignore the burning sun and insect bites of the tiger. there is no complete explanation as to the deserts origin one theory is that it was produced by centuries of winds eroding the sediment of an ancient lake. the lake dried out about fifteen thousand years ago and its form of bed was walked on by packs of mammoths and woolly rhinoceros tusks keep turning up in the area to this day. landscape is a breathtaking combination of north and south brought together as if by magic.

there is no other doesn't like it anywhere else in the world these fabulous sights completed by the impressive skyline of the kadar mountain range the chara desert itself is quite small but just over fifty square kilometers. some members of the talk rupert stayed behind in the count there completing preparations for the relay competition on the festival's program it's going to be tough with over fifty experienced hiker's after the trophy and we know that the who naturally our goal in coming here was not to take some wild rides in off road vehicles or like bonfires balls that wore through quite the opposite. we were trying to appreciate the beauty of the desert as it is and we'd like to make sure it stays this way for times to come that other some countries a desert is considered disaster just the char is a place for us to get together and have a good time in

a friendly atmosphere of the parade you know just like today's festival. the relay competition route is set a few kilometers away from the desert the chara desert itself is a protective nature reserve and visitors only allowed on foot this is no place to host a competition but the protection of the law and the deterrent provided by the sounds themselves make sure that this one of a kind natural treasure remains in its original state. in the evening visitors are treated to one last one. the sun setting over a quiet lake lights up low clouds and fog on the horizon creating an unforgettable beautiful picture. once the sun has set everyone gathers at a large meadow by the lake it is time for the awards ceremony and singing songs by the fire all just for listening to the music of the night forest by the slumbering

siberian desert.

the u.n. and russia and china rebuffed the western backed a draft resolution on syria with moscow saying it is vague wording that leaves the door open for foreign military intervention. rocked by a return to on rats to a dozen dead and thousands wounded in egypt as protesters there attempt to loosen the military's grip on power. in russia hundreds of thousands gather for rival rallies ahead of next month's presidential vote with massive pro and anti-government marches. plus occupy wall street is kicked out of

a washington park police. in an early morning raid. with today's top headlines and recapping this week's top stories this is r.t. with our weekly update glad to have you with us russia and china have given a firm no to the latest u.n. security council resolution on syria moscow has defended its move saying the draft fails to deliver a balanced approach to be unrest and will bring even more bloodshed that says those who were behind of the document are now ganging up against a veto states. reports from new york. in a matter of just five minutes after the meeting began russia and china both wielded their veto powers not supporting this draft resolution that was written up by the

arab league and european countries while the draft resolution was supported by thirteen members of the security council russia was asking for some amendments according to russian funimation foreign minister sergei lavrov those amendments were not excessive and mr are a lot of said that russia was urging the west to accommodate moscow's concerns to reach a compromise on this draft resolution china said during the meeting that it supported russia's amendments and said for the council to approach a vote knowing that there was a divide it did not help maintain the unity or the authority of the security council if russian foreign minister sergei lavrov said that moscow does not support using the security council as a tool to intervene on a sovereign country that is experiencing an internal conflict he believes that could create chaos in international affairs so as we see there was two vetoes

on this resolution it did not go through and it's because russia believes that as the draft resolution was presented it had a lot of imbalances in it when it comes to the current circumstance in syria russian envoy to the united nations vitaly churkin did go into detail about those imbalances but i do work in the security council has not yet reached its conclusion that you know the draft resolution put to the vote does not adequately reflect the real situation in syria the concerns and. the co-sponsors of the resolution have no sigmond wooding if there is that i'm not taking into account the syrian opposition they must distance itself from extremist groups committing violence and calls on states your ability to use their influence to prevent such. no one has been taken into account that along with was drawing the syrian forces from the cities should be an aim is to attack the group's own state institutions. nor has the being

support for affording more flexibility to get into media outlets states to increase the chances of a successful political process with the russian delegation was forced to vote against this draft resolution seriously regret this outcome of a. minister is scheduled to visit damascus on tuesday to meet with syrian president bashar al assad this is a move. to hopefully reach some type of peaceful approach or solution to the conflict still waging on syria the arab league is also addressed the media at the security council at the stakeout saying that they are extremely disappointed. over today's outcome but they will continue trying to work with the security council with the united nations to try to reach some type of consensus now u.s. president barack obama did also issue a statement of his own before the meeting began dating that you know the united

states is on the side of the syrian people that are posing the syrian president and his government and he said quote the assad regime the time has come for the result assad regime. to change clearly the united states is pushing for regime change this is a sticking point this is something that russia does not support so we'll see what takes place in the days and weeks to come but as of now the draft text proposed by the europeans by the arab league vetoed by russia and china parties were in a porno reporting for us there from new york now sticking with this story jason the editor of antiwar dot com says the resolution about syria was doomed after the fallout from the libyan conflict. the resolution itself was was probably not going to accomplish much anyway it seems to have been at best an effort to kickstart some international backing for intervention in the country which obviously russia and china were not going to support i don't think it was ever going to get anywhere and

now it seems like with the arab league having withdrawn all their monitors from the country in favor of this resolution they sort of shot themselves in the foot here and don't have a lot of options left it might well put an end to this crisis and create another potentially worse crisis as it did in libya where it seems to me that what the security council is is liable to do with syria is to continue arguing the point to continue putting forth resolutions that have no chance of passing and giving long winded speeches that don't really get anywhere opposition activists have claimed over two hundred people were killed in the syrian city of homes just ahead of the vote at the u.n. security council asia times correspondent pepe escobar questions the accuracy of those reports on down to the timing was a coincidence. the timing of this alleged massacre in the holds of more than two hundred people killed just as the u.n.

is cadre to vote a result lucian more or less establishing what the arab league says is a roadmap for peace and syria is very suspect well coming back to what this resolution is all about it's an ally as between nato basically led by washington london and paris and this six person gulf monarchies of the gulf cooperation council their agenda from the beginning for months now days reaching change in syria no matter what they knew that they can never get the win that security council resolution authorizing imho fly zone over syria for number of reasons first of all because it did assad regime is not so bold bardi its own but with vision with me so this is not something to do with the syrian peace process and all and not only. developing countries i don't think it's now up but from russia and china with the syrians themselves big having things ballistic look we

don't trust this a big silo council would like to organize ourselves and will like to discuss where they go sit down with the government and discuss a real map for peace but between ourselves between syria it's not happening. and just a little bit later in the program we report on what could be a much more explosive powder keg in the region. iran is ready to cause chaos in the world markets as a top government minister says he's certain an embargo on oil imports to some of you countries will take place. saturday was a day of demonstrations across russia hundreds of thousands gathered in moscow st petersburg and elsewhere to voice their political views ahead of next month's presidential elections two rallies took place in the capital one was an opposition march officially aimed at calling for a fair election but also saw protests against the candidacy of the current prime

minister vladimir putin the other gathering was pro-government with slogans calling for stability saying what the opposition wants is a ukraine style orange revolution both rallies went off peacefully martin mccauley who's an expert on russia at the university of london he says the only hope the opposition has of the willing is to unite excuse me unite behind a single candidate. just result of the election of course we're very very important because what these demonstrators want is if you like a clean election an absence of fraud and so on and it's up to the authorities to ensure that there will be cameras there and so on and therefore it's probably will be a fair and clearly election but what is important is that it seemed to be fair and that these people have no cause to claim that the election on the fourth of march whether president vladimir putin wins the first or are not that has to be seen to be fair and to be clean otherwise it will be tremendous protests on the level of

about the opposition will not come together they don't want to compromise they don't want to arrive at a single candidate the only way they're going to defeat evil on the fourth of march just have a single candidate who is accepted by the whole opposition and there's no likelihood is this it looks ready as if it cannot easily garner the congress kind of it will come up second as he always does then the divisions of third or fourth and so on and we heard crocker would bring up the rest because he is there really only to appeal to the middle class urban voters. well one plan to put forward to ensure greater voting transparency and next month's election is to install webcams at all polling stations it follows the massive protests after the parliamentary election in russia late last year but as artie's you go to peace can offer reports not everyone is convinced there will be a factor. inch after inch mile after mile big

brother is preparing to cast his eyes on polling stations as the massive campaign to install web cameras is in full swing across the entire nation but actually sometimes but i think if anything i ask my central electoral commission which is to install web cameras at all polling stations across the country so that everyone can watch online what's happening there almost twenty four hours a day seven nagel we see that only. the idea was put forward following the biggest protests in russia since the collapse of the u.s.s.r. with tens of thousands demanding fair elections so wiring up over ninety thousand polling stations is the scale and around a half of a billion us dollars is the price tag. coming into the system is not be made only for one day we help this project want only develop elections acknowledges but will also help modernize the telecommunications infrastructure across the entire country . all cameras will be feeding the videos the theorem to local digital storage

facilities after computer processing will be then sent to seven large storage and distribution centers via cable radio and satellite these centers will then broadcast the information to several web portals it's estimated that all together the cameras will film and broadcast four hundred and ninety years of video information in good quality however there is still down to this technology will help make the vote more transparent. i'm sure the observers won't be able to check to advance if these cameras work or not now. everyone knows about cameras in supermarkets but this still doesn't stop robberies from happening. its. books will be monitored way to cameras one with the general view and another with a close up of the slot there are many ways to rig it and the cameras don't provide a hundred percent guarantee against that but using that should still make it much

more difficult to stuff boxes of course there's nothing you. or web cameras. using them to monitor elections on such a scale is a first for. us and regardless of the success of the idea everyone will be able to monitor the vote not to mention no one is against having more real life observers on the spot it's going on forty moscow. of course more details on everything we're covering can always be found online at r.t. dot com stay up to date through our website but have a look at some of the stories waiting for you there right now. an american inventor says it's only a matter of decades actually before romances between robots and humans become commonplace read about this unusual vision of the future. and the anti act of protests sweep across europe and bear their first free polish authorities

decided to suspend anti online piracy legislation. iran will definitely halt oil supplies to some european countries warns tehran's oil minister the move comes in response to the use earlier decision to impose sanctions on the islamic republic that are to come into force in july the weekend tehran launched massive military exercises in the country's south. near the vital oil route of the strait of hormuz tensions have been rising amid suggestions that a military operation against iran is an increasing possibility reports emerged on thursday that the u.s. defense secretary leon panetta said israel could strike iran in april may or june director of the center for research on globalization michel chossudovsky says the latest developments show the u.s. and its allies are determined to start more. walks.

is is a build up also. called for the station besides since coast. the stage. of a military jet and i should thinks that. we have a massive deployment of u.s. military troops going into israel going to. you know naval forces go in the arabian sea. in other words i think what we're going states wants. to having its allies is some kind of a green light which will give a human face so well it will be a dozen dead and thousands injured the bloody aftermath of three straight days of rioting in egypt and it all began after an outbreak of violence at a football match earlier this week an episode that claimed the lives of seventy four people let's now go to tahrir square the heart of egypt's revolutionary

movement for more from our correspondent to maria fun otieno now maria thanks for being with us it's been a very chaotic last few days there in egypt what is the mood like now. paul schoen it's an early morning here in the egyptian capital cairo and this time the square that i hope you can see behind me may look quite calm and peaceful but you're absolutely right this few days have been absolutely devastating absolutely chaotic for egypt and tragic as well as far as the egyptian authorities are reporting since saeed massacre when seventy four people died. he had one of the cities who post tell us twelve of the people have been killed in the balls that followed and twenty five hundred others have been injured it's worth to point out that since mass protests took first took to the streets of the capital cairo last january. people actually have been on the streets literally all the time protesting and

demonstrating against military rule this poor incident this massacre has triggered new waves a new wave of clashes and violence and has given of fresh polls to continue regular. street protests here in capital and everywhere throughout the country. the general frustration over the military ruling here in the country the ruling of the supreme council of the armed forces that took power from mubarak when he ousted last february has combined with this anger over the portside eat and people have been actually very quick to condemn this through which is to accuse the interior ministry of agents of allowing this to happen or an official see and actually sometimes even instigating.