nine pm here in moscow right now the headlines tonight president vladimir putin says america's poor human rights for a complex are others as moscow responds to washington's decision to sanction russian diplomats from. also new dramatic leaks or the launch of a political career. set to outline in the next few hours his plans for the christmas address from the safety of ecuador's london embassy look ahead to that. and the u.k. reveals the war in afghanistan has cost it over seventeen billion pounds that figure expected to rise before british troops that would draw.

in a very good evening chief who just joined us it's kevin owen here at the new center tonight our top story the i'm a putin has slammed america's human rights record citing indefinite detention and sanctions in overseas prisons while speaking to journalists the president defended moscow's response to washington's decision to sanction russian officials to go piskun off listen to what president putin had to say. the president slammed the monied ski act passed recently by america lawmakers saying that it's a continuation of a series of anti russian laws like the jackson veni gov't which was abolished recently and putin says that the us as a country which is still uses prisons like i will agree were guantanamo where

violations of human rights happen on a daily basis has no rights to criticize the human rights situation in russia. our us partners and their lawmakers say they are concerned about human rights in our prisons that's fine of course but there are plenty of issues they have themselves abu ghraib and guantanamo where for years people have been detained without charge it's inconceivable prisoners walk around in chains like in the middle ages they've legalized torture inside their own country if something like that happened here it would cause an international outcry but it all remains quiet in the us. we've heard plenty of promises to close guantanamo but it's still there it's still operating maybe there is still torture going on there secret cia prisons has anyone been brought to account and they're pointing at our problems well thank you we're aware of that making this the ground for passing anti russian laws it's something absurd

and we have a no way provoked such action russian lawmakers are currently working on what they say will be a proportionate response to the monkey ski act and part of the plan is to introduce a ban for americans to adopt russian children. this has been causing quite a lot of debate in russia and the president has commented on that saying that adoption and the problem with it is that citing the cases of abuse of russian children adopted by american foster parents of but the lack of a proper legal reaction from american authorities to prevent them from reoccurring including the lack of serious punishments in light of the n.t. government protests which have been continuing for around a year now the president was also asked a question implying that he's managed to build an author of a regime in the country during his time in power let's listen to the president's reply. i believe that we've provided stability which is the perec was it for the

development of our country i believe it's a very important thing but i wouldn't call it authoritarian i can't agree with such an opinion but the most prominent example that proves my point was my decision to take to the sidelines after two terms as president if i thought that to tell a terry and or authoritarian systems would be the most preferable for our country i'd just change the constitution another issue touched upon at the conference was russia stands on the carpet in syria the president stressed once again that moscow does not support president assad's regime. but it also doesn't want to see syria drown in care os and a civil war for the next two years which he says it's only up to the syrian people to decide what sort of a political future the wants and who we want to see in control of their country you know we are not concerned about the faith of assad's regime we understand what's

going on there the family has been in power for forty years and undoubtedly there's demand for change but we're concerned about what happens next in the country we just don't want ongoing strife between today's opposition if it takes power and the current government if they become the opposition this can't go on forever now on a lighter note putin has also denied speculation that he's been experiencing some problems with his health and has also answered a question which is bothering millions of people right now about the end of the world well the russian president says he knows when the world will end according to him that will happen in a few billion years one of the sun stopped shining some of these are some of the more serious and less serious issues touched upon at the conference which lasted around four and a half hours continuing the president's tradition of these extended press and included over twelve hundred journalists from different parts of russia and

from abroad. very good to hear that we got some time out of us yet now the man on the front line of the information battle and wiki leaks had it julian assange is set to give a christmas address shortly tonight couple of hours' time he'll deliver his speech from the balcony door an embassy in london has been ensconced for six months out of granted political asylum this much anticipation about what he's going to have to say but is there a smith reports now on the possible topics of his address. later on thursday julian assange is doing something which is usually reserved for heads of state queens the pope people like that he's giving a christmas message from the balcony of the ecuadorian embassy where he's been holed up for the last six months and in fact this speech will mark his six month anniversary inside the ecuadorian embassy now the last time gina songe appeared in public it was back in august and he organize a kind of a rally around the embassy so speeches by politicians and other supporters as a kind of a carnival atmosphere with balloons and all that kind of thing and then he came on

and made his speech and he made a couple of important points one of which was to urge the u.s. to end what he calls the witch hunt against wiki leaks and he also called for the release of bradley manning who's of course being held. on trial in the u.s. accused of leaking classified documents to wiki leaks so those are two things that he may mention again when he talks later on thursday he also may talk about his most recent bids to run for the senate in the two thousand and thirteen australian federal elections he's made that announcement and he's said that wiki leaks is setting up a political party for which plans are significantly advanced and they have received significant support from notable australians he says that that party is designed to promote openness in government and politics and also to combat growing intrusions

on individual privacy one of the things i learnt during the interview that he gave me a couple of weeks ago was that julian assad is increasingly unwilling to talk about his personal situation he prefers to stick to the wider issues and so that is why one of the things he may talk about would be the continuing blockade of wiki leaks by a visa master card and pay pal that's a case that's ongoing at the moment and also a possible further leak that he mentioned to me they're talking about leaking more documents in the new year watch this space he said. you know we might hear more about that in a couple of hours' time we'll be bringing you somebody has to say in the coming hours of course now the battle for transparency is long been a struggle for wiki leaks with the ongoing investigation in the u.s. and a block on donations by credit card companies but a spokesperson for the whistleblower web site kristinn hrafnsson told me the fight is set to continue nonetheless. well we know about the ongoing. investigation the

secret grand jury you know sundry and their junior there is. an ongoing attempt to find an angle to bring charges against julian and possibly all those working for we can use as a very serious matter of course very shameful for you obama administration not to stop that for the man who was right even taken four years ago to increase transparency and what we have seen is totally opposite which hunt against whistleblowers. has no first place in history it will continue to work as we have done despite the difficult situation that you has been in in the ecuador embassy you know for six months but probably it was your house arrest that hasn't stopped us we have continued to work. the economic blockade has not stopped us either even though we are getting into a dire situation financially but that's all that we have decided. all out war

and i'm sure we have a victory there as well in the new year. stay with us tonight coming up very soon time magazine names a barack obama person of the year for a second time the critics say the u.s. president needs to take stronger action on issues such as gun control as well the stories we're talking about after this break. looking at some dogs you simply do not believe they can speak and goodness how they can wrong oh oh it's an international sled dog race with those driving the dogs. coming from as far away as australia canada and the u.s. they come to russia and everybody is so very friendly they welcomed me with open arms and the scenery is so beautiful it's very much like alaska and so i felt at home the first lead dog was brought here from what's truly an hour straight out

come to this remote russian village to take part in the race it's not surprising they love it this. ira mazie. but even more amazing is the story of how racing first started here at all it wasn't the tough mushers of sled dog racing who set the trail of lace but a nun and four orphans who brought their idea to life five years ago mother perhaps care about built a dog kennel in the village kids from the local open age came around to take care of the dogs and one day they state their life might seem extreme to some the boys wake up at six to feed the dogs before school in the evening they spend up to three hours training their four legged friends but mother perske have also encourages her kids to become dab hands on the computer and internet the boys regularly updated their website and they're in touch with their busy mother twenty four seven on the phone each some of the children are the most important thing my only interests not

play any role anymore and regardless of whether parsky has huskies win the race or not she hopes the competition will take place in the village next year. but called these dogs and the children it really is not the winning but truly just the taking part that counts. thanks. again the u.k. has revealed a staggering cost of its involved in the war in afghanistan more than seventeen billion pounds when this britain proposed to withdraw its troops the defense secretary says the final price tag could be around twenty billion pounds all this comes amid public spending cuts of course in an effort to try to reduce the

country's budget deficit polly boyd has got the story. seventeen billion pounds the british government has just revealed that that's been the cost of the so far eleven year war in afghanistan now it was a very deal at the same time as a clear timetable was announced for troop withdrawal from the region we're going to have u.k. troops slashed by about a half by the end of next year down to five thousand two hundred and then another large chunks of troops will be leaving by the end of twenty fourteen but it's those seventeen billion pounds that are being spent that have been spent on it for the war on top of the existing defense budget which means the estimates for the final price tag for the afghan war might be something around twenty billion pounds and of course the u.k. is going to keep sending money to afghanistan after twenty fourteen they're going to be sending something like seventeen million pounds for aid towards the afghan national security forces after twenty fourteen and this is all at the same time as

the government is announcing prolonged all sarah here at home that's going to continue until at least twenty seven hundred twenty eighteen and the chancellor announcing that there's going to sleep extra welfare cuts and an extra ten billion pounds slashed from the welfare budget along with cuts in every single other government department now i'm joined by john hillery who is the executive director of antipoverty charity more on want seventeen billion pounds down the line about money have been better spent elsewhere you could hardly really think of any worse way of spending the money as you say if you pointed out here in britain we're seeing an enormous cuts to government spending and to the world for budgets about twenty five billion pounds in total which actually is almost the same as being spent in the war in afghanistan but in afghanistan itself the impact of the war has been disastrous defense spending can be just after this is seventeen billion pounds over and above the existing british defense but you even before the last thirty

program it was clear that over seventy percent of people and. britain wanted the war to be ended immediately or very very soon it's a completely unpopular war people in britain wanted the troops out people in afghanistan also want the troops out and now we're being faced with these massive cuts on top of about people who are really angry about the fact that the war has continued for the british people want to stop trying to destroy the horrible legacy of invasion and occupation which they've lived with for the last thirty years and already the defense secretary has said that parts of afghanistan won't be under government control and so that means a lot more questions from the british taxpayers about the eleven years spent fighting the war and the twenty billion pound price tag for at bali boycie reporting there. is due to walk free from prison early than expected a moscow course cut the jail term for the former tycoon and his business partner platon lebedev they've been serving time for oil theft of money laundering and to

do. the present terms for the two. were reduced due to a change in russia's prison penal code essentially there's hundreds of thousands of russian businessmen are believed to be serving behind bars for various financial crimes as a result the russian government had decided to soften somewhat its penal code when it comes to those financial crimes of course this case is no ordinary one it's one of the most high profile cases in recent years in russia back in early two thousand the government had accused the two former yukos oil partners of tax evasion yukos was then the largest oil firm in the country it went bankrupt assets were taken over by russia snapped and this has prompted many in the west to. accuse the country of a politically motivated case these are charges that moscow of course denies now before the two men had finished serving their sentences in two thousand and ten a moscow court had given them fresh prison charges this time over accusations of money laundering as well as the charge of stealing more than thirty billion u.s.

dollars worth of oil despite this had become somewhat of a poster boy for the russian opposition which says that his continued imprisonment is evidence of the russian state's control over the judiciary despite all this of course that the thursday appeal hearing the court had ruled that the men will be able to walk free by two thousand and fourteen lebedeff will be able to go around august and is expected to be released by october. protest his vote on the streets of spain this evening is. rising tension in recent days again ahead of the deal which is expected to make savings of a road thirty nine billion euros there's no talk to try to fix brother did a covert stories on life from the very early evening people of course and group the monks in cuts by the government says they are necessary to revive spacings finances do you think this is the long term solution though the promise to the problem. i think that these cuts are completely useless and are going to show it's fear

direction meet its own targets which were really very very mild well the euro zone cleared almost a forty billion euros to bail out of spanish banks then it was almost the same amount that madrid said cutting from his budget next year should that money be allocated to the struggling public i bet you going to say yes of course but actually no i think the european handout is going to be very negative spain because it's actually going to go on the spanish national debt which is already large enough and this means we are you will pretty soon so what is your plan what would you do if you were in charge you had the money you had the power to do this what would be your way out of this or to try to get out of it anyway. all felix and think just as you were about to impart that pearl of wisdom we lost the idea of i don't know if you can. over we're going to try to get back she later try to get a better skype and hear what your solution to this big problem is sorry about that

ok let's move on and get back to felix people. now we've plenty more stories for you on our website r.t. dot com let's take a look what we got they are violating the battle code leading human rights watchdog says israel broke the laws of war by targeting civilians and media in gaza during last month's military operation will read up more about that we got online r.t. dot com also to their better late than never the u.k. finally agrees to one of the british veterans of the arctic convoy which carried crucial supplies to russia during world war two a couple of stories got a lot of clicks tonight if you read up on it it's on our website. there's been mixed reaction over time magazine's decision to name barack obama person of the year for a second time the u.s. president gained the award for becoming what they call the symbol an architect of the new america the others his enthusiasm for the u.s. leaders not shared by all americans it seems many remain unconvinced by its actions

including domestic matters such as gun control extremely in the spotlight at the moment is art is going to teach you can. they're choosing president obama as the person of the year second time the first time they gave him the title right after the two thousand and eight election as to someone who had the most influence on global affairs although at that time he hadn't had the time to exercise all that influence but then president obama also received the nobel peace prize in two thousand and nine shortly after his election although i guess at that point he hadn't made much peace in the world the award was seen as much more of an advance credit then and no college meant of actual achievements on the peace front later president obama went on to spend that credit sending more troops to afghanistan and carrying out regime change in libya under the arguable banner war for the sake of peace as far as his person of the year title critics argue president obama was time's choice by default their shortlist this year also included the egyptian

leader mohammed morsi and the pakistani girl malala yousafzai who was shot by the taliban for advocating for women's education president obama may be the person of the year for the time magazine but for advocates of gun control in the u.s. he still has to earn that title to president obama had a news conference where he was asked why no meaningful action has been taken on gun control in the last four years of his presidency although one of his campaign pledges was a ban on assault weapons he basically said he had lots of other things to do including waging two wars and quote it's not like i've been on vacation he said those in the u.s. who suffered in numerous incidents of gun violence would probably not be satisfied with such an answer but the president pledged to finally take more active steps in the coming months he said the administration will come up with a more definitive proposal on gun control but people have heard those words before

and nothing happened and getting a semiautomatic weapon is not a problem in the u.s. adam lanza who killed twenty small children and. six adults at an elementary school last week fired from a semi-automatic bushmaster rifle it's a military style rifle a powerful weapon and its sales are on the rise in the u.s. in the last four years the market for such guns grew thirty percent. missing genest on the bus says the actions and policies of the us president speak louder than the words of time magazine and it is. time magazine's editors giving in giving him the award can only be you can only guess impute whatever motive a have to them in terms of what he's actually done we have to look at his policies in terms of workers getting jobs nothing in terms of giving people who are in foreclosure relief not much in terms of peace making he started more wars than george bush and so you know we have to look at his policy rather than what magazine who may be going to the f.c.c.

or some other regulatory agency for relief for the many t.v. stations the time inc owns rather than that we need to look at his policies well go back to two thousand and eight when he was given supposedly because of the influence he had on international affairs and within four weeks of receiving that said he had no comment about israel's war on gaza that ended up killing fifteen hundred civilians it's pretty meaningless and the thing that's most revealing is they themselves pulled an electoral college over a popular vote scam when they said it's the editor's choice and not the people but the people voting for the president of north korea over the president the united states. embrace this says tonight from moscow syrian rebels claim they've made significant advances saying they've seized as many as six towns in the hama region the opposition forces also say they've liberated a palestinian refugee camp in damascus after seizing it on monday meantime the un has launched a huge how many terry an effort by announcing a one and

a half billion dollar aid package refugees suffering from the twenty one month long conflict because egypt's top prosecutor is retracted monday's offer to resign as the country gears up for started a second round of voting on the controversial constitution there there was public discontent after morsi sacked ibrahim's for a decisive last month one of his first moves in fact of the ground to himself sweeping powers the justice minister will now decide to prosecute his fate the country's divided over the constitution but opponents fairly. well.

by minister it's. coming up to twenty five minutes past not at night moscow time thanks for watching us wherever your children around the world we appreciate it after the break we'll reveal some colorful details about the u.b.s. scandal much more in tonight's edition of capital look at. the stunning beauty of reindeer gracefully dancing across the arctic tundra more than just a scenic image it is a way of life for some traditionally the nets people are nomadic reindeer herders and though in many ways they lead a simple and rustic life they are also highly skilled and organized in their trade . another weekend will be preparing for the winter and living around more and

more every sport in the summer is depending on passages on the day we found this particularly camp they were settled near the coast of the ca to see here four families work together to manage nearly a thousand reindeer herding reindeer is not just a job for the people in fact they say it's a part of their entire culture heritage and way of life and back they say that they can use almost every single part of the reindeer to help them survive. that they have a deer is a means of transportation it's a source of maryland our equipment and clothes and with the outside and inside of us. the life in the tundra is harsh and so before winter hits many of the children are helicoptered to the center of the district and not even for boarding school. in the knesset students learn different languages utilize modern technologies through specialized grant programs and even more arts skills all within

a protected environment the school and was found. and then it's scientist who wanted a better way of life for his people but even with the most progressive ideas and education many that say they don't want to trade the modern life for their beloved tundra. i have returned to the tundra and i actually like it here if you're outside there's fresh air fresh water looks at the site you can see deer it's a joyful sight. a sentiment that hopefully ensures that russia's northern reindeer will have cure takers for generations to come. good afternoon welcome to capital account i'm lauren lyster here in washington d.c.

these are your headlines for once december nineteenth two thousand and twelve u.b.s. has settled over accusations of libel rigging as expected from reports we received earlier this week but we now know colorful details about the traders call each other nicknames like superman and captain chaos which was spelled wrong by the way that's according to the wall street journal now we got no such color from the federal reserve and its manipulation of rates but that is no coincidence we'll talk to a former v.p. of public affairs at the federal reserve bank of cleveland about what is lost in fed speak plus the treasury department announced it plans to sell its entire stake in g.m. within fifteen months according to the new york times a reminder of the bailouts in two thousand and eight of course but instead of government bailouts how about innovating out of a slowdown or changing your business model we'll talk to the c.e.o. of car to go north america about dialers adventure in car sharing and from new revenue to no revenue c.b.s.

reports instagram is looking for ways to generate some revenue through ads but it will not pimp out its users in ads it backtracked after unleashing a whole bunch of hoopla yesterday after a change to its terms we'll talk about it let's get to today's capital account. so in addition to the one point five billion dollars settlement and guilty plea to a charge of fraud from its japanese subsidiary we now know u.b.s. traders were sending e-mails saying things like i want to do one humongous deal with you when i'll pay you whatever you want to secure help manipulating rates now this language is infuriating but at least it's.