on r.t. tonight rush the interview should be partners by choice not for saturday that's the view of the european union is its vision for relations between the two during the time of putin first trip to brussels since returning to the presidency. with has already. a million documents being paid to be released promises no country in the world will remain unaffected by new wiki leaks revelations he's got planned for twenty. of russia's lower house of parliament approves a law banning americans from adopting russian children in retaliation for america's so-called magnitsky act.

over again even chief you just joined us six nine pm here in moscow now it's kevin owen here at the new center tonight russia corporation should be defined by choice not forced by necessity that is exactly how europe sees future ties with russia too by president putin he's in brussels for talks with the blocs leaders for the first time since his return to the kremlin. has more. a lot of speculation happened before the summit that this will be a meeting of confrontation rather than corporation but it actually turned out absolutely the opposite scenario all these speakers. started off by saying that the trade turnover between the e.u. and russia has grown significantly now it's exceeding three hundred billion euros

a year and this is a good sign but both sides expressed their willingness to make it a corporation by choice not by necessity our relation as a huge potential that can still be explored and as we have proposed to president putin we should drill for an interdependent spend their society into an interdependent space shows but clearly the biggest contradictions still remain in the issues of the energy supplies from russia to the european continent i'd like to remind to our viewers that the e.u. still has a certain accusations and certainly has some things they say about the russian gazprom wanting them to allow the access to the governmental access to their pipelines in europe while gas from certainly says this may not happen but today we've heard a lot of statements from both the european union leaders and putin on that issue in particular. saying that russia is not against all these kind of regulations but the

only problem is that the two thousand and nine legislation made by europe in terms of the monopoly on the gas pipes now concerns the deals which had been struck before that and the russian president described that as completely uncivilized still hoping that sides will be managed will manage to find some sort of compromise or during the press conference the energy issue took the majority of the of the time from the speakers and in the end of the press conference was even humorous about the very rather long reply by mr barroso. my friend of many years mr barroso has been explaining his position on gas prices for so long. because he realizes that he's wrong just read our cooperation agreement. plus gas prices are dictated by markets not by government. definitely the energy sector is very important and certainly dominated the talks but of course size they also talked about the visa free travel for e.u.

citizens and russians saying that this is a possibility in the very nearest future and also touching upon the geopolitical issues such as the syrian conflict where the argument and certainly reiterated russia's stance that this has to be dealt with behind the negotiations table not by the violence not by a military conflict and there seem to be lots of understanding between the e.o.p. and leaders and. on that. there will the conflict in syria is also been raised by russia's foreign minister to an exclusive interview he gave to us to say so he believes that maters recent decision to deploy patrick missiles on the turkish border may not be designed just to protect against strikes from syrian territory he suggests there are indications the systems may also be useful against iran as well while talking about possible regime change in syria the foreign minister insisted that russia will play no part. in the business of regime change. some of the. regional players were

suggesting to us why don't you tell president to leave we will arrange for. safe haven for him. my answer is very simple if indeed those who suggest the stores have this in mind they should take it directly to president that's why show the use ourselves postman. if present us of those interested this must be discussed directly with him. during a sergeant promising that wiki leaks will release more than a million secret files over the next year in publications that will affect every country in the world he says was a blog of a christmas address from the ecuadorian embassy in london where he's been in skulls for a year and what was his first public appearance since august marti's laura smith was there the world's media. says have come out for him this evening also holding a candlelight vigil he called the crowd when he came out a sight for sore eyes and then he marked his six month to the embassy by talking

about it saying it entered the building and it's become his home and his office right to the principles i could dorian's as he called them who had taken him in and then he said that he is able to communicate to the people here unlike two hundred thirty two journalists who are currently in jail all over the world he named a few of them and he also spoke with bradley manning who have fruit is accused of leaking documents to wiki leaks and he said he saluted journalists and others to stand up to repression let's listen in to what he's got to say people often ask what can i do. the answer is not so difficult. how the world works. the statements and intentions of those who seek to control the behind of. democracy and more nikki unite in common purpose and common principle to design the document. in. act now

two thousand and twelve has been a busy year for wiki leaks he has written a book you'll say made a show and wiki leaks has continued to release documents but it seems that two thousand and thirteen will be no less busy a team have prepared a million documents which they promised to release with information that he says relates to every single government around the world and he also reiterated his plans to run for the australian senate said the message here is he might be cut cooped up inside the at the syrian embassy base resting on his laurels and if you like. christmas address streaming in full on our website you can also get more of the top level exposures he's planning to. use today. these are the images the world.

trying to rule the day. the russian lower house of parliament has passed a bill targeting americans accused of abusing the human rights of russians abroad and also bans americans from adopting russian children the move comes in response to the u.s. so-called magnitsky act to cause controversy here in russia france has got more than on the ongoing tit for tat. the most divisive part of this bill is definitely the provision talking about adoption of russian children by american families it was approved overwhelmingly by the duma. four hundred twenty four she's just seven and it's been opposed by the education ministry and human rights activists citing that many of these children that do get adopted by american families with

disabilities and they're given a better life in another country a bill backers have been unhappy for some time about the adoption process. and the united states nineteen children have died at the hands of their u.s. adoptive parents and the last several years and to moscow has wanted to be more involved in securing the human rights of children that do head overseas with those families this russian bill is in response to so-called magnitsky act adopted in the u.s. now this all began when that lawyer sergei magnitsky died in pretrial detention i here in moscow in november of two thousand and nine he had accused russian officials of major tax fraud and died in jail while under investigation for investments u.s. lawmakers have wanted to hold responsible the people who it thinks may have been responsible for his death by freezing assets and revoking visas

moscow has seen this is a very anti russian piece of legislation so this bill is in response to that it will not only freeze assets and revoke visas of americans that it feels has violated the human rights of russians it will also doubt bad the adoption of russia's children over to the united states that the next step for this it's got to pass the upper chamber of the russian parliament and then it's got to go for a signature by the president. growing racism vala nationalism abuse of rights of minorities and prisoners these are just some of the things that russia is accusing the european union of highlighting a decline in the bitties the stinger for focusing on a new also points to an abusive spouse and street demonstrators comes to dogo of the foreign ministry's commissioner for human rights told r.t. why moscow's decided to tell you. why the european union because

the european union positions and most of its members position themselves. works of democracy has certain yardsticks by which the international community absolutely must measure its own record record in the field of human rights and nobody disputes by the way the fact that european union is european. quite a number of its members not all but quite a number of its members develop democracies but what we see is that despite those facts there are some other effects there are very serious challenges and problems in the european union and in each and every always member country. if you look human rights. human rights.

if you like to see more of that we invite you to watch the full interview with the russian foreign ministry's commissioner for human rights next hour in fact. still to come before then the yemen's president attempts to break away from the political heritage of the country's ousted leader with washington showing increasing interest to be internal affairs now the gulf state we're delving about a bit deeper try to find out why also the u.k. is preparing to go its troops from afghanistan with hundreds of british soldiers killed and millions of pounds spend on the war a couple of the many very stories we're talking about after this break. i mean even for specialist voice can produce several sounds that one.

artist really comes naturally picked up like a language. a language of communicating with nature it said that's where throat singing originates from to benin's believe not only animals but also all surrounding objects like reverse forests and even stones souls and by imitating the sounds they believe assumes to capture the power of nature. was. to get to a one of the five main stars of scrotes and it imitates the gentle breezes of summer jara whose name means great hunter as the first piece of. the. there are special instruments that accompany the singing if gainey says there

is even a legend about his instrument a gill it says once there lived a poor shefford who had the best horse that won every competition but jealous people killed that the horse was revived as an instrument look at those that have suffered a fall is because our spirit of the horse came to his dream and said make an instrument from the tree the sounding board from the leather of my face the strings on my tail and to remember me make an engraving of my head part of the instrument he did so i called the instrument again which means come back and this melody only instrument is called cry over again. the.

yemens in for the french. u.s. backed president tries to. away from the legacy of the country's ousted leader the former president stepped down for we must protest almost a year ago now under a power transfer brokered by washington other countries gulf neighbors he's going to teach you can know explores why the u.s. is so engaged in yemen and internal affairs these days. as washington continues to make a moral case for its covert wars on terror yemen is presented as a place that is full of terry getting ready to attack america but very few think of yemen as a chokepoint the vast economic interests yemen is the poorest country in the middle the book it's sitting on one of the most important trade routes in the wall the bubble mend up straight most people have heard about the southwest canal well of course we almost broke out over the canal right that's how important it is but bob amanda doesn't instantly ring the bell although it's basically an extension of the

suez canal and is of similar strategic importance almost all of europe's trade with china japan india and the rest of asia passes to babble manned up every day that's how important it is some argue that washington sees harry's me given as a problem in a sense that it could have an adverse impact on economic interests at stake the united states wouldn't be engaged in such a conflict in yemen if it didn't hold very specific geo political and strategic necessity for the u.s. i think most importantly of course is access to this bob on monday strait which is one of the highest trafficked waterways in the world. the u.s. already has a vast military presence in the persian gulf to secure key oil shipping lanes under the banner of chasing terrorists the u.s. is setting up new drone bases on the arabian peninsula including one in djibouti which is on the other side of the strait of babel and that the arrangement that the

united states government has with the yemeni government is basically one of bribery we bribe them with money and weapons and in exchange we get to bomb their country with impunity. but it may be a dangerous proposition for the yemeni government because of the offer or this crisis caused among the population. on this much an american plane on this place and killed seven. the people they were in a senate they did not deserve to die he wanted so late to go we were protesting the year for it to happen he left what do we have now americans are coming to our land to kill or the journalist who shot these images of a two thousand and nine drone strike in yemen that killed fourteen women and twenty one children is now in jail abdullah hyder shying was accused of aiding terror it was about to be looming but the yemeni government reverse this decision after a call from the white house. because of the secrecy surrounding the program there

is no way of knowing when the administration is out of target and some fear washington might continue the bombing to maintain control in the region the challenge here is something similar to what happened in. former yugoslavia when when they were looking for targets to bomb serbia prior to the dayton accords and the military. planners came to to richard holbrooke and they said well you know honestly we've run out of targets we've bombed everything and he's in holbrooke so we have to keep this bombing up and they said well before we've already hit these stories to bomb them again find secondary targets because they needed to keep up the pressure now my fear is that in order to keep up the pressure on al qaeda or its associated organizations the united states will explain you know its definition of who is a legitimate target washington is helping the current yemeni government in order for it not to fail and to be friendly to the us friendly enough to allow the u.s.

to bomb them as washington sees fit and friendly enough not to mess with this vital trade route but historically that kind of a prop by the united states is often led to alienating much of the local population that sooner or later gets the sense that their government is serving its own interests and the interests of those thousands of miles away in washington i'm going to check in. online feuds not reporting the number of deaths from car accidents may be on the decline in the us says good news but i also think there's no cause for complacency that. the american system likely to lose a few things the most. about it which. is on the increase also so the previous not release of course the big story today the mayan calendar is prediction that was the end of the world thankfully didn't come to fruition many around the globe those still bracing themselves for armageddon seems one in ten people said about that next to us he don't call them blind. more stories and

apocalypse that. is britain preparing to pull its troops out of afghanistan the u.k. is counting its losses in more ways than one more than four hundred british soldiers have been killed in a war that so far as well seeing the cost to the government of a staggering seventeen billion pounds and it's not his party boy here explains the sums raising a few eyebrows especially with the austerity cuts being felt at home. seventeen billion pounds the british government has just revealed that that's been the cost of the so far eleven here war in afghanistan now it was a very field at the same time as a clearer timetable was announced for troop withdrawal from the region but it's those seventeen billion pounds that are being spent that have been spent on 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 off now and of course the u.k. is going to keep sending money to afghanistan after twenty fourteen they going to be sending from thing 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 announcing prolonged all series here at home that's going to continue until at least twenty seventeen twenty eighteen and the chancellor announcing that there's going to be extra welfare cuts and an extra ten billion pounds slashed from the welfare budget i'm joined by john hillery who is the executive director of twenty four the charity for three point georgia eleven years later 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 budgets about twenty five billion colds can total which actually is almost the same as being spent in the war in afghanistan defense when they can be justified but this is seventeen billion people over and above the existing british defense budget it's a completely only popular people in britain wanted the troops out people in afghanistan want the troops out and now will be facing these massive cuts on top people really angry differently beauties from team already even the state 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 it. some top news updates this friday evening dozens of people have been injured in clashes in egypt second largest city alexandria police fired tear gas at opposing crowds as protesters demonstrated for and against president morsy the violence comes as egypt proposed

for a second round of voting on the controversial draft constitution for saturday it's divided the country opponents of the document say it will lead to islam is state story we're following across the weekend of course for you are you a staff sergeant who was caught on camera you're an eighteen on dead taliban fighters in afghanistan has been demoted and fined five hundred dollars joseph chamblin was also found guilty of their election duty by failing to report misconduct by junior marines an initial punishment of thirty days in jail and a two thousand dollars fine was reduced after marine pleaded guilty and agreed to a plea bargain with a court martial. a us citizen has been arrested in north korea for unspecified crimes the state media says page on the whole entered the country last month as a tourist but officials say there's evidence proving that he committed a crime against the state demands met diplomats from the swedish embassy sweden of course represents u.s. interests in north korea because of a lack of diplomatic ties between washington and pyongyang. to become one of the

world's industrial titans you need a workforce that is ready for anything but grimaced a to sticks in the heart of europe show millions of adults are being left behind because they got trouble reading and writing is artie's peter oliver. germany and engineering giant a footballing colossus a nation at the very forefront of modern european civilization and this. when i was younger and my friends asked if i wanted to play football i was awaiting it even though i wanted to i was afraid that i might have to read something and that would reveal my problem that i couldn't read or write properly statistics from the ministry of education suggest around seven and a half million germans are functionally illiterate and that means that they can read or write single sentences but nothing more complex than that tim taylor fellner left school without the skills needed to get by in the world he turned to adult education and now works to help others. on the toughest part he says is

getting people to confront their illiteracy if. there are plenty of people who realize that they have problems you notice that in yourself when you try to hide it many are in denial they think they're ok and are able to keep it covered up always making excuses not to come out of the closet or tim says large class sizes coupled with parents too busy at work to spend time reading at home has allowed some kids to slip through the cracks also under the radar as an estimated three hundred thousand adults cannot read or write at all the government is running programs to try and tackle this but the numbers and rolling in courses is a drop in the ocean compared to the millions affected. and no one should leave school without the minimum required skills to function as a member of society this is a major issue and something we hope not only able to make sure doesn't happen in the future like to also help those who have problems now one program that is

looking to help functionally illiterate adults in and around the city of cologne has got employers and volved. from small local businesses to huge manufacturing giants they. agreed to give staff with literacy problems flexible working hours so they could attend classes. plots but it has been a very successful way of getting education to people who perhaps don't have the time to attend regular classes it benefits the employers as well they get to contribute to the local community and in return receive employees with more skills . if a bit is. despite the good work being done by programs like this one out of the estimated seven point five million functionally illiterate people in germany. only five percent are receiving any kind of education these are all over germany strong twenty six or moscow can tell you just

a couple of minutes away tonight from artie's couple with. more news today violence is once again flared up. these are the images the world has been seeing from the streets of canada. operation.

divine power in action activate the grounds. and she says we need these we are under the control of those governing us he said we're at the service of the space mafia. i found that day to make me think feel to soon will be for us to create the support that the stuff. after the second coming it will be a beautiful place it will receive the spirit disco glory it will be a renewed world and it will be a beautiful place. full of the best. will stop this type ammunition. it's good business for us it's kind of like being a doctor you know if there's a disaster business is. better unfortunately.

good afternoon love of the capital account i'm lauren mr here in washington d.c. these are your headlines for thursday december twentieth two thousand and twelve in the u.s. as the fiscal cliff approaches reuters reports republicans are aiming to vote today in the house on a plan which obama probably says he would veto meanwhile this has warned the u.s. could lose its aaa credit rating if washington doesn't get a deal to treat what we call the economy i know this may all feel like day jobs bill.