. >> belarus is in desperate need of reforms. the country's economy largely depends on aid from russia, but criticism can be dangerous. president alexander lukashenko simply does not tolerate dissent, so many of his opponent's field force to escape abroad. great britain granted political asylum to a former deputy foreign minister of belarus this summer. the man was sentenced to prison in belarus and had to flee because he had taken part in protests against lukashenko, but some eu countries are no longer keen to take on the belarussian regime. >> the worst thing is the boredom and the uncertainty. the asylum seekers center where he has been living the past year is 7 kilometers away from the border. the town's solitary cafe provides some welcome relief. he is here because he deserted from the belarussian army when he could no longer face the beatings from his superiors. >>ehould say we are prepared to take up arms if there is no other way to contain the mass protests. in the name of the republic of belarus. >> he has gotten help fr

i mean a worldwide treat russia belarus and because it stands as being a single joint economic space should they take that into account or were they shouldn't i mean i mean is there is there or they shouldn't care i mean they they know that these are three three different countries not of course as many countries are big interest in a whole course of your and the roles because it's too commercial opportunities in terms of trade policy is a little different because before or three customs union countries will be severed from member really no. not ask for membership of the customs union itself like european union did. accession to davos or in ninety four about. members of a union members. which remember so we have first to complete access numbers of course because the reason i'm asking is that is that after russia joined you remember there were talks that will join all together then russia joined alone but many people say that when russia joined that there were each year russia being a member of this custom union means that practically beller ruth in kazakhstan also joined together wit

this time by comments from the leader of belarus. he said that he injured his spine are wrestling, which led him to delay a planned hockey match. here are the details on the story. >> he drives fast cars. he pilots planes. he likes -- up close and personal with theirs. but for the moment, russia's president might be better off putting his feet up and taking it easy for a while. there have been rumors about his health for months. the kremlin has reportedly canceled several foreign trips and anonymous government sources put the blame on mr. putin's babaji back. now those terms -- dodgy back. now those rumors have been confirmed. >> he likes to wrestle. i told him, you cannot do this anymore. what do you want, to do professional wrestling somewhere or what? and he says, well, i just like to drag around on inaccurate he was wrestling -- on a mac. he was wrestling and when he threw him over, he twisted his spine. >> there have been claims that some of his adventures were staged. this is an ally of the president. they have had their moment

. >> the border region between poland and belarus is one of the last and largest remaining parts of theval forest that once stretched across the european plain. the bushka bjoo-veschka as it is known on the polish side is also increasingly becoming a visitor magnet. tourists, environmental campaigners and scientists all flock to this un world heritage site. >> when you've found your place in the world it's hard to explain what's so fascinating about it. it's like with love -- how can you explain exactly what you fell in love with? >> mateusz szymura is a tour guide. he leads his groups deep into the bialowieza forest. nowhere else in europe can as many different species of birds be found in one place. szymura's father taught him what fascinates tourists from the cities -- this bracket fungus, for example. it's seven years old and hard as wood, the tour guide says. everything here grows the way it will. because a primeval forest is, by definition, free from human intervention. >> it teaches me to respect nature. it has its own plans which don't necessarily match mine. it's hard for peopl

. >> the president of belarus says he is proud to be the last dictator in europe. the comments came during a rare interview with the voyagers news agency -- the reuters news agency. westerners have pressured him to grant more freedom. >> all too often, when the word "islam" hits the headlines, and diaz's -- it is in the context of turmoil. >> representatives want to address that. i ago, young people were challenged to portray a german islamic success story -- a year ago. >> today, the winners were announced in a special ceremony here in berlin. emma a role model for young german muslims, the three-time kick boxing champion has not lived in germany for long, but he is already inspiring young athletes from the minorities. he even trains them in german. his commitment inspired a young artist to make a film about him. then he is well integrated. he cannot speak german very well, but he does his best. >> he is one of several artists who have been awarded prizes by the interior ministry for their portraits of immigrants who have found success in germany. >> i think it is

in order to change this the railway companies of the united customs union of russia kazakhstan and belarus are now creating a united logistical operator with unified terrorist and rules perhaps with that in mind russian railways is buying a major logistical operator french jeffco in order to enter the european markets and western transportation technologists. all right in a few minutes i was going off talks to pakistan's former ambassador to the united states who believes that america's future withdrawal from afghanistan suggests anything but victory stay with that. it's perched atop a jaw drop and the view from the kremlin stretches as far as the eye can see. for a city to siberia for centuries. it lost its economic importance even before it was bypassed by the chance siberian railway but the a spiritual center. scenes like these are a yearly occurrence thousands of worship has give themselves implicity water to commemorate the baptism of jesus. in the fifteen eighty s. the russians had only just conquered siberia taking it from the muslims. surrounded by enemies to balls to be their stro

russia kazakhstan and belarus are now creating a united logistical operator with unified terrorist and rules perhaps with that in mind russian railways is buying a major lead just tickle our three french jeffco in order to enter the european markets and western transportation technologists and that's all the news we have for you this hour business news at least more news from around the world coming up after the break stay with us. trimmings in this tree even for specialists of voice can produce several sounds it warms the to do the means the art of throat singing comes naturally picked up like a language. a language of communicating with nature it said that's where throat singing originates from the unions believe not only animals but also all surrounding objects like reverse forests and even stones of souls imitating the sounds they believe can capture the power of nature. was. there are special instruments that accompany the singing give 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 but who won every co

the alliance after missing in london britain wants to see a korea part of its call transition from belarus before. becoming next in line to officially recognize the new group the coalition will now hold talks with french president francois hollande on saturday paris said it will also consider sending weapons to the rebels commentator and blogger charo denise however that the opposition movement is in disarray with no united states to the ceiling. in syria of course the process has been much slower and the wave of defection that we saw in libya didn't exactly happen in syria and what's happening now in specifically in syria is that people there are going off representing a syrian uprising are not the people who are on the ground so we started hearing for example support from different rebel groups armed may rebel groups for the new . opposition leadership but who knows the extent of or whether they would be able to exercise political control so what you really have to look at that there is a strong divide between. leadership that is outside the country and doesn't have control on the ground

backing the syrian rebels many of whom i islamic militants and political activists dr years and the belarus's foreign intervention could ignite an all out regional war. the quien such mess is not really going to be for defensive measure what do they need to defend against at least turkey has an army and they can defend against more time for example this is clearly for a larger scale intervention where they want to secure a no fly zone area we've been hearing the country especially britain and france advocating such intervention recently they've been talking about limited intervention however how. comprehensive and how normal out war style this is going to be i think it is not going it's not going to be a war style it will be a war of attrition it's not going to threaten the syrian government of a sudden intervention they know very well that this is going to ignite a. response from the syrian side. a lot of chaos and in the region. the turkey did has had barely been digested this week before most americans chanda the attention from thanksgiving to buying black friday has become one of the coun

the russians are fading fast in second or third place together with the belarus people. the rates of the incarceration are five, six, seven, eight times than most in other societies, europe and elsewhere, though their rates of nonviolent crime and drug use are not that much different than ours. so if another country were to lock up its own people at the rate that we do, and if our rates of incarceration were more normative to the rest of the world, we would regard with that other country was doing as a massive violation of human rights. that's the way we would look at it. now, the other point here is what we're doing is not even consistent with american history. i mean, we had 500,000 people behind bars in 1980 and now we have 2.3 million, 2.4 million people behind bars and almost have 5,000 people behind bars just for a drug violation. there are as many people behind bars for a drug violation than we had for everything in 1980. it's not consistent with global standards and not consistent with our own history. it's costing a vast amount of money and i think what you see

the russians are fading fast in second or third place together with the belarus people. the rates of the incarceration are five, six, seven, eight times than most in other societies, europe and elsewhere, though their rates of nonviolent crime and drug use are not that much different than ours. so if another country were to lock up its own people at the rate that we do, and if our rates of incarceration were more normative to the rest of the world, we would regard with that other country was doing as a massive violation of human rights. that's the way we would look at it.

france and greece i mean in belarus for instance these monitors condemned the election as neither free nor fair but they really have some type of result in the end they have in effect well. you know megan we have to say that the u.s.c. does have its own history really of criticism in terms of some of the conclusions it sometimes makes depending on the countries where it's monitoring where their group is monitoring the election and there have been cases previously where concerns from other monitors said look there seems to be a little bit more let's say loud screams of trying to bring attention to certain violations in one country yet a lot more relaxed approach when it comes to others and i think this latest case with the united states is a good example of this because we've heard from the o.s.c. say they think it's unacceptable that monitors are not being able to do their job but there is really it's quite unlikely that this group is going to put up a much bigger fight because it has kind of a history of being a little more kind of attentive to what the united states needs are in comp