russia and germany wrap up what will be known as the octopus so mitt as the country's leaders agree to use food as a diplomatic weapon. also tonight america's longest war the length of the u.s. campaign in afghanistan surpasses beer now as the frustration of a growing human and financial costs bill. thirty five years together in orbit russia and the u.s. mark the anniversary of their first joint space flight on the forward cold war relations the follow.

this is our team from moscow welcome it's just after eight pm this thursday night here in the russian capital kevin zero in with the top news stories this hour for you in first a growing closeness between russia and the west was on show at a joint two russian german summit in the city of qatar in book present to me to medvedev and chancellor angela merkel joked about the world cup to person burgers but they made the smiles they got some business done too with dozens of agreements signed correspondent daniel bushell scott the story. in the windy city of where you could get was very much a case of the midwest if and merkel or i'm sure if you like is the sioux country's leaders who are all smiles their personal strong relationship really highlights the country's two excellent relationship at the moment historically until it was greeted chatted with mr medvedev in fluent russian he with her off to

a top local restaurant where they enjoyed octopus but later promised it was not the old people who predicted that germany would lose in the semifinal over the world cup now there was talk of a trio of world leaders forward looking leaders barack obama richard revert if i call a transatlantic troika if you like moving the world forward of security and defense issues with food as the unifying force let's listen in to any money and let me draw your attention to the fact that germany is number one on the list of russia's partners we have a long time relations which have not been spoiled even by difficult chapters in our history. when it comes to russia and germany's relations with other countries it's not like in school where you have just one friend we can have many friends germany and russia have their own issues they're completely different in nature to transatlantic problems it's useful for us to be able to discuss them together the

room for dialogue doesn't exist in the same degree with president obama as it does between us but the u.s. relationship is still very important and i think president medvedev also would like to read to read that this conference is no way should signalize a better relationship with president obama almost here in the now we have two options either the three of us going to need some hamburgers or we draw the treat our friend barack obama to some kind of european grizzlies could begin to say and i think the burger will taste best for me. so after all joy and siemens of germany really takes all of russia's. ation box is today a place to join russia silicon valley a joint new project being built on the outskirts of moscow it will also modernize washes train system its trains which are outdated and yet crucial to the country really relies on its trains a lot of parts of the country and thirdly wind turbines will build wind turbines an eco drive in a country which is also trying to become more environmentally friendly the other

big issue was iran of great work concern at the moment as it continues to suggest it's moving towards a nuclear bomb but that if the pressure on nash. iran is an active and proven trade partner but it doesn't mean that we are indifferent towards the way the islamic republic is developing its nuclear facilities we are also concerned with some military components of its atomic program like iran should find courage to begin fully cooperating with the international community to iran should do this even if it doesn't like some issues it's currently facing a friendly relationship between the two wrapping up what has been a very successful summit a very successful meeting between the two leaders and also business leaders and political leaders germany and russia really two of the strongest partnerships on the world stage today that a bushel reporting their first will russia will hope its relationship with germany

will pave the way for improvement of ties with the e.u. as a whole that is the opinion of cornelius and eastern europe expert at the bertelsmann foundation in berlin. at the moment russia and germany. clause especially in political context. we could see in the last two days economic cooperation is good but could be improved. i think the current development of the relations here is very positive and see. good german russian cooperation could be transferred. more thoughts about this story to a former k.g.b. officer says it's the developing friendship between moscow and washington which allowed the recent spy scandal to be dealt with quickly now we've got the full interview on all they can actually put nko coming up in two hours time but is

a quick taster of what's in store for you. does not we take the broad james any such small office chances for war me and we and we can see it i believe as a first step to my will and rapid development and if you have to solution and. relations even stronger going to compromise for. the solution was unbelievably quickly these events are talked several times since we're doing to cold war it used to take years to prefer such swamps. this is r.t. from moscow attacks in afghanistan reached an all time high in june the bloodiest month for foreign troops since the start of the war nine years ago it is now the longest military campaign in u.s. history it's a passing the vietnam war and the still no end in sight laura lister reports. there's. rosa it's the comparison that cannot be avoided by press pundits

and now politicians last month afghanistan surpassed. a place that both broken are all too familiar with as the longest military campaign in american history committee chairman senator john kerry brought up the failed u.s. war of decades ago at a crucial time in america's current one this is a difficult moment in the afghan conflict a moment when questions about strategy and progress abound at a hearing on governance and the u.s. civilian strategy in the region the man in charge of it all a vietnam veteran himself tries to make the lesson of that history the fundamental difference between those two wars since you mentioned it mr chairman and this war our national security interests are at stake with the safety of the u.s. at stake as richard holbrooke claims you might think congress would have crossed their t.'s and dotted their i's by now and fighting their longest battle as they're supposed to be united states constitution requires that before the united states

goes to war that there be an act of congress but just as in the vietnam war we've never followed that procedure with respect to the war in afghanistan and we centrally drifted into a war in a long term commitment a long term commitment that appears to be wearing on lawmakers who want to know this would not be helpful for the president at least lay out a flexible timetable for when the u.s. is getting out beyond the july two thousand and eleven date to start withdrawal u.s. president obama set it given no assurance that this should be an open ended occupation holbrooke emphasizes the u.s. is committed to no calendar very leery of setting a date certain made here for the absolute withdrawal but still the end game is unclear. civilian and military operations in afghanistan are proceeding without

a clear definition of success the ambassador is banking on the success of reintegrating the taliban starting next week but little about afghanistan appears to be in u.s. favor it's not where you choose to fight to defend the american homeland it's the most remote logistical place united states has ever fought ancestry but just who can put an end to this fight and the absence of withdrawal dates if military and political missions fail the congress has the ability to stop the war by not funding it as u.s. lawmakers and officials talk strategy and tout successes in afghanistan this comes amid escalating violence in the region deal with the bloodiest month in the nine year conflict with one hundred international troops killed forty five have been killed so far in july with twelve of those deaths coming in the last day or so for r t i'm more in mr washington d.c. where u.s. strategy needs afghan troops to take control which will be far from easy afghan war

veteran. his experiences with us. the overall strategy is to pass over leadership from the americans and the coalition forces to the afghans but die experience when i was just in afghanistan a few months ago in the afghan national army treaty center. national army is going to be in effect even an evil figure with leadership from the americans now like you're going to hear a lot of talk about the iraq surge working because we passed raqi the leadership of the iraqi army but the iraqi army is light years ahead of where the afghan army is the afghan army is is ill effect in every possible way so to tell we're going to gain momentum going fortunately unless there's peace talks and peace negotiations the situation will always be a quagmire for those two on the home page as well r.t. dot com and our you tube channel this is our team coming up in the program a blast from the past. three years apollo got itself popular and i want to take

your memorabilia special brand of cigarettes was created just to mark the occasion thirty five years after the historic launch chart looks at the significance of the event and indeed some of the much and dice it spawned to. and. book a ride to remember find out how to muse move from fun to their families that business in pain is broken left helpless dangling in midair four story coming up tonight. all the day's news the suspected killer of prominent russian human rights activist natalya estemirova has been identified and has been placed on a wanted list that's according to president dmitri medvedev who outlined the course of the investigation after a meeting with german chancellor angela merkel there's a year ago today since estimate of who was kidnapped and murdered in the north caucasus region she worked for the human rights organization memorial in russia's

chechen republic she was well known for her investigative work into. cases of kidnap torture and abuse of authority. was a just mention from all the stories we're covering to check out our web site a lot of videos on a lot of blogs interviews chance for you to have your say as one of our stories about the discussion but by simply top that button let us know what you say taste or some stories online tonight for you the psychic german octopus back again outdone though this time by ukrainian animators in a special world cup edition of the cartoon done well in advance of the tournament incidentally make correctly predicted the teams in the final the score and even the red card don't believe me take a look at our web site altie dot com. and find out what's in store for russian farmers really bad news for the struggling right now against the country's worst heat wave in forty years again we've got the back story there tonight on our home page.

space exploration is a joint international effort but it began as a race between the soviet union and the united states and thirty five years ago today there was a breakthrough when the two countries launched the first ever joint mission the apollo. reflects on this big anniversary. it was a turning point the launch the keenly fought call the war space race into new heights two rockets blasting off half a world away from each other would bring the soviet union and the united states into the same orbit one sees nineteen and the apollo craft docked i should a whole new chapter in space exploration the first ever joint project between two better rivals it was a giant leap for the men on board two like i said he was the second pilot in

a say use crew. we docked with apollo it was one of the most significant moments in history of russia and the u.s. before everything was secret all the details of our space programs every detail he was a pool of project we could finally pass the barrier. you believe he still remembers all the details of that flight from the technical to the happy banter between them and the american astronauts. who were showing the guys different cities and places in russia and when we were flying over the us brand was showing us florida i remember he said this is where all the attention has go to live. thirty five years on most of these men will once again get the chance to meet and share memories of their historic link up with my brother alex the series commander is in the united states for the big day. with. the launch was during the height of the cold war so this project wasn't of just technical and scientific importance but was also

a great step towards cooperation between russia and the u.s. there were no losers. there are plans for alex and his apollo counterpart thomas stafford to meet president obama but not until the friends have had a chance to catch up with each other it was over meaningful symbol to the people of the world when we open the hatch. and showed to the world in a way you were the space race said in a way the joint space project had a huge impact on both sides of the atlantic a time when rocket launches captured millions of imaginations worldwide media conceived watch the sea use reach into the sky and vividly remembers every emotion it stirred. up i was in the fourth grade and it was a huge celebration not just for the school but the entire city we got handed balloons flags and went to meet the cosmonauts and then later on we were all outside again to watch the actual launch i remember my dad who worked in the launch

pad he told me that this was the most important event of the century. thirty five years on and the ses apollo project still fires people's feelings some are even banking on it the scenes of paul became so popular that alongside the original memorabilia a special brand of cigarettes was created just to mark the occasion back in the day these were credibly popular and were almost impossible to find on the thirty fifth anniversary of the docking they are once again missing from the city store's katherine as are the artsy moscow. ok bit of a tenuous link this next one but while some rockets do blast off successfully others sadly have a less than happy ending take all of these pictures coming up ten lives left hanging literally by a thread re serious story this week st thrill ride on a rocket like attraction almost ended up in tragedy these are the latest pictures through to see visitors to one of some petersburg's amusement parks were in for

a nasty shock as a cable snapped on the ride leaving them suspended in mid-air seventy meters above the ground luckily rescue teams did make it to the sport just in time to free the stranded passengers literally hanging upside down this such a close call this in the first safety scared this amusement park either seen two years ago a twelve year old girl suffered serious injuries or trampoline i could again ironically that time involving also a snap cable say those pictures from an amateur. photographer their first thanks for setting those into r.t. let's bring it up to date now on some international news in brief an iranian nuclear scientist who claims he was kidnapped by the cia a year ago has returned home should our mary says that he was severely tortured to give up information about iran's nuclear program he also claims he was offered fifty billion dollars to stay in the united states or monday he went to the pakistani embassy in washington and asked to be sent home the u.s.

insists america had traveled to america of his own free will as did live there really listening for marty the vatican has issued a revised set of measures in response to a series of child abuse scandals that extends the time in which action could be taken against suspects from ten to twenty years after a victim's eighteenth birthday the vatican also says those who abused mentally ill adults will be punished the same way as those who abuse minors it is the first major vatican document since the scandal erupted earlier this year with hundreds of new paedophilia cases coming to light. the ongoing b.p. story b.p. has now replaced a the king pipe and is planning to resume or keep pressure tests aimed at stopping that massive all spill in the gulf of mexico it's hoped a new cap could finally help stop the disaster work was suspended a little earlier today because of faulty equipment this new delay follows a string of failed attempts to contain the on going down which nearly three months

now after an explosion destroyed the deepwater horizon. compared to twenty eight nineteen moscow time ninety one years ago a train loaded with the gold reserves of the russian empire set off to escape the bolsheviks and then promptly disappeared without trace him today no one knows for sure what became of it or where it is r t that carries out its own investigation a special program coming up in an hour's time it's a quick preview. ninety-nine. drain carries away the russian empires gold reserves. to save it from the soviets. five hundred tons of gold. dozens of characters six hundred fifty millions in czarist ruble. the train that is still awaiting the arrival station. a century long way. the

mystery of the golden ring on. this great program coming out of not quite it already we try and on earth more of those mysteries for just over an hour's time to say here on our t.v. global broadcast from moscow but for the president thursday evening business news coming up with creative surely one of her top stories tonight the russian aircraft makers sue why is planning to sign his biggest ever foreign contract created here in just a minute now. did

i kill innocent. or was it a call it's a question that's never a. moment so i'm going to call still with me i think of it every day. of the flashbacks from the memories. so much so that a long time in this era and. i was assure you. i was ashamed that i had been wounded i was ashamed that i hadn't been a hero. i don't know are my go my legs. but in the mind. i knew what i wanted to be out now about the march forward to. that i'll believe what i was going on was the right thing. that i was a good soldier. but you know most soldier on the other side and i think i'm just a good.

how and welcome to our business program and it's good to have you with us the russian government will spend five and a half billion dollars on the skolkovo innovation center which is intended to become russia's version of silicon valley during the meeting with chants from america and you can see it on board president medvedev said he hoped modernization process would be quick and was counting on support from german partners the countries have already agreed that german engineering giant siemens would. skolkovo grating new research center that inventive said he was encouraged by the strengthening of trade relations despite the difficult economic conditions. in january to may two thousand and ten to return a bit between russia and germany grew by almost fifty percent of the economies are recovering the main traits are recovering according to our data german investments

russia's economy accounted for around twenty billion dollars that makes this very happy. here in russia equity markets finished in the red as they track your three and u.s. equities words to that with after the latest u.s. data on jobless claims manufacturing and inflation provided a mixed picture of the economic recovery in moscow some of the biggest losers were energy companies but frosty had falling two percent all the r.t.s. hydro down over three percent on my six. the winning streak for the equity markets which has lasted more than a week was broken on thursday day. partners in london explained that investors couldn't continue to hide from economic reality. equity markets have been heading off in their own merry little way tending and trying to ignore the quality of the economic data which actually hasn't been very good really from the last friday well the first friday of this month when the employment data was again disappointing

yesterday we only had a very modest rise in retail sales five percent which again we expected much stronger figures and if the economy was really about to select another and today of course manufacturing output and industrial production figures particular the state was desperately disappointing and is a point kind of a return to recession or if you prefer. not withstanding all that as you rightly said it's now seems to be a war of attrition or a battle between the second quarter earnings which presents a turning out to be substantially better than people thought six weeks ago today of course we are looking at j.p. morgan chase who sold disappointing results from their investment banking people were thrilled that their write downs or impairment charges were less than four billion dollars and that they posted revenues of twenty five point one billion dollars on a profit of around four point eight billion dollars which was. more than acceptable

shares a fairly flat and i think we're going to be more interested in what happens tomorrow with bank of america merrill and also to a lesser degree with citi group we had of course yesterday. wonderful figures. from intel which is set the time for people to say well i'm prepared to hang in with the equity markets but i think because they were over some six weeks ago there is perhaps a little bit of them unless of course the quality of the economic data continues to be very disappointing. one of the country's largest metals companies and l m k says it expects to post a profit of over two billion dollars for the second quarter of this year the company said that results will be impacted by the recent flights. softening of steel prices and eleven k. predicts that sales in the third quarter will be level with the second quarter although prices will show for the declines. and yet another major russian metals company has announced the twenty six percent increase in steel

production in the second quarter in comparison to the first quarter the rise in profit is more modest at around seven percent. after the precious metals sector russia's largest gold produce apollo's gold says net income rose by two percent to fifty seven million dollars in the first half of two thousand and ten the company said the headline figure was given a significant boost by the receipt of dividends from its extra subsidiary. russian aircraft makers so who are plans decided biggest foreign contract worth almost one billion dollars next week the company expects to confirm the sale of thirty super jets at a price of thirty one point seven million dollars each to a company from southeast asia next week at farnborough air show in the united kingdom earliest of poise c e o said the company would supply the first super jet this. that's all the updates for now but you can always buy most tori's on a website r.t.

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