russia and germany will be known as the octopus summit as the country's leaders agree to use food as a diplomatic weapon. but iraq is the longest war the length of the u.s. campaign in afghanistan the sum pass is viet nam as the frustration with the growing human and financial costs bills. thirty five years together in all but russia and the us mark the anniversary of the first joint space flight of the foreign cold war relations that followed.

very good evening from moscow if you just joined us it's a tad after nine pm now this is r t i'm kevin zero in with the top stories this hour on a growing closeness between russia and the west was on the show at a joint russian german summit in the city catherine board president dmitri medvedev and chancellor angela merkel shared jokes about paul the psychic world cup octopus and burgers with barack obama but amid the smiles they got some business done too with dozens of agreements signed our correspondent daniel bushell's been following this story all day for us. in the windy city of that there in berkeley it was very much a case of the madrid if and merkel m.n.m. show if you like is the su country's leaders were 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 influence russian

he with her off to a top local restaurant where they enjoyed octopus but later promised it was not paul the octopus who predicted that germany would lose in the semifinal all over the world well there was talk of a trio of world leaders forward looking leaders barack obama to reach madrid if i glue merkel a transatlantic troika if you like moving the world forward on security and defense issues with food as the unifying force let's listen in to new 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 translate into 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 a 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 bad relationship with president obama. well 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 grizzly's 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 was just 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 wall concern at the moment as it continues to suggest it's moving towards a nuclear bomb but that if up 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 for us from russia will hope its relationship with germany will

pave the way for an improvement of ties with the e.u. as a whole see opinion of cornelius option he's an eastern europe expert at the bertelsmann foundation in berlin. at the moment russia and germany. clause especially in political context as we could see in the last two days economic cooperation is good but could be improved. i think that current development of the relations here is very positive and see. good german russian cooperation could be transferred. to ration thoughts to former k.g.b. officers saying it's the developing friendship between moscow and washington which allowed the recent spy scandal to be dealt with quickly now just to let you know the full interview with the league is coming up in an hour's time but here's

a quick preview. because if we take the broader any such small office chances for war me either way we can see it i believe as a first step to have rapid development and if you have to solution and i'm happy ending for both countries relations even if you're going to compromise for good to solution it was unbelievably quickly at these events are the top level of intelligence won't you during the cold war it used to take years to prepare such. 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 part of vietnam war and the still no end in sight and lyster reports. it's the comparison that cannot be avoided by press pundits and now politicians last month afghanistan surpassed the. 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 a fundamental difference between those two wars since you mentioned it mr chairman in 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 the 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 wouldn't be helpful for the president to at least lay out a flexible time 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 i am very leery of setting a date certain. they here for the salute withdrawal but still the endgame 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 in states ever fought ancestry but just who can put an end to this fight in 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 m or lester washington d.c. . the u.s. is handed over the last of iraq's prisons to the country's government authorities will take control of around one thousand six hundred sixty camp cropper close to

the capital baghdad the u.s. will continue though to hold two hundred detainees some of which were members of saddam hussein's last government though the majority have been identified america is slowly withdrawing from iraq with a final deadline set for december next year let's get more now from andrew gilligan he's a journalist with britain's telegraph he also worked as a reporter in baghdad when the u.s. led invasion was launched back in two thousand and three and even to you good to have you on the program to talk first about these two hundred detainees still being held by u.s. forces what we know about the man drew indeed they were likely to be and why haven't they been how did over do you think. well the problem is we don't know very much about them we know that some of them are high ranking members of the regime we we know the ministers inside arms government for instance some of them are held terry ram it down for instance is among those some of the some of the foreign diplomats some of the military commanders who fought the war but we really know very little and they are the last remaining if you like american black hole of

detainees we know roughly who's held at guantanamo bay we know who's in custody in afghanistan we still don't know who these people are the u.s. of course has been involved in a number of deeply damaging scandals over prisoner abuse over the years the most a tourist of course abu ghraib in two thousand and four why have they therefore been in charge of iraqi prisons until this very day. well the coalition the u.s. cut led coalition was always had control of prisons as it's one of its key objectives because it didn't trust the iraqi government to hold on to the prisoners that it wanted to keep so that's that's why a lot of because a lot of prisoners were always held by the iraqi authorities low level criminals and the like but the political school was held by the americans and you're right the problem is that abu ghraib used to be known as the center of saddam hussein's terror and now it's far better known as the center of american detainee abuse which

is. shocking comment really on the on the nature of part of the occupation and what do we know about the preparedness of the iraqis to take control we're hearing that the deputy justice minister said they're fully ready to take control of camp cropper is that absolutely the case to thank you. conditions in very in many of these jails and knots are not very good conditions in american jails are actually better in some ways than in the iraqi germs. the iraqis are have not been particularly successful custodians of their own prisons one that they have amnesty international has published many critical reports on them. and of course detainee abuse is widespread in iraqi prison so i can't imagine that these detainees will be any better off actually under iraqi custody than american all these years are let's just take a brief look at the wider picture the u.s. presence has lasted over seven years none the less stability seems far from assured does it what do you think the future is for iraq if the u.s. fully withdraws as planned by the end of next year then i think the future is very

gradual reduction in instability in iraq i don't think i do think that having been through everything it's been through and it's still together i think that's probably a reasonably positive augury for the future i don't think iraq is ever going to be sweden on the tigris. and we're going to go from you can use daily telegraph newspaper could even the program thank you. and coming up tonight a blast from the past. it seems apollo became so popular i want to take memorabilia the special brand of cigarettes was just to mark the occasion thirty five years after the historic launch r.t.e. looks at the significance of the event and indeed as we saw some of the merchandise it's forms to. ride to remember this one. from fun to horror for these visitors in st petersburg helpless dangling midday pictures to

come up with later in the program. the suspected killer of prominent russian human rights activist natalya estemirova has been identified and placed on a wanted list that is according to president dmitri medvedev who outlined the course of the investigation after a meeting with the german chancellor angela merkel is no year to day since system of it 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 in the cases of kidnap torture and abuse of authority. i just remind you for all the stories we're covering more depth more background on them as well as videos blogs and interviews and a chance to have your say check out our website r.t. dot com it's a great resource taste for a few stories online tonight you might be interested in the psychic german octopus still not gone but it seems may be outdone by ukrainian animators in a special world cup edition of the cartoon done well in advance they are going to point out of the tournament they correctly predicted the teams in the final the

score and even the red cards. so with our comp plus find out what's in store for russian farmers really bad news for them right now the struggling against the country's worst heat wave in forty years ago more details on our website. these days space exploration is a joint international effort but it began as a race between the soviet union and the u.s. and thirty five years ago today there was a breakthrough when the two countries launched the first ever joint mission apollo artie's catarina reflects on the anniversary it was a turning point the launch the keenly fought called 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 when so use 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 the say use crew. we docked with apollo it was one of the most significant moments in history of russia and the us before everything was secret all the details of our space programs every detail to see was apollo project we could finally passed a barrier. you really 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 ones brant was showing us florida i remember he said this is where all the pensioners 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 one of the series commander is in the united states for the big day. 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 aleksey 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 a very meaningful symbol to the people of the world when we open the hatch and alexa and i show concealer it showed to the world that in a way you 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 watched the sea use reach into the sky and vividly remembers every emotion it stirred. i was in the fourth grade and it was a huge celebration not just for the school but the entire city we got hundred 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 at the launch but he told me that this was the most important event of the century. thirty five years on and they say usable a project still fires people's feelings some are even banking on it the scenes apollo became so popular that alongside the original memorabilia a special brand of cigarettes was created just to mark the occasion that every day these were incredibly popular and were almost impossible to find on the thirty fifth anniversary of the docking they are once again missing from the city stories catch readers are the artsy moscow. of thankfully so use has always been old for

a liable but while some rockets blast off successfully others in a less happy ending ten lives by a thread literally as you'll see in our next story we're in extreme surreal ride on a rocket like attraction almost ended in tragedy these pictures taken by a mobile there think that visitors do want to amusement parks got a nasty shock as a cable snapped on the right looks ok for no there's the snap cable and there they are hanging literally in mid-air seventy meters above the ground luckily rescue teams made it to the spot just in time to free the stranded passengers in this big terrified isn't the first safety scare the amusement park even two years ago twelve year old girl suffered serious injuries after a trampoline accident ironically as well they're also the time holding say those pictures to that of a lucky escape and wish them well could see that they came through. from international news brief from around the world b.p. has replaced a leaking pipe and is planning to resume

a key pressure test aimed at stopping that massive oil spill in the gulf of mexico it's now hoped a new cap could finally help stop the disaster were suspended a little earlier because of faulty equipment the new delay follows a string of failed attempts to contain the ongoing damage in the three months after an explosion destroyed the deepwater horizon rig. the foreign ministers of india and pakistan are meeting in islamabad as the two countries look to improve strained relations and revive peace talks the discussions are aimed at rebuilding trust that was fractured by the deadly attacks nearly two years ago now in mumbai which the indian government blames on pakistan based militants the indian foreign minister s.m. krishna is the most senior official to visit pakistan since the mumbai plot in which one hundred sixty six people were killed. twenty minutes past nine at night here in moscow now in ten minutes time we'll bring you a special report investigating how a train loaded with the gold reserves of the russian empire and its day disappeared without trace somewhere in siberia it was ninety one years ago that story before

that though let's catch up with the business news crew news here in just under eight minutes time. for the full story we've got it first hand the biggest issues get a human voice face to face with the news makers. in some petersburg she's available in hotels a story an. ambassador. hotel. hotel patris pool toto. into. this ski visit.