protest they're calling on the u.n. to intervene or he's going to check out has more on how the trouble is being felt in washington. given all the big interests at stake in the region there is no more democracy chanting going on in washington there have been a few statements from u.s. officials calling for leaders of libya bahrain and others in turmoil to show restraint in hadley handling the protests and that's about it no more of that epic coverage of democracy democracy in making the kind of thing something that we saw a little more than a week ago when obama delivered all these passionate speeches on people of egypt making their voice heard and embracing democracy there is no more of that now with the exception of iran of course the u.s. history or anything that's against the ukrainian leadership but the situation in some other countries seems to have spiraled out of control with egypt analysts say it was easier and safer for the u.s. to root for democracy and support the people because there is the army there which is very powerful and is largely financed by the united states and is now in control of egypt but in other countries in libya for example the u.s.

doesn't have that same leverage so they are much more cautious calling for democracy in those countries i spoke to some experts here they say washington's biggest fear is that those op risings in the region could bring about leaders who will be hostile to the united states and many analysts and only say for the u.s. is not really about supporting democracy in those countries it's about securing their interests just two months ago secretary of state hillary clinton pronounced herself very impressed by the progress that bahrain is making on all fronts she said that's quote there seems to be a strong. broadly held commitment to democracy. that was that was before pro-democracy demonstrators filled the streets and the government responded with deadly force it leave you to experts say the u.s. would so much rather have things as they were off he was never their favorite leader that's what for about some seven years ago he reached to open up a levy is all which is to the west and to let them invest in oil production so they kind of left. but now with protest spreading like wire wildfires across the region

the u.s. seems to to have little control over what's going to happen next year as the region becomes increasingly unstable the price of oil spiked on global markets it is now at its highest level since before the two thousand and eight financial crisis libya where protests are much more violent than they were in egypt or anywhere else now as the richest proven oil reserves in africa it is the twelfth largest oil exporter in the world and he threatens to disrupt supplies i mean all these protests not only that but there are questions as to who will control the suez canal a major oil shipping lane americans have their fleet in bahrain to patrol the canal and keep an eye on iran but bahrain is now in deep crisis and nobody knows what's going to happen so the u.s. might be losing control there experts say if the unrest continues and the crude oil prices keep growing as they are now the u.s. is going to be hit really badly especially now that it's struggling to climb out of recession there are there are reports that a number of western oil corporations might temporarily gain from this spike in oil

prices but the political unrest in the region makes it all too unpredictable it was artie's going to check out reporting from washington and i john loughlin from the institute for democracy and cooperation in paris says that by supporting the uprisings in the arab world the u.s. only gives the appearance of change the american double standards in the middle east are so breathtaking that. one doesn't really know what to say in the case of egypt and as in the case of the other countries the interest of the united states is to present the appearance of change while maintaining political control that is what the americans are about revolution serves to legitimize a continuation of the status quo effectively you may remember in the great novel and film the leopard there's the famous saying everything must change so that everything stays the same and that's really the motto of the americans in these situations they're trying to keep a lid on the situation in the middle east they're trying to legitimize new versions

of the old regime but of course that's not to say that there are new social pressures autonomous social pressures themselves there are of course considerable pressures pressures in these countries. well foreigners living and working in libya are leaving the country several countries including russia are sending special planes to bring their citizens back home. as the details. russia vikki waiting the russian nationals living a working in libya. specialist at a working on high profile investment projects and we know that that's not going ahead as he said special planes have been dispatched to that evacuation we can hear now from russia's fool that back to libya he commented on this. russian nationals should be very good in the margins his ministry has been quite successful in carrying out thank you russians on the social consensus in chief it's hard to predict what the current situation in libya will lead to is just one common reason for such reports across the arab world just emergence of

a new generation of better informed that have been brought up by television someone and to some extent the internet and who are ready to take responsibility for the country's fate no statement on the foreign ministry website has called for an end to the violence in the country and the political dialogue is was this really being this and this only that we've seen the russia's response to the situation in the middle east being markedly different to the approach taken by other western countries especially as we've been hearing in the u.s. so they had this big pro-democracy rhetoric and we heard the bush's foreign minister sergei lavrov saying that warning western countries really that this. revolution for the sake of revolution in for a democracy tool can be counterproductive to actually the focus should be on the stop machine now these democratic processes in the country and what he's now in

western countries is not to interfere in the region's internal affairs that these countries have the right to define their own future and the western country need to be very careful that they're not using me as the first of their own chief it's who gave since the energy rich country open for investment we stay in russia and make the most of these opportunities right but in two thousand and eight. oh. then the president of the country fiza to chipley and signed a three point five billion dollars deal for a high speed rail way link in the country that runs between big odyssey and. now that's scheduled for completion in twenty twelve but of course as we've heard they said especially if the engine is working on that project now of kools being evacuated now we know also there are many russian oil companies working in the country months and gas from gazprom is also a release a statement saying that there would be thing some of the people that working in the country that the. as part of the evacuation in fact just last week gazprom signed

a deal with the taliban company and me and that was to jointly develop the elephant oil fields in libya that of course now with the potential of gadhafi regime this is really calling into question the foreign investments in that country . more on the fallout from the uprisings in north africa and the middle east shortly but first let's take a look ahead as we deal with martian matters later this hour starting on to the red planet in the moscow region the mars five hundred crew are set to walk on their block mars for the last time before heading home. and europa league football teams are braving moscow's freezing temperatures as they prepare to battle it out to go through the final stages that's coming up in our sports bulletin later this hour.

well more now on the unrest in the middle east and north africa it's leading to

a surge of illegal immigrants fleeing the trouble well italy is boosting security on its borders to cope with thousands of refugees whose numbers grow as the violence spreads. reports on those taking flight across the mediterranean. no home no job and no guarantees the life of a refugee. i had to leave i can do my should i have no money when i see a familiar story here. a tiny italian island in the mediterranean around eighteen miles away from the coast of north africa it's always been the main route for refugees but since the recent revolution in tunisia it's become swamped by thousands desperate for a better life in europe who are willing to risk all. then a thermal shock we got into a storm and. i survived six of us and. these are some of the boats which were used by the refugees to get here and now they have these signs on them

from the authorities saying their use is prohibited by italian a lot they've been only here for a couple of weeks so it's pretty clear their initial condition is far from seaworthy nevertheless sometimes up to two hundred people on each one bitterly and tunisia used to have an agreement under which most tunisian refugees were intercepted before even reaching the island but now that the government has been overthrown the floodgates have opened were not ready for the according to one producers mir is becoming increasingly hard to keep the situation under control with scuffles between migrants and police in question there have already been cases of robbery and vandalism it's really hard to identify them some of them may be criminals or even terrorists most of the refugees are held at a center where they're provided with basic help but it's equipped only for eight hundred people. we brought in additional staff members including police and

even psychiatry one hundred people in total but that's still not enough. with a wave of violent political unrest. and the middle east is warning of an exodus of biblical proportions it's calling for to help handle the influx of refugees but for now rome is planning to deploy its army to the islands to help. to europe. or to. all the turbulence in the arab world has drawn the full attention of the american media riots and demonstrations in libya and bahrain are dominating the news channels at prime time as well as the newspaper front pages as artie's lauren lesser reports while u.s. leaders fly the flag for popular uprisings thousands of miles away it's a very different story back home.

these images of thousands protesting their government. are reminiscent of the scenes we're seeing in yemen. or bahrain or any of the mideast protests inspired by tunisia. and on a larger scale egypt where the people's will in many cases driven by workers' struggles won out over ruling regimes but these demonstrations are going on in the u.s. state of wisconsin absolutely wisconsin is the new egypt their workers are fighting to maintain their wages benefits and bargaining rights unions and their supporters have been standing up collectively for a week and counting against politicians proposing to take those rights away as one of the most incredible out short pouring of energies we've seen since the great depression and i think it could be the spark of the could rebuild the labor movement in this country we wouldn't know it walking past a news stand in the u.s.

american newspapers featuring the protests of other countries on their front pages right here this is bahrain no mention of the seventy thousand protesters right here on u.s. soil said may be a tiny side bar dedicated to the people right here in america fighting for their rights the hardest to get all rebuilding overall and american protesters challenge the story told by the most watched twenty four hour u.s. news network in the country critics accuse fox doesn't see what sit there were getting more and more aggressive and i fear that it might be supplied with fear of being hundred peaceful protesters as rioters and the safety of state lawmakers cannot be guaranteed while it may be true the struggles people face from the midwest to the mideast can't be painted with one broad brush because we do have a higher standard of living each not as bad as what we're seeing overseas in the third world developing world but it is a manifestation of the same global move that. manifestation is received very

differently by u.s. press and politicians depending on where it's happening american media that shared in the excitement of egyptian protesters all day long in cairo the anticipation and excitement were growing villainize the ones in their own backyard these protesters are some of the signs aren't so nice a little bit nasty are you feeling any aggression there on the ground the president sided with the democratic demands of egyptians on the street and called for this political social and economic reforms that aspirations of the egyptian people meanwhile at home on the do that the egyptian military hope we were a few gyptian people we had the governor of wisconsin threatening to call the national guard lawmakers in the u.s. were rallying the troops against protesters and the top republican in the u.s. derive their tactics saying this was not a way to have an adult conversation gyptian seem to disagree a prominent union leader pledged support for the western workers in this video.

and we watched the people of egypt celebrate their triumph now i mean cairo it was victorious friday a victory fought and won the support of the u.s. once a battlefield now a monument to the one we call freedom meanwhile on the battlefield of working people right here in america those fighting go largely undefended lauren lyster r.t. new york. well later our financial guru max kaiser says the u.s. needs a revolt aimed at toppling wall street's backing giant's. global insurrection against banker occupation is gathering storm gathering force all over the world the forces that are in power now can't stop it the momentum is too high so we're seeing in egypt they're saying to me is yeah we're seeing riots all over the world in america it's coming it's coming soon and it's time for a regime change and he's right to target the federal reserve bank there's going to

need to be a regime change at some point as a matter of survival you know people in america debate whether it's a left wing issue or right wing issue it's not left or right it's a matter of survival either to get rid of bernanke or you die. you can watch the kaiser report in just over an hour here on our t.v. and now let's move on to some other international headlines new zealand's a problem has confirmed sixty five people died following a powerful earthquake in the city of christchurch but the death toll expected to rise the magnitude six point three quake brought down buildings of the city center injuring dozens of people workers are continuing to search for victims trapped in the debris and rescue crews from around new zealand and australia have been sent to the scene a state of emergency has been declared in the region. at least thirty six people

have died after a stampede at a muslim ceremony in mali officials say over sixty others were injured when the crowd surged against a metal barrier at the stadium hosting the event the country's president on my due to play visited a local hospital where the victims were taken the crush occurred as tens of thousands of people were attempting to leave the ceremony. a suicide bomber targeting a government building in northern a. gana stand has killed at least thirty people the man detonated his device near a group wide up to collect identity cards in the quintus province or the taliban claimed responsibility saying the attack was intended for an army recruitment center this comes just days after militants in the eastern city of jalalabad killed forty and wounded dozens. germany's defense minister has given up his doctoral title following allegations he plays sections of his thesis last week. the burke

said he would temporarily give up the title of his university investigated the charges of burke has now asked the university of beirut to retract his p.h.d. of law admitting he had made quote serious mistakes now the final space walk of a simulated voyage to mars will soon be underway in moscow before the crew packed their bags and head back to earth now the volunteers are halfway through a period of five hundred twenty days spent in isolation in a moscow laboratory the team consists of six volunteers three from russia and one each from china france and italy experiment is designed to test the effects of long distance space travel alan smith from london smaller space science laboratory says the experiment is a vital step for future space exploration. i think it's actually an excellent idea i think it's a lovely idea because it is internationalize is the problem because i think that's

a wonderful thing that they've done they've internationalize the problem and and russia has chosen an aspect of the problem which i don't think is really been addressed properly the most focused so far has been the technology that gets you to mars and lands on mars and we can't simulate it in one go so what we have to do is separate out the various different difficult aspects of it and then try to isolate those aspects and then understand those aspects so the one of the real problems in going to mars is getting people to get on with each other for that period of time and still be effective when they arrive six or eight months later on the surface of mars and then come back again. and that's not a tall trivial so what the mars five hundred is trying to just isolate in their in their isolation rooms some of the issues which those those that crew technology are going to see so it's not meant to be a perfect. simulation. is meant to just tease out

some of the real issues and some of the issues are things like the difficulty in communication with earth and the growing time in the communications with the sense of general sense of isolation the fact that they have only a limited amount of supplies etc so all those things have been well simulated. famous russian cosmonaut explains how he deals with being so far away from his family and indeed his planet. but there are all. it's difficult but it's an enjoyable and interesting scientific job the main thing is to create a good psychological climate when i flew into space for the third time there were six people in our crew to russians or canadian and american belgian and one from japan a real symbiosis and everyone had their own traditions and customs but the best thing there is to find something useful that unites people if you find that it's easy. of course we're following the mars five hundred true story on our website and here's what else is online keeping you up to date r.t.

dot com latvia's jews face a fight for compensation for the property stolen during world war two as praise for the nazi collaborators sees the conflict redefined by the country as liberation not invasion. and as the unemployment rate rises in the u.s. more and more women are taking any work going even in the porn industry or go to r.t. dot com to find out more. on a few minutes former russian foreign minister and middle east expert. gives his analysis on the deepening problems in the region but first you guys here for the business update.

hello and a very warm welcome to the business update the rally in the oil prices beginning over here is given the russian government new options speaking exclusively to our chief finance minister alexa couldn't says the high revenues will mean lower boring . sure. we're going to cut our initial plan for foreign borrowing due to the high oil price this year it could be cut by around five hundred billion rubles we have an opportunity which we haven't used yet to finance modernization with money from asia in particular this relates to projects in the far east in siberia the money could come in the form of loans foreign direct investment through the placement of projects in asia. let's have a quick look at the markets asian stocks are trading in the red this hour way down by political tensions in the middle east the nikkei lost almost two percent following the weakness in europe but while related shares are on the rise on the

back of strong world prices brant crude is now one hundred seven dollars per barrel as the political crisis and leave it fuels concerns over oil supplies in hong kong construction stocks i shop alone with whom di engineering and construction down around five percent and g.e.'s engineering and construction down four point eight percent. and the russian stocks saw their highest climb in within a week on monday on tuesday the r.t.s. has started trading on a negative note my six closest so far the possible stock trading in a few minutes. that oil spikes are having a positive impact on russia which is but a vanessa going to a strategist from renaissance capital believes crude as a double edged sword and says investors shouldn't let their guard down. mr should be kosher is because we're getting into oil super spikes and we were ordered

to. do it since we were all so fond of. you know the tensions are going to continue we're going to see higher oil prices. it's good for russia scoring to go it's good for russians it's makes them makes them welfare but it's a q. were for global economy and the russian labor market is improving with the end of wave of mets layoffs seemingly over russia statistics spirit says the shelf axed employer we use among the country's total workforce fell from around four percent in december to roughly two percent in january and companies are hiring more than firing with the majority of workers leaving for personal reasons most of the layoffs take place in the manufacturing transport and communications sectors. and finally

a canadian circus company is so well and that's to record fifty seven million dollars in a new show in moscow next year to test the ground before launching a permanent show in russia by twenty fifteen the more reality based company which draws a fifth of its one thousand artists from russia says the company the country is the company's fastest growing market intertainment company came to russia two years ago and is now in the story russian citizen. and st petersburg it will also drove you couldn't book later this year. that wraps up the business boardroom you are up to date now or join me in less than one else time for more business news here on r.t. and get more website our two dot com slash business. it's

a brand new three ship and this is product on upright healthy eating. to test these times is the allergenicity immune response lower nutrition for environmental contamination don't you feel like a lab rat some consider the experiment if human treatment i believe significant differences between to date. g.m. felt that they both at the g.m.

. books they were treated so well themselves one question means one career you ask one question you could be uncertain and you might or might not be able to publish it but that's the end of your career. wealthy british style. that's not on. the. market why not. find out what's really happening to the global economy with max cons or for a no holds barred look at the global financial headlines tune in to kaiser report on our.

here's a quick recap of some of the main stories we're covering today on r.t. there are global calls for the violence to end did libya as hundreds die during a week of protests there were rumors that the libyan leader had fled the trouble but colonel gadhafi later made a brief t.v. appearance saying he was still in the country. russia is among several other nations racing to get their people out to safety special planes are being sent to the troubled country to ensure foreign workers don't get caught up in the clashes. and the morris five hundred crew are preparing for their final walk walk

martian surface before starting their long journey back home but the volunteers are halfway through the five hundred twenty day project which they are spending in isolation in a moscow laboratory to test the psychological impact of space travel. and let's get more insight into the continuing god rest across the world r.t. spoke to us good former russian foreign minister and expert on the middle east who says the revolts are a social explosion against authoritarian regimes that interview's up next. thank you very much for finding time to talk to us to take us to go speaking of the recent uprisings in north africa and in the arab world.