recent revolution in tunisia it's become swamped by thousands desperate for a better life in europe who are willing to risk all. that 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 can cram on each one. 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 and we're not ready for this according to one produces meer is becoming increasingly hard to keep the situation under control with scuffles between migrants and police. 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 helston 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 title but that's still not enough. with a wave of violence political unrest sweeping north africa and the middle east italy is warning of an exodus of biblical proportions it's calling for cash to help handle the influx of refugees but for now rahm is planning to deploy its army to the island to help the gateway to europe you go it was going off. the libyan leaders to fight till the end and die

a martyr calling on his supporters to take back the streets from the opposition colonel gadhafi appeared on state t.v. in his latest attempt to cling to his forty one year rule amid the nationwide revolver centered his second week it off he said protesters have been bribed drugged under serving the devil his address comes after a day of reported army airstrikes against demonstrators in the capital tripoli more than two hundred have been killed and over four thousand injured in the first week of riots making this the bloodiest of all the arab revolts some will be now busters of a quit over the alleged use of force and want the u.n. to intervene world leaders are appealing to the country's authorities to put an immediate end to the clashes and russia is among the states preparing to evacuate their citizens from libya amid the escalating political crisis fifty russians have been reportedly trapped at a railway construction site in the desert all together there are about five hundred currently working in the country at a meeting of the national counter-terrorism committee in russia's north of setia

president dmitri medvedev warned the mounting violence in the arab world could bring dangerous consequences artie's sarah firth has got that story we've heard president medvedev speaking today at a security meeting and he was addressing the situation in the middle east and north africa and what we heard him saying was about talking about the real danger now let's go instability throughout these regions the decades to come so that you most of. the middle east could shatter into pieces the situation is extremely tense we could witness the disintegration of large and don't sleep populated countries. but the thing is the situation there was quite complicated before and now there is a possibility that religious fanatics could seize power that would serve the region on far for decades to come and would spread extremism further extremists prepared such a scenario for russia before and they could try and make it

a reality now but they definitely will succeed what from that list no we see russia's response to the situation throughout these regions is that it's been markedly different to that of other western countries certainly much more cautious where we saw the u.s. being very proud of this crisis we had a lot of that rhetorical coming out especially at the beginning of the protests russia's focus is really been actually takes more political dialogue the foreign minister sergey lavrov is really revolution does not a democracy make what now needs to be the focus it's about having these democratic structures put in place and as we heard president medvedev saying that there's a real risk that that won't happen and certainly over the coming weeks and months there's going to be a real look at whether these countries we've already seen egypt and tunisia having their government say that's right libya potentially following and they spit out whether these democratic structures can be put in place and whether these countries are capable of running a modern democracy we've heard from the foreign ministry that the evacuation so

they snatched those that are working and living in libya at the moment has gone under way now president made vegas orders they've dispatched four planes we know that libya has actually given permission for they still land in aaa so there's a one thousand two hundred people at the moment if actuated is over five hundred days and russian nationals in the south and many of the specialist in the working on high tech investment projects in the country you know remember of course since libya's been open for investment since about two thousand and eight we've seen a number of these high profile investment projects get up and running one of. one of the biggest is the russian railways high speed rail way link. to be completed in twenty twelve gazprom has also come out and said that it's going to be evacuating its work is that just last week they stein's a deal with an italian company to jointly work on a new oil field in the country but of course with the potential it's one of these

regime now with thing these foreign investments really being called into question. of course on a surf earth let's talk. about more about this newbie in perth cross' we're going to oxford we'll talk to all of our miles he's a former u.k. ambassador to the country mr miles thank you for being with us. the events that are taking place in libya have a stark resemblance to lead to what we witnessed in two news here in egypt except on the big accept is that we are seeing a much more violent response from the government this time why is the country's leaders so confident we saw him tonight on television and using force against his people. while of course it's a very different could refuse a very different character for why the or mubarak. i wasn't surprised by the way he behaved i mean he's never he's never been prepared to accept any idea of genuine opposition inside libya he always accused anyone who opposes him of being well now it's on drugs but it before it's always been in the pay of the guerrillas

or something he just can't get his head round the idea that there are people in libya who would like to see a change and that change means getting rid of him does the population generally buy what he says the population watching the hour long television broadcast he made tonight do they respect what he says in view of the fact that so many people are out on the streets where the majority think they are and do you expect gadhafi to survive. well i hesitate as a foreigner to try to tell you how libyans will react to that speech because it was addressed to them by very very. for an experienced politician but if you want my opinion it is that he won't reach any libyan hearts with that speech i think most people most libyans seeing it will a felt ashamed that they've accepted such a leader for such a long time i think his promises his suggestions of reform and so on were very hollow and his threats was frankly disgraceful accusing the people who had been

been protesting all being on drugs or being manipulated by foreigners and so on i don't think that will come from the ice with the libyans he's talking about fighting to the bitter end he's calling on his supporters to come out and take to the streets do you think we are witnessing the beginnings maybe of a civil war. well it's possible but no i don't think that i think we're witnessing probably the final act of of the drama because what happened in libya are different from what happened in the other countries was that the the protests started really effectively outside the capital and it was in the in the villages of the towns and in particularly in benghazi in which caught the attention of the international media of course that the protesters came out confronted the forces loyal to the regime and won. and i i believe all the information is very scanty and it's very difficult to know what's going on in libya i believe that the situation

in benghazi and in many other parts of the country is now held by the by the protesters. tripoli really only came into the business on sunday evening when for the first time there were clashes between protesters between the demonstrators for and against the regime and since then those people a lot of bloodshed the calls on the u.n. to take action to protect the rights of civilians in libya what can the u.n. do to resolve the crisis. well in my opinion there's not much anyone outside libya can do but i'm glad it's gone to the u.n. i think that's the right forum i became irritated i must say by people in britain who call for some kind of british action or european action or american action i think that's the wrong approach i think what is needed is the security council to address that it's not there's not all that much they can do they william hague our foreign secretary said this afternoon that one of the things they should do is to make make it very clear that people who commit crimes against humanity in the

course of the surplus of the affair will also follow crimes off towards well that's a good as far as it goes but i don't think it's going to have any real effect on the on the situation around your place to answer this what impact do you think all this is going to have on britain's relations with libya. well of course it depends on the outcome i think that it isn't just britain it isn't just britain's relations with libya i think libya's standing in the world is going to be radically altered by this either we're going to see a return to the pariah state status of thirty years ago only this time he won't just be president reagan who is declaring that gadhafi is a mad dog it will be the whole world i think or we're going to see some new structure in libya and that's very very difficult to read because there isn't much there aren't many building blocks in libya for the new structure which they're going to have to create a night i wish them luck but the going to have a very difficult task if if gadhafi goes all of them miles from where you can bust

into libya thank you for your time tonight and being with our teeth is appreciated all right with more thoughts more perspective now let's talk to michael t. claim he's a professor of peace and world security studies at hampshire college thanks for being with us his self as well sir i got the they are joining us from the u.s.a. good to see you know oil prices as we've witnessed there the other big side of this reached a two year high you've also talked in a in a recent report you've written about grain costs we know there have been nearing levels not seen since the peak months of two thousand and eight you mention in that article that you wrote recently that experts are warning this is grim news as you see it twenty eleven could be the year as you put it living dangerous dangerous and what does that mean for assault is it just hype for your article or is this some real bad news in there. oh i see europe working their interests before your parents didn't it up in libya and bahrain and elsewhere i would think for science

and my mind the big danger sign is the rising price of rice now yes there's higher or higher than it was. at eight when you had riots around the world in dozens of countries. and that's the situation you have today and i believe the situation can only get worse because of indications of drought in many parts of the world in china and elsewhere and that makes people very angry now there are all these political developments we are hearing about but if you had the hunger and the high price of food that stirs things up much more fiercely than otherwise how can governments in these troubled countries like libya and cairo reassure people right now and restate confidence in them and the economy you're an expert in paces is there a painful way to resolve this before it gets to breaking point. well in the case of

libya it's too late because the government has used force to kill their own citizens once you do that you crossed that threshold and there's no going back in the case of egypt when the military announced they weren't going to fire on the protesters that opened the way to a peaceful transition which we have so far seen in egypt i think that's the crucial factor is voiding conflict also transparency opening up the government to scrutiny where the money is is is it's very crucial a lot of the countries we're talking about have it in the profits and the wealth of the country that was a key factor in nature that really was that the corruption was what was so. what made people so angry so transparency is something else that governments can do ok we we've seen haven't we so graphically in the past few weeks have an uprising

in one country can so easily affect what's happening in another country. is there a peaceful way. to resolve that there is there is there a peaceful way to stop this sort of stuff spreading how can the how can it what i'm trying to say is it's very easy it's very graphically represented isn't it how one country's trouble can easily spread to another is there a way to put a sort of a fire barrier there. well now i don't think you can say that these are problems building from one country to another. you know like ink spreading the fact is that the problems that were in tunisia and egypt are replicated in many parts of the world not only in the middle east but in europe and central asia in another parts of the world where you have lots of fun of flight young people young men no economic prospects a lot of government corruption so if you take proactive steps to address the

concerns on the minds of these young people numerous well educated but bitter young people and say we're going to do something see you we're going to create jobs we're going to address the unemployment situation that's what's that's what's essential here because all these people are aware of what's going on in the the countries due to the internet and other means of communication so you have to respond to that in a meaningful way. and is there anything countries can do to make sure that situations like they don't affect a particular economy or is it no good to think that we all live in a little bubble i mean to global to do that. oh i think it's very hard to isolate yourself as you suggest the economies are interconnected but as i say transparency helps letting people know where the couple minutes getting its revenues and where

they're going makes a huge difference of people have trust and confidence in the government that their taxes are not going into the pockets of a few cronies of the president but are going to the benefit of the public in some small measure i think that makes a huge difference and i continue to sort of peace and security studies economies thank you my pleasure now the british prime minister is upheld his decision meantime another angle to the story to take defense firm representatives with him on his tour of the middle east critics are accusing david cameron of exploiting the events that he's correspondent laura emmott has that side of the story. it is the timing of this visit that has brought it under so much fire we've seen this is a huge amount of chaos in the middle east across these countries libya bahrain yemen before that egypt and tunisia and the police cracking down on these protests in certain countries and in fact there's a former foreign office minister here in the u.k.

a member of the labor party denis macshane who has called the prime minister's visit with defense companies at this time insensitive and crass insensitive and crass to seek to bolster u.k. arms deals with countries in the middle east at this very sensitive time we've seen just just very recently embarrassment for the u.k. after it was forced to revoke arms licenses to bahrain and libya amidst fears that british arms had been used against protesters during the trouble david cameron is now trying to ascertain that they weren't that british arms weren't used in the suppression of protesters one just can't have that kind of control if one is an arm selling country we've also seen in the past accusation of the u.k. selling arms in exchange for oil particularly in relation to saudi arabia and we've also seen over a number of years a very in meshed relationship between thora tarion governments and the military and police forces of this country and in fact british police have frequently going to

help train police forces in countries like libya bahrain abu dabi and qatar and saudi arabia and these are all police forces that have a propensity towards violence and some of them have shown violence towards processes in recent days the u.k. has also number of years authorized the supply of tear gas crowd control ammunition to these countries as well as small arms ammunition and we also have seen a tradition of the elite coming to train at sandhurst which is the officer training institution here in the u.k. and in fact current heads of states formally trained at sandhurst the king of bahrain. the head of jordan kuwait oman and cats are all trained at sandhurst here in the u.k. and of course this all comes against a backdrop of cuts in defense spending in the u.k. so it would seem that one of david cameron's missions is to ensure that the u.k. defense. product will always have

a market in the middle east but the question that people are asking is is that morally right during this time of intense on rest in the region. there's a london correspondent laura. away from that story now for a while a little bit later on we're going to be taking a walk on the red planet you heard right find out how these men made it up there and what a moscow lab has to do with that journey. russian special forces have reportedly eradicated three gunmen in a counter-terror operate in the north caucuses some of those killed is suspected of shooting two wrists in the country's southern republic of dino bokhari a last weekend on saturday to masked men stopped a minibus heading from but these three tourists were killed and two more injured as the gunman opened fire more world news in brief a twenty one minutes past ten moscow time officials say four americans have been shot dead by pirates after their boat was seized off the coast of oman last week u.s. forces have been negotiating with the hijackers until gunshots were heard early tuesday

morning then troops stormed the yacht detaining fifteen suspected pirates and killing another four the americans had been taking part in a rally when they were attacked. rescue operations are underway in new zealand there's been a six point three magnitude earthquake that killed at least sixty five in the city of christchurch thousands of people are in emergency shelters tonight the powerful quake brought buildings tumbling down in the business district at lunch time office blocks collapsed trapping scores of people and raining debris down on busy streets it is feared some two hundred souls might still be a bit neat the rubble their emergency crews they were can to find them the second earthquake to hit the city in five months it is and it is the country's deadliest natural disaster for eighty years. to rein in naval warships center the su is canal tuesday on route to the mediterranean israel which views around as a threat it's already called the move a provocation a regular official say the frigate and supply vessel headed to syria for year long

training mission it's the first time around military ships have sailed those waters since the country's islamic revolution of one nine hundred seventy nine egypt's defense ministry says iran's request stated the vessels would have no military equipment or nuclear materials on board. the final walk on mars has been completed in a virtual experiment david studying the demands of deep space travel it was the last of three simulated strolls on the mock martian surface mars five hundred is the name of the project is aimed at studying the physical and psychological effects on people of such a long journey if mankind were little and to take something like that in the future a group of six volunteers are taking part that is three russians to you piers in a chinese man they are now officially at the halfway point of the five hundred twenty day simulated journey and the spending it in isolation in moscow now patrick fflick the founder of a company specializing in scientific innovation told me that even though this

experiment is quite accurate in reality this mission will be much much harder there is a body of knowledge that can be drawn on there what makes this particularly challenging in a real mission when you're on the surface of mars or a long way from the earth is that if you need to consult somebody for help the radio messages take a twenty minute round trip so that really does add an extra rather more difficult dimension to it psychologically of course we know a lot more about how people will perform under these conditions now but the real challenge one of the real technical challenges that remains is working out how we protect cosmonauts on this long journey from the solar when the charged particles that come from the sun because that really will be one of the biggest difficulties but future technologies face in carrying out this journey. sports tonight with. the result of

a big football much that took place tonight in moscow to see his car against pork. well the details on that for you but before that kareen is here with the latest of the day we've seen as all. how is that going to affect the markets where you go a lot of hits fellow everywhere on tuesday given airline stocks are showing the most prospect of higher fuel costs as you can see and we'll look at the figures in just a moment but first to the top story about oil prices have climbed to the highest level in more than two years as the crisis in libya fuels concerns over could supplies blend has risen as much as ten percent in less than one week now trading at around ninety two dollars a barrel libya which has africa's largest oil reserves has cut supplies by fifty thousand barrels a day with the opposition threatening to stop all of that in every i was that has are from metropole believe or prices could spike much higher if the unrest in the region spreads. if conflicts will not stop in the next couple of weeks we probably see the. price at about one twenty. i'm afraid if you see some conflicts

in iran we've probably. historical marks for one fifty maybe even more if conflicts will stop and you know the peace will be there for a long time. in the short term. compensation from b.p. if their deal to jointly develop bridge arctic fields fails that's according to the wall street journal citing deputy prime minister. and b.p. concluded the deal in january but were forced to put it on hold after drew opposition from a are that b.p. is russian partners in a joint venture. and they are claims the deal violates its exclusive agreements with a british oil major. look at the markets bought into levy is affecting markets worldwide u.s. stocks extend also as the price of oil surged in two years high airline stocks are shedding the most on the prospect of higher fuel costs delta airlines american

airlines parent and our united continental holdings and u.s. airways group all dropped by five percent stocks in europe dropped sharply as well extending the previous sessions heavy losses the could see last point three percent germany's dax fell three point six points airlines also read the mungo hardest hit stocks shares of kale air france kill em dropped over three percent and easyjet fell eight percent here in russia markets close in the red tracking losses in europe and asia the r.t.s. in the eyes it's going to just over half a percent lower on tuesday after posting their highest crime even more than a week on monday and some of the individual moves now financials were under pressure would spare bank ever go most two percent lower bank of moscow more than four percent on news with city authorities that sold its stake to bt however shares slipped towards the end of the trade the biggest gaiters of the day were in the energy sector not just by rising oil prices but also the prospect of

a more favorable tax regime here in russia. was also. a focus on the oil sector because it has been a major article in the midst of this morning regarding the potential oil tax reform which is supporting the many economists including our house view that the export crude tax will decrease from sixty six percent to sixty percent which is very positive for the oil name so we've seen oil names such as. performing the market today quite significantly. that's all for now i'll be back with more and less than one.

more news today volunteers once again flared up. these are the images cold world has been seeing from the streets of canada. trying to corporations are on the day.

watching r t the global news channel from moscow these are all top stories thousand and three from political unrest in north africa in the middle east but as they arrive in european countries looking for safety they're accused of bringing violence and instability with them. anger at the government reaches boiling point in libya with clashes in airstrikes against protesters reported gadhafi did nice fleeing the country refusing to step down. for them to meet with veterans of decades of turmoil if the protests continue it comes as moscow sends in planes to pick up hundreds of russians working in libya. plus the red planet seen its last

guests for an hour with a six man crew making their final walk on a mock martian surface as part of a simulated mission to mars the volunteers are now halfway through the five hundred twenty day experiment in a moscow. watching our t.v. now more on the ongoing unrest across the middle east and africa r.t. speaks to getting from a call former russian foreign minister an expert on the arab world about the implications of the unfolding events. thank you very much for finding time to talk to us but i guess to go speaking of the recent our presence in north africa and in the arab world.