monarch see thousands flee 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. solidity. the middle east could shatter into pieces the situation is extremely tense. but of warns of decades of turmoil if the protests continue in the arab world as the government sends planes to pick up hundreds of russians working in libya. plus the red planet seen its last guess for the time being with a six man crew making their final walk on a mock martian surface as part of a simulated mission to.

its midnight moscow time live from the russian capital you're watching our team my name is kevin now in a warm welcome the main news this hour thousands of refugees fleeing their homelands in search of a safe haven in europe as the political unrest escalates across the arab world faced with a deluge of immigrants italy is raising concerns about security at its borders has come off as it's one island struggling to cope with the influx right now. no home no job and no guarantees the life of a refugee. i had to leave i couldn't even my should i have no money. 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. that we got into

a storm and. i survived six of us don't. 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 of the already 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 we're not ready for this according to one produces mir 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 health 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 just one hundred people in total but that's still not enough. with a wave of violent political unrest sweeping north africa and the middle east italy is warning of an exodus of be able to go 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've got this kind of. italy. one of the main development there are reports tonight that the libyan interior minister has defected and joined the protesters calling on the army to do the same and support the people's demands for change and follows an earlier t.v.

address by colonel gadhafi vowed to fight to the end and die a martyr he duffy urged his supporters to take back the street. from the opposition who he claimed had been bribed drugged and served the devil is in put it it's the latest attempts of the leader to cling to his forty one year rule amid a nationwide revolt the center second week of monday gadhafi reportedly ordered the army to use 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 before you can bastards in libya all over miles says we're seeing the final throes of a dictator the very end of his reign. could afy is a very different character for why the ben ali 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 each always accused anyone who opposes him of being

well now it's all drugs put it before it's always been in the pay of the experience is 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 i think his promises he has suggestions of reform and so on work very hollow and his threats. frankly are disgraceful that we're witnessing probably the final act of of the drama because what happened in libya is different from what happened in the other countries was that the protests started really effectively outside the capital and it was in the in the villages in the towns and in particularly in benghazi 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 although 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

not held by the by the protesters that's the former you can pass into libya all of the miles talking to me earlier on well russia is among the states that are evacuating this it is. and from libya and the escalating political crisis one hundred fifty russians have been reportedly trapped in a roadway construction site in the desert although there are over five hundred currently working in the country at a meeting of the national counter-terrorism committee in russia's north and president dmitry medvedev warned the mounting violence in the arab world could bring dangerous consequences r.t. sara first reports. 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 political instability throughout these regions the decades to come split into. the middle east could shatter into pieces the situation is extremely tense we could witness the disintegration of large and densely 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 with from that list no we see russia's response to the situation throughout these regions as it has been markedly different to that of other western countries certainly much more cautious where we saw the u.s. being very pro diverse 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 fit 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 for they snatched those that are working and living in libya at the moment has a has got under way now a president orders they've dispatched four planes we know that libya has actually given permission for they still land in tripoli so there's a one thousand two hundred people at the moment to be evacuated over five hundred days and russian nationals themselves many of the specialists in the working on high tech investment projects in the country now remember of course since livy has been open for investment since the 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. project to be completed in twenty twelve gazprom has come out and said that it's going to be evacuating its workers that just last week. a deal with an italian company to jointly work on an oil field in the country but of cools with the potential. regime withing these foreign investments really being called into question. sort of a correspondent of the last of the u.s. secretary of state's given her reaction to the situation in the middle east hillary clinton said the bloodshed across the region is unacceptable let's cross live to washington d.c. we're joined by to postpone the. speech so what we have today. well kevin first of all the situation in libya has been critical for more than a week now the protesters there turned out to be the protests there turned out to be a lot more violent than they were in egypt or anywhere else in the region for that

matter but washington's reaction has and only point out has been as slow and cautious as ever only this tuesday did secretary of state hillary clinton come out to the press and call for leave it to stop the bloodshed she also called for leaders in other countries including bahrain to show restraint when handling the protests what analysts point out despite the cautious words of concern expressed by the administration there is no more of that democracy chanting that we saw little more than a week ago when obama delivered all those passionate speeches on people of egypt making their voice heard and and bracing democracy there's no more of that now in fact several senators have urged the president to speak out clearly in support of the libyan people but there is a stark difference in the way the u.s. reacts to those anti governmental uprisings in the region with egypt analysts say it was easier or 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 he's now in

control of egypt but he now. other countries in leave you for example the u.s. doesn't have that same leverage so there is much more so they are much more cautious calling for democracy in those countries i spoke to experts here they say washington's biggest fear is that those uprisings in the region could bring about leaders who will be hostile to the united states many analysts say for the u.s. is now really about supporting democracy in those countries it's about securing their interests so what all of those interests. well libya has the richest oil reserves in africa it is the twelfth largest oil exporter in the world experts say it's very hard to predict who will be who will grab the power if gadhafi is ousted some exercise some experts say the u.s. would rather have to use as they were warmer khadafi was never in their favorite leader that's was short but some seven years ago he reached to open up libya's oil reserves all the riches to the west and let them invest in their oil production so they kind of left him alone but now with protests spreading like wildfire is across

the region the u.s. seems to have little control over what's going to happen next there is the u.s. is very sensitive about bahrain they have their fleet there to patrol the swear skin allah major oil shipping route and keep an eye on iran and they have good relations with the king of pop grain and all the political unrest could really undermine the u.s. presence in the gulf it's quite interesting just two months ago secretary of state hillary clinton said that she was she was very impressed by the progress that bahrain is making on all fronts to quote there seems to be a strong broadly held commitment to democracy she said well that was before pro-democracy demonstrators filled the streets of the government responded with deadly force that's just one more example showing that the situation in some of those countries has clearly spiraled out of us control. the story with your help as well thanks to bring us to washington d.c. well over the years to the spirit story the british prime ministers of held his decision defense represent. with him on his tour of the middle east critics are

accusing david cameron of exploiting the current events. 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. member of the labor party denis macshane who has called the prime minister's visit with defense companies at this time insensitive and. he's 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 troubles 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 armed 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 and. 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 the. london correspondent covering the succumb of the ongoing events in the middle east here on our table table break from it now and see what's coming up later in the program in fact we're taking a walk on the red planet head to find out where the man made it up there and what a moscow lab has got to do with the journey back down on terra firma sit r.t. tonight. news continues russian special forces of reportedly killed three gunmen in

a counter terror operation in the north caucuses some of those killed are suspected of shooting tourists in the country's southern republican couple dealable car last weekend on saturday two masked men stopped at many birds heading for mt elbrus at least three tourists were killed and two more injured as the gunman opened fire there world news in brief 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 had been negotiating with the hijackers until gunshots were heard early tuesday morning troops stormed the yacht detaining fifteen suspected pirates and killing another four the americans have been taking part in a rally when they were attacked a rescue operation underway in new zealand tonight following that six point three magnitude earthquake that killed at least sixty five in the city of christchurch thousands of people in emergency shelters tonight that powerful quake brought buildings tumbling down in the business district at lunch time office blocks

collapsed trapping scores of people and raining deborah down on the busy streets it is feared some two hundred might still be beneath the rubble right now the second earthquake is to hit the city in five months and it is the country's deadliest natural disaster for eighty years. to rein in naval warships into the suez canal tuesday on route to the mediterranean israel would use rounds of threats already called that move a provocation official so the frigate and the supply vessel are heading to syria for a year long training mission is the first time a. as 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 aboard. so that the final walk on mars has been completed in a virtual experiment ended studying the demands of deep space travel it was the

last of three simulated strolls on the mock martian surface mars five hundred is a project aimed at studying the physical and psychological effects on people if mankind ready to undertake such a long journey in the future a group of six volunteers are taking part in it the three russians two europeans and a chinese man they are now officially at the halfway point of the five hundred twenty day simulated journey spent in isolation in a moscow lab patrick fuller is the founder of a company specializing in scientific innovation he told me earlier that even though this experiment is quite accurate in reality the mission would 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 for 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. across the middle east and north africa we speak to him a coffee former russian foreign minister and also an expert on the arab world we ask him about the implications of the unfolding events next.

thank you very much for finding time to talk to us and. speaking of the recent our presence in north africa in the arab world how possible is a in your opinion that they in my afghan incited from outside world will marshall i think we can safely discard foreign involvement is a factor these are purely internal affairs after they began however other countries definitely became concerned about what was happening i was in washington d.c.

when the riots in egypt began meeting with state department officials we had a bilateral meeting on the middle east settlement i saw that my american counterparts were really shocked by the scale to which the events in egypt had escalated. incidentally the cia and other intelligence agencies were quickly criticized for not predicting the possibility of such an rest almost immediately though they became very active president obama called mubarak several times he was still president mubarak at the time they also maintained contact with general omar suleiman the u.s. chairman of the joint chiefs of staff maintained contact with his counterpart in egypt all the channels were immediately activated even former diplomats who were well connected in cairo flew over to egypt to help the embassy there why did the united states abandon mubarak so quickly. this was america's position from the very beginning in his conversations with mubarak president obama strongly recommended

that president mubarak step down before september because mubarak said initially he would step down in september that was leaked to the me. and reported by several u.s. newspapers gets at the same time it was clear that the us found itself between a rock and a hard place on one hand it had to maintain its image of a country that supports democratic revolutions the riots in egypt were democratic not islamic there were no islamic slogans no green flags all people wanted was to put an end to corruption and to allow normal economic growth to develop. the primary protest was against the regime so the us had to maintain his image by supporting the riots is on the other hand they had to do all they could to retain their influence in egypt and other countries the us strongly relied on the barracks

regime in egypt and on ben ali's regime engine is here so they were looking for a way out of this predicament at first they hoped that general suliman would remain in power this was obvious since hillary clinton said that he might be the interim ruler until the election then it turned out that people didn't like him because of his close ties with mubarak then the military stepped in what will some say that the united states was actually happy to see unrest in egypt because it diverted attention from israel for much of the image of the new israel to is now facing serious problems due to the riots israel doesn't know what the new egyptian leadership will do whether they'll maintain the gaza blockade only sin aside along the egyptian border. i read an article in the wall street journal that said the military and intelligence communities in israel are in favor of preparing for re occupation of goals and at the same time many experts say that would put israel in a position where a large scale bloody war would be inevitable but this process is slightly different

in different countries take bahrain for instance trying to percent of the country's population a sunni eighty percent a shia the leadership all sunni shia muslims consider themselves oppressed now they want to be represented in a coalition government there in talks now and they may find a modus vivendi in bahrain in other countries the phenomenon is purely social and i'm sure islamic groups will take part in it but we have to differentiate between we shouldn't paint everybody with the same black sitting room political zones of still everybody is wondering if there's uprisings may islam assize the region instead of democratizing it. nood you name them we should have no i don't think that's possible let's look at what brought about the riots many people believe that all arab states sooner or later and up having an anti colonial revolution not so

those revolutions and not just anti colonial they directed against the authoritarian regimes and also we probably underestimated the way new technology effects arab countries why did the rights happen in june is here in egypt because these are the most advanced arab countries the internet television and mobile phones helped organize people there is a youth group called the april sixth movement in egypt and has approximately seventy thousand members of the movement is internet based these young people spearheaded the street protests. he also mentioned that this uprising is with fact the israeli palestinian settlement do you think that new forces may merge in the middle east and that they may be able to dominate the region. it is hard to say what is going to happen at the moment we've seen the statement made by the prime

minister of the palestinian authority saying he is ready to form a coalition government with a mass that is also a repercussion of recent events at the same time it helped relieve pressure in the region when the egyptian military which is currently the defacto government announced they would observe all the agreements previously signed including the one nine hundred seventy nine treaty with israel so it's hard to judge the situation right now and i can give a direct onset i think it will become clearer after time has passed in any case i think it might force the israeli leadership to give up their policy of maintaining the status quo in the middle east. so far the israeli leadership has been leaning towards preserving status quo and abandoning the idea of a peaceful settlement despite numerous un security council resolutions and

president obama's cairo speech israel kept building new settlements in the west bank and east jerusalem sabotaging all attempts at negotiation i think recent events may cause them to reconsider their policy because global trends and not in favor of israel's anik sation policy in fact they cannot really annex the west bank or no if they were to annex the west bank israel will cease to be an nation state it will become a state of two nations and they realize that that's why they want the status quo they want to preserve the current state of affairs. good some. excellent professional.

extravagant possessing an extra ordinary car. the doctor who helped many people in his country. thousands of. just escape a fair trial. the other life. on our team.

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