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the food is a volunteer never crowding run wild in italy as the government braces itself for an influx of immigrants from arab countries in turmoil. renewed violence rocks athens greece rally against austerity measures it comes on fears of billions of dollars of aid going to the middle east at the expense of europeans down a bushel for the details. plus ukraine is hit with accusations of corruption and mismanagement as a child be positive patients blame the health ministry for the laysan the supply of lifesaving drugs. this is r.t. within twenty four hours

a day one am here in moscow and now eleven pm in italy where rome has been raising the alarm about the potential influx of up to three hundred thousand libyans with the country. in the throes of a possible civil war italy has demanded the e.u. share the burden of the so-called exodus stemming from the unrest in north africa thousands of tunisians have already flooded italy's southernmost point to produce a closer european shore to the troubled region which is there with more. they don't call them to do so they get into europe for nothing you see this tiny italian island in the mediterranean is located just around eighteen miles off the coast of north africa and over the past decade many refugees came here looking for a better life and while we were sent to other european countries nevertheless this place still managed to remain a peaceful isolated world populated mostly by fishermen and holiday makers but just recently the peace was disturbed after the recent revolution in tunisia in just two

weeks the island became flooded with we've also refugees many spend their entire days this one during around tell there have already been reports of thirst and vandalism and several have been arrested we've been talking to the locals and some of them or you know afraid to come out on the streets when it's dark it takes around three days to seal from tunisia to lampedusa and these are some of the actual boats used by the refugees to get here and you can see they're not really that big so it's really hard to believe that sometimes up to three hundred people can cram on each one and actually not all of them even make it to the island some get lost out there in the open sea and some sink dozens of refugees have already died this is the center where many of the refugees are being held as you can see it's like a separate itself they're being given out food and water and clothes and the necessary medical assistance as well all on the state money the problem is it was

initially designed to house just around eight hundred fifty people while it had to receive in reality much more than that and another problem is it's really hard to identify all these people an official say that some of them could be criminals or even terrorists would be violent protests continuing both in northern africa and in the middle east italy has already warned a new bigger wave of refugees. flood not only tiny island but the entire continent . libyan leader colonel gadhafi is fighting to retain control of the capital as he's faced with more defections from his own regime much of tripoli is currently deserted with reports of uprisings in nearby towns and the nine days of revolt demonstrators have taken over the eastern part of the country thousands of foreigners are rushing to leave with reported at the main pool the un security council has demanded an end to the violence while the arab league

suspended libya the u.s. and e.u. are considering sanctions against the country for colonel gadhafi bloody crackdown on protesters three hundred people are being reported killed but the italian foreign minister says that the real death toll could stand at more than a thousand. well for more analysis on this tense situation in libya and indeed in the middle east let's cross now live to seattle where we are joined by michael hughes a journalist for the huffington post thanks very much indeed for joining us here not enough you've written an article that recent developments in the arab world are a sign of the decline of the american empire now how do you come to that conclusion when many are saying this is the start of a democratic movement throughout the region. start of a democratic. united. democratic. iraq. or ordinary and wired.

for example when we see what's happening in libya there's been no opposition able to form what for more than forty years how could you possibly have a democratic government replace gadhafi so soon is that is that really possible. i don't think so i think we'll be. going to be a lot. more. once. you know when. you know you don't want to go. i wonder if they're going to shoot. you know. so i think it's going to be now i think anybody if anyone knows. therefore if it's going to be chaos should know the e.u. the u.s. joined together not provide aid and that's what they're talking about financial aid at the moment but military assistance after all assistance many libyans are crying

for help they're saying their lives are at risk and we've seen that they are indeed at risk so should that be military intervention. i don't think. i'm not. intervening so we. i mean i guess if you look at iraq. probably should but i think it should be a you when i don't think you should be. you know. you're going back around the u.n. or. americans are right you are getting killed then. human rights violations american. i think in iran. ok you would like to see an effort as you say from the u.n. but present a vet of of russia recently said the situation in north africa and the middle east could give rise to radical islam and among others have mentioned this concern as

well and it becoming a threat to global security what's happening would you agree that that could be the case and therefore they really should be rapid intervention in case there is a radical islam fundamentalist government moving into various countries that we see in time all. i think. it's a lot of paranoia i think you know when barack was in office in egypt and his repression words branding one that. i think you know in egypt and tunisia is something where moderate. forms of government come in the way i think if you want to read it i think it won the grand of. the night. and then the reactionary forces from western colonialism from aggressive us homework. they're always start you know people are just and people in the media don't want to talk about it and there are times these you can cite balmer first thing i think we

created at some point along the line we. literally created an islamic radical home . so someone told what i think about the u.s. involvement got us. involved. you know all these countries that devastated about us so. well very interesting to hear your perspective on the situation we appreciate your time live there from seattle michael hereis from the huffington post thanks indeed for joining us. when i was come to light the u.k. has been sending military equipment to libya but since the unrest london's been calling for democracy condemning the doppies actions professor of middle east policy studies dr rosen hollis told us that britain has been exploiting its lucrative relationship with libya and is now glad to see gadhafi regime under threat. i think the british went a little too far in getting cozy with gadhafi and they discovered to that cost that

he drives a very hard bargain and he's not incapable of punishing those who don't do what he wants he's saying it over migration he said three days ago that he was going to withdraw cooperation on migration across mediterranean the. any and he said many things to the british clearly indicating that if the kind of cooperation that he wants from the british is not forthcoming then there will be consequences for british contract so it's been a difficult relationship in some ways they may be very glad to see the back of it. the first stage of the evacuation of russians from turbulent libya has successfully ended with over three hundred people brought safely to moscow all describe the situation in the arab country as a nightmare they say that on their way to board aircraft they had to fight through huge crowds of desperate libyans attempting to flee scores of russian workers remain trapped in a railway construction site on the living coast reportedly surrounded by an angry mob that attempting to leave the building which is emergency ministry has sent

a ferry to pick up the workers. greece is battling a fresh wave of protests against austerity measures that will see cuts in spending and a hike in taxes it comes as the e.u. and the us are seeking ways to help conflict conflict stricken north africa and the middle east and many europeans say that western governments should be helping out their own citizens first well for more or less i'm now joined by our correspondent daniel bushell he's there in our brussels h.q. daniel first can you bring us up to date with what's happening in greece at the moment. when the nationwide strike has basically brought greece to its knees hundreds of thousands down tools across the country in the first major labor protests there of twenty eleven. to use in fact threw rocks at police who responded with tear gas and bombs and it was the tear gas actually covered the city center which. which forced many peaceful demonstrators

to actually use side streets of the avoid the city center peaceful demonstrators were forced out of the city center by police. chanting the rich fight back. paving stones in front of the central bank another group of use when talking to the parliament and said they wouldn't leave until the socialist government in greece changed its austerity measures which had been forced upon it by the european union but in fact is proven false popular with the greek population. one officer was attacked his uniform caught fire and there were casualties on both sides there are also casualties among the demonstrators where we have all these protests going on there daniel but the european union and the u.s. are now focusing on helping out other countries in north africa and indeed the middle east where does that leave europe and its economy. while the it leaves you e.u. citizens saying that they don't want billions to be sent to uncertain regimes new

regimes in the middle east north africa. back home they're not being provided with the services the benefits that are being caught on the streets behind me today arab immigrants are calling for the states to do much much more in fact use force to force out dictators like gaddafi but if you talk to the passers by watching the demonstrations they were saying that they need help themselves the number of unemployed is rising and they pointed for example the number of beggars young able bodied people on the on the streets you can find the most main streets of brussels here. basically with culture pop pleading for money something that you wouldn't expect to see in western europe and an example of how bad the situation is and these e.u. leaders are saying that they support these new democratic regimes but today the interior ministers of the southern states which is just across the mediterranean

from the north africa where a lot of the violence is happening they met countries like italy spain cyprus some more minutes to find ways to stem the flow of these desperate migrants who are trying to get across the water to or to safety from the violence in north africa so on the one hand the e.u. leaders are talking about supporting these new regimes but they're not really ready to deal with the consequences. more on this you look back over the hearts and minds in the middle east a new front has opened up influential voices from the heart of europe to washington . are urging western politicians to take advantage of on rest by pumping in fast sums of money in eight to show the newly liberated people of the region that democracy does carry rewards but it's cash that many europeans don't feel they have a regular search over with so i give it a broader one of those shirts i think we should be close to. the football i mean

obviously they did serve some money start helping to democracy but we need to be the cancerous arse frizzy should probably try to look after us but on the whole first before you try to make intransigence also reading at this moment our country is going through these big cuts and that money i think could be used for foreign but that's the aid package being proposed by e.u. and us leaders is potentially the biggest since the end of the second world war it's being dubbed the new marshall plan after the money that america gave to europe after the war to help rebuild a decimated economy and create jobs but robert oulds from the british group says we should be concentrating on trade not eight countries such as egypt and tunisia and other countries developing nations are hurt their agricultural policies are damaged as a result of the european union's policies we need to have trade policies which stop

hurting the third world would stop hurting developing nations and that that would be the better way of securing a long term by oversea for countries that are these emerging democracies instead of europe in the us are talking about handing over billions of dollars to the middle eastern mediterranean to countries torn apart by revolution and unrest and despite the opposition in the u.k. there are also some who believe it's the duty of developed countries to help those in trouble we're lucky to have a democracy. democracies throughout the world i think the middle east needs our help it's going to. question transition that's the moment. to despise our problems are told we can't just close up we have to look at the world this place we live in but it may not be as simple as that unlike europe after the second world war egypt continues your own tool toward developing economies going

through revolution and it's very unclear at this point who is going to end up in charge and who would take receipt of any aid package the government's made extensive attempts to build relations build up regimes which are now being destroyed whether we're looking at military over the years to egypt so what we're looking out big deal tony blair was shaking hands on just a few years ago in libya was gadhafi so we need to be really careful particularly when we don't know what the final road for the final government things there is will be that we don't wind up with resources when we have the right one so if the muslim brotherhood takes over in egypt do we want them to be taking over with institutions which we've built up with western taxpayers money westminster has been the scene of ugly demonstrations against government proposals to cut funds to some of the u.k.'s most vital services while some undoubtedly believe it would be a sad day when western countries refused to help build democracy others say it's

the wrong help potentially going to the wrong people at the wrong type for a cash strapped europe your average forty. ukraine's health ministry is under fire for failing to provide hiv aids sufferers with vital life prolonging drugs supply cuts are being blamed on government corruption the country's europe's worst aids epidemic and. reports many hiv positive ukrainians are resorting to risky medication changes just to keep themselves alive. ever since you learned the learned she was h i v positive her life has been a nightmare and the last few months have made matters even worse a local aid center which had been providing iliana with medication told her that they no longer had even a logical serum for her three year old son under a also infected with a deadly virus. they told me that i have to give my pills adult ones two hundred eighty and that i have to split each peel into three how can i split it

into exactly three parts and how do i know if his body will accept these pills late last year several ukrainian regions reported a shortage of immune strengthening drugs used by hiv positive patients experts point the finger at the country's health ministry all of them that have official say this happened because the bidding for the purchase of drugs happened too late not in the summer but in the winter they received funding to meet this whole system of buying drugs by tender is corrupt through and through. following this delay in supplies some hiv patients have had to alter their treatment and find alternative medication doctors say they have no choice but such changes can pose a grave danger. when a boy that has got used to one drug we replace it with another it took or is enough an adaptation period we never know whether a patient's body will accept

a new drug if it doesn't then they can be different outcomes from a rapid growth over iris else to early and even imminent death. experts say ukraine which has one of the highest hiv spread rates in europe can hardly afford to take such risks to graze health ministry reports of at least one hundred thousand i tried before the people in the country however experts say this number is diminished and the real amount of the infected may go to three hundred and fifty thousand people. official say for the present the supply crisis has been dealt with . for now all regions have received the required medication the only drugs which are still on their way to children's bills between a stand there will be delivered within a few days but doctors say within six months the hiv positive may feel the damaging effects of the recent halt in supplies and roundabout that sign they are expecting another shortage of anti-viral medicine you know hopes she and her son will be able

to make it through all of this once more. r.t. reporting from key of. ukraine. some of the international news in brief now in our world update the rescuers in new zealand christ church are continuing to try to pull survivors from the rubble following tuesday's devastating earthquake seventy five people are so far confirmed dead but nearly three hundred remain missing a national state of emergency has been declared as hundreds of rescue workers including foreign teams have rushed to the city the trauma was the country's deadliest natural disaster in nearly a century. ten soldiers have been killed in fighting between the forces of the two political rivals in the ivory coast some reports suggest the real figure could be as high as forty the violence was some of the heaviest since the country's disputed presidential election nearly three months ago the fighting was concentrated in the stronghold of daraa internationally recognized as the winner of last year's poll

incumbent president laurent gbagbo who has ruled the country since two thousand and two continues to refuse to resign alleging voter fraud. in the u.s. military says fifteen somali pirates detained after killing four americans could face trial in the united states the victims a married couple and their two friends have been hijacked on their yacht off the coast of amman while attempting to sail around the world u.s. military forces have been training the vessel and trying to negotiate with the pirates but on tuesday they stormed the yacht after hearing gunfire over three of the hostages were found dead in the fourth died later from her wings. well let's get more on the continuing unrest across the arab world and in his recent article published in the wall street journal it would look back a writer and u.s. military strategist said that the removal of egypt's hosni mubarak would lead to either anarchy or coming to power and spoke to him to get more insight on this and that's in our interview next.

edward luttwak thank you very much for being with us today who do you think pulled the rug from under mubarak and pulling the strings right now well spoiling the strings nobody's pulling in the strange because this is a crowd action crowd this is the popular insurrection it's not

a revolution it's not a coup it's not some clever colonel who takes three plants and takes two powers this is a real popular insurrection which is people are living under a government for one and ten and twenty and thirty years and one day they all get it because of an incident something happened in this case of as you know it didn't happen in egypt it happened in tunisia one person was pushed around burned himself there was a crowd and they overthrew to me so this is the true popular uprising quite a special event it was a very interesting to observe how states turned their back on mubarak question right quickly because they were allied for thirty years yes i know but the american government is always in a state of embarrassment when its friends are not democratic so you know.

has always to manage a contradiction on the one hand we are normal american people we'd like friends and we don't like any on the other we also want democracy we talk about corsi so when you become a friend states you're not you're in the difficult question because the americas are always talking about. so it's always been the balance in the americas of course on the one hand mubarak is a friend on the other. so once the people go rob the rule is this if you open fire you lose there is so long as you don't shoot the americans can be half and once you tell the police to shoot be rainy and shoot the crowd the syrians can shoot the crowd but if america is your patron you can also if you look at what's going on

right now starting from tunis it's a chain reaction of like you said a popular popular uprising and. they do not want to know they want to. have a leader who fall no you don't need the leader to have a democracy but you do need to have respect for political rights could there be islamization instead of democratization is quite possible islamization i mean if i look at these numbers ation is retreating in iraq because they have islamic government if you go to today have to people are drinking whiskey not because they like the street just to give it to the gov so islam is ation is increasing in egypt when this preacher this fanatic. went to cairo one million people came to this because at this stage of the. religion is much more meaning for democracy and to have democracy have to have real respect for

human rights and personal individual rights but let me tell you the middle east lost its importance already with the world and it's even less important it generates a lot of headlines but the real politics now is in the pacific and it is china and china that's where world politics is it's not the middle. the middle east is just pictures television pictures of people shouting what is this what's going on there nothing there's nothing going on. this is you're talking about countries that don't really produce anything they don't invent anything they don't develop. they're not some of them have or that's. the center of world politics is completely different to that do i understand correctly that you believe it's most likely to suffer the most out of this wave of unrest here in europe is yes like of course i already know

already started last week my prediction in the wall street journal is they paid the price if you read the article first boats arriving from tunisia people just want to enter italy the boats arrive in these islands they have like lampedusa. the islands first said in the article be refugees because your bizarre the. tourism industry is dead so right away people have no money so they made it immigrate here and this is a big problem for europe illegal immigration coming in and of course from a business point of view egypt did much more business with europe the united states united states was providing strategic support money weapons to egypt but the business is the europeans go on holiday over say and.