twenty two look you talk of skin on skin. now so. this is. in libya colonel gadhafi has a grip on power of these to be slipping away as anti-government protesters claim to have control over most of the country's major cities. and this violence spreads through all the oil rich middle east the world faces a surge in fuel prices threatening to drag economies into a new meltdown. and. the wiki leaks founder slams a british justice for handing him over to sweden sparking accusations of hypocrisy over how the u.k. those facing a far more serious charges. plus it's a race for the hearts and minds of all the limping facts as russians are set to

choose the mass going for the two thousand and fourteen winter games in sochi. global news a live from moscow this is r.t. violence continues to spread across libya as anti-government protesters are back on the streets demanding an end so you can talk about these rule reports also suggest that in the capital tripoli security forces are arming civilians loyal to the regime and it comes after scores were killed there on friday as army forces once again opened fire on rioters bringing the death toll now to well over a thousand that's across a lot about what he's peter all of us keeping across the developments in and neighboring egypt so can you just bring us up to date on what's going on in libya right now. well it appears that colonel gadhafi is losing his grip on power in the

country we're hearing from inside libya that most of the major cities outside of the capital are now under the control almost under the control of anti-government protesters now footage we've seen appears to show. a libyan soldiers joining the protesters defecting away from gadhafi and we're hearing from those same protesters that this is a scene repeated in cities across the country now in tripoli gadhafi loyalists arming civilians in there setting up roadblocks at the moment it does appear that the capital is quiet and the associated press news agency is saying that most of the residents of tripoli are remaining indoors afraid to go out onto the streets where those checkpoints manned by armed civilians are now on friday there was protests in and must violence in tripoli now this followed a an address by colonel gadhafi to his followers in the capital and this resulted

in a protest where shots were fired by security forces at protesters now we're also hearing some very troubling comments coming out of tripoli suggesting that security forces pursued protesters to their homes in order to kill them and also that the bodies of the dead have been very very very quickly in order to cover up any atrocities that are taking place there are the number of dead expected to be well over a thousand in the violence that we've seen in that country now on friday as well as a comment from kind of the duckies favorite son saif he's mouth piece if you will to the english speaking media he said that his family will die in tripoli if necessary they will live and die in libya so strong words coming from most of the fire and says colonel gadhafi appears to be making what could be his last stand let's bring in the global neighborhood here we're hearing reports that colonel gadhafi may soon be facing international sanctions i wouldn't know about that. now

that's right it follows unilateral sanctions that were put forward by the u.s. the e.u. have said that they will put forward sanctions in the next week in the coming week now this is from the this message from the e.u. they said that they will do this they will support sanctions in coordination with the united nations and the u.s. in order to try to squeeze the gadhafi regime and freeze their assets but also to freeze the assets of senior figures in the gadhafi government but leave the people of libya with the resources they need to the idea of these sanctions that could be a weapon zimbardo as well and cold enough the idea of these sanctions will be to squeeze gadhafi and his followers not the people of libya now or you're in cairo at the moment and after after a fortnight of unrest there has been a somewhat short period of carbon now we're hearing about more violence unfolding there in the egyptian capital by what can tell us about that yes that's right on friday there was a massive protest here to have square which was the center for protest here during

the revolution that saw the mubarak toppled now last night protesters that remained in the square were confronted by army officers who are now policing the country here they were asked to remove their tents and step down from their protests they refused in the night of the army of the army soldiers returned fired shots into the air and beat protesters with batons i was in the square a little earlier on and protesters were confirming this for me and saying that they're very angry that the they may have removed want a military dictatorship and replaced it with another part of a live in cairo thank you. get some more on this red cross live to our. president of the british based arab lawyers association now joining us live from. now the u.s. has announced sanctions as we were just talking about with sanctions against the libyan leader the u.n. is preparing sanctions against them as well likely to have any effect on what will

they stop the violence. i think it's a misnomer to say sanctions and. i think what they both doing the u.n. and the u.s. is imposing sanctions on libya. this is i think not to do anything to do with the blood that is grounds for controlling. from libya after saddam has been sanctions at the present moment is absolutely meaningless this is imposed on libya. and the world community wanted to deal with that they would have at least mention it by name they would have taken steps to. his family to be put on trial to. action against him so you're saying you're saying the sanctions that are being discussed right now would be absolutely pointless and ineffective but you're saying the international community should be calling out you know stocks right now but do you think if their global community had been involved

in the you know you would have. could have been avoided do you think i think probably to a certain degree yes if he had been threatened right from the outset he personally as opposed to libya because i think what's being a moment is to control the future of libya so libya has a government we like we will lift the sanctions if we don't like the sanctions but . let's just get one place for us to have been made so that he and his and the people who are doing the killing until now no one has mentioned him by name everybody talks about the regime everybody talks about libya everybody talks about. as the person compare this with say this bashir compare this with saddam hussein compare this with with the people we dislike it's when we don't like. trying to take steps against a country that's when we begin not to use the name of the leader so you think it's

a matter of convenience when it comes to western rhetoric regarding these countries and troubled by the anti-government protesters have reportedly can control now a major part of the country i could not be however keeps tripoli more or less under control what do you think is the future for new polling places no it isn't i think if you will disappear from the scene in the next couple of days probably a little longer and i think it will end up going to kill more people and then he will follow the. leader he's hung or he will. go down fighting because he's. he doesn't have a crisis but. i think he will definitely but it is a people who are. who we have to deal with in the future and there are some say that the demonstrators are all calling for democracy there are others that say the demonstrators and even know what kind of democracy they're calling for what

position is there in libya which could take over from gadhafi is there any organized opposition as far as you can say. frankly i think the world is behaving in a way that it's it's it's was. i don't think the west wants of the no person or anyone else for that matter they are looking for great. interest of the business interest i think at the present moment people are being. scare mongering and scared even of that is using the think he's not offended by that because this pleases american pleases the west on the basis that he can hold them so that they can support him because it's a choice between him. and this is this is a no that's rubbish people off libya and out. of the regime which has terrorized them it's abused them it has given them absolutely no freedom to do anything politics there is nothing that is corruption there is going to be there is abuse of

the net when you when you talk about if you talk about thuggery we've been hearing reports about khadafi program for your black resulting fire on civilians are they military or other just as you were saying well he has been all this time trying to say he is the king of kings of africa that many people from african countries and and what we call africans of. countries not algeria like sudan people from from the neighborhood he has had a lot of people in that country that is one and a half million egyptians and. probably half a million too lazy and and then there is probably another one million from the sub-saharan africa many of those people either trained or benefiting. and now they have ended up with either you fight for. everything so that's why i

think they are fighting it's not a matter of black and white it's as much as people who are against. the president of the arab lawyers association like a lot of thank you. reporters sparked fears of skyrocketing prices that may affect the cost of everything from transport of food with a barrel of the black gold now approaching one hundred twenty dollars this week out of this to one of significant economic threats if the turmoil spreads other cities do because our explains how the problem is playing out in the united states. boil three little letters. that could have dire consequences on any economy and here in the united states while it's sometimes also accompanied by three big words drill baby drill baby drill. and with those three words you got yourself a political you can trenched power house will drill new wells sure it will drill

there and the crisis in the middle east has only inflamed so what we have now are soaring gas prices and fears of a relapse in the already weak economic recovery and on the heels of the unrest crude is heading for the biggest weekly increase interferes and when oil prices soar the price of food also skyrockets and so a vicious cycle begins for many americans a reality that is once again rallied the base and its spokespeople but perhaps for the wrong reasons and whenever there's a crisis either here at home or abroad it's usually exploited politically by the government or the media it loves to hate khadafi is now threatening to burn up the oil fields experts are predicting a worst case scenario of two hundred twenty dollars a barrel if that happens but i don't believe that this this particular interruption of oil supplies will last very long so if you're trying to tie drilling off shore

with what's happening in libya i think it's a bit of a stretch a stretch that some are all too willing to make the oil fields are on fire and we have no backup plan. well he has lifted the moratorium in the gulf for drilling oil saying stick cass sunstein no new permits have been issued but permits and backup plans aside what's really going to happen in an already ravaged economy are we see this in the middle east. and this and our very own midwest. so the last thing you need is the people who are. in the worst economic shape are the first ones to get here by yes prices and this will cause a lot of discomfort to a lot of people who don't need this bad news concerns of violence spreading to other oil producing nations in the region have been overshadowed and instead of asking how americans will cope with this are asking the question that never gets

answered but at the same time seems to never get old who are our friends and who are our enemies for our tea. we have plenty more coming for you this hour here on r.t. including our weekly snapshot of opinion on the streets of new york. the responsible at all for where the economy is that right now now it's wall street and bush the president is in the big apple to find out what the people there think about types. occurring to appeal laws and courts ruling that he be extradited to sweden on sex assault charges the founder of the whistle blowing web site says the allegations are baseless and if you've handed over he won't get a fair trial. and it has been looking at what is being extradited from a country which is home for many wanted for more serious charges. wiki leaks founder julian our songs learns the court has ordered his extradition to sweden to

face questions over rape allegations and he's got some interesting questions of his own why is it. that i am subject. to nonprofit free speech act of two or three hundred and sixty thousand dollars bail. why is it that i am kept. under electronic house arrest. when i have not even been charged in any country he's not be only one asking not particularly as the british government has a history of granting asylum system fairly controversial characters recently the immigration minister admitted one hundred thirty nine suspected war criminals have been given the right to settle in britain permanently that thought to include former henchmen of saddam hussein an afghan official who tortured prisoners and rwandan genocide perpetrators basic tradition relating to asylum is that anybody

can come here provided they are loaded provided i've got lots of money we will let me because we want them in with their money and therefore it's not particularly the russian magnets and all the girls are welcome here i would shakes whom i have a jew be a criminal record as it were of torture yet they're allowed to swan around london and knightsbridge but it's water wherever since the second world war the u.k. seen only two successful convictions for war crimes and despite recent retrospective laws this allows suspects to be brought to justice in this country according to anti torture campaigners redress so far nothing's been done people like that should be investigated by the u.k. police authorities. and if the fish in evidence found for prosecution. should be prosecuted in the u.k.

they always are bringing these people to account to these suspects but it seems very little is being done the list of the rich and powerful on interpol's wanted list resident in the u.k. is low on and around forty people wanted by russia alone living here in two thousand and three alleged chechen terrorists akhmed zakayev was granted political refuge the same year asylum was granted to russian tycoon buddies but is not ski convicted of embezzlement in russia but it shows here the hypocrisy of the british courts. he is quite clearly been involved in the mafia over the years all sorts of very serious offenses which he may actually quite literally equate with terrorism and yet he is not being extradited and yet we see here what appears to be anyway a trumped up charge of rape which hasn't actually even come to charges in sweden this certainly does appear to show political interference in the court system here in britain and total hypocrisy from the british justice system well today in our

stars looks set to be cast from the safe harbor of the u.k. into choppy waters it's unlikely he'll think from ptrace just yet he may not have billions in the bank to buy himself out of trouble so he'll just have to hate his friends in high places have influence has done just defense team has vowed to now take his case to the highest courts in the land in the hague preventing his extradition meanwhile some of the world's nastiest people suspected torturers terrorists and war criminals remain at large in the u.k. under the protection of the state's you're at it r.t. . you're with r.t. live from moscow and still to come on the program here the olympic race is on something other than medals will be won if country proposing to choose their sochi winter games i think it's going to be a close race among all creatures great and small.

well police in russia's southern republic of cut out of the noble kataria have blocked all the roads after a series of violent attacks on the capital. their forty's and are saying the situation is under control. the latest from the region in the caucasus. we're here at the back of the gas station that was attacked early on saturday morning armed gunmen reportedly shot the station and the deadly blast was prevented only signs to the fire crews arrival this follows a series of similar militant attacks here in the capital of russia's republic of korea just a few hours earlier that could have resulted in a major bloodshed up to twelve people signal tenuously attacked several locations including traffic police posts and if there's a federal forces but the plans to cause havoc in that actually have clearly failed the fact that they were no fatalities and just one policeman injured shows that there has been a turnaround from the last week's dramatic events in the gawler tile republic

gruesome attack on a tourist minibus last saturday left three people dead and two injured for all the cells a cable tower is keely of in a resort was blown out and hotels in the village nearby back he waited when a car bomb was discovered earlier incidents forced their soldiers to impose an anti terror operation on the region in their time and terrorist forces have already created of bays with weapons supplies and a makeshift explosive device now but as you know got our allies in the early trial north caucasus police says that islamist terrorist operation in the region could be behind the latest attacks some experts say is the lawyer they were carried out heat in several locations at the same time follows the pattern used by islamists operated internationally. reporting there. is a growing in the u.s. over the super sized tax for the middle class but it was quickly come to

a head found something protesting and one northern state over plans to cut public sector workers collective benefits this week as he asks people in new york how they feel when they're required to make sacrifices that the super super rich don't have to. people across the u.s. are protesting proposed legislation intended to slash benefits for the middle class and they really protesting the fact that every day people are being asked to make that professes wall streeters continue to profit even more this week let's talk about that i'm a member of the middle class and we say. we work for the office and first same friday we work for ourselves but think. do you think that people in the middle class are responsible at all for where the commies that right now you know it's it's wall street and bush. so why isn't wall street paying more

why aren't they being asked to contribute more to health plans the government would prefer to buy their pay him often and bailing out the upper class probably pays ninety percent of the taxes and more in new york city and new york state it's probably the same thing in wisconsin i don't know the numbers but i think everybody's paying for it paying to keep the government moving so why are there isn't one riles up that if it if it seems like so clear cut to you why is everyone so in a fit right now where people don't want to give up what they've got were it not for the news coverage and or the social media and i'm not saying it's bad but we're not for the that type of coverage. we it would not be neither of these things either of the middle east things or the things going on with the states would be quite as hard as they are you know who you think should be paying for the distressed economy the bottom line is that if you ask the middle class to relinquish benefits it's

only fair to ask the same of the upper class as well. now the competition for sochi two thousand and fourteen winter olympics promises to be fierce but another great is under way well before the games are due to begin people all across russia casting their vote to choose scott. thomas takes a closer look at the candidates and their road to the finals. back at the beginning of september when the winter olympic committee announced that there would be a contest that the next mascot for the olympic games would be desired by russians and it would be chosen by russians and so children and adults and artists from all over the country started putting their ideas forth to try and create the next popular winter mascot now of course this is a really big deal for the winter mascot will be a big part of the branding of the olympic games that loss will be a big part of the merchandising for the olympic games and we may all remember the

beloved me show the bear from the one nine hundred eighty summer games right here in moscow a very popular character and so now the question is will this next character be just as popular now those final designs it's been narrowed down to the top ten that top peg was chosen by the judging panel of celebrities politicians as well as entrepreneurs and now voting is underway in that last vote for the top ten will be cast tonight at nine o'clock and then the winner will be announced shortly there after at nine thirty now there are many different designs for more on this we actually go to our sochi correspondent tennis watch here. and olympic race but no medals up for grabs it's the search for a mascot and these children want the snow little part to be the symbol which sums up the world they were allowed to decorate the statue in one of the city's parks to show their support for a species on the stretch but he says it is the strongest animal in the world and

they want this animal. this is because it's a very special animal the only four slowly of course living in full cheese wildlife preserve but you always hope these animals have appeared in dozens of entries in the national contest to find the mascot for the two thousand two hundred games and sold in russia the election of the olympic mascot started with hundreds of ideas and you can see some of these drawings here in sochi olympic information center eventually it came down to this top ten rate here the. these are the methods that made it into the finals and won the entries start. slowly applaud for the frost and the mayor of sochi is personal favorite of the open all ski special hotline was set up in sochi to answer all kinds of questions about the two thousand games and right now mascot one of the hottest topics. our colors are people from all walks of life and many of them are locals who would like to support their citizen rules one

of the mascots for instance represents the black sea the snow and the mountains can be the issue in the report of another couple of candidates reflect the famous russian stereotype with tears brown color making the final shortlist and brings back fond memories of michel the beer the mascot for the nine hundred eighty more for lympics remains an icon russia but its creator victor chica says it wasn't easy for misha to become a legend you know so i had a call from the organizing committee they said you'll bear has just been approved by the central committee of the communist party so imagine how scared little creature was passing that test. this time is up to the public to decide on the mascot although the truck was selected by a special jury consisting of celebrities counterfeit you or some politicians the winner will be chosen by the people of russia during a televised who. are to be. bringing you live coverage of how the quote

goes about six pm g.m.t. on something i do remember and always so i website r.t. dot com for the very latest on the two thousand and fourteen some things we bring you special interviews with the mascot candidates you can watch about the old practice their teen bands and of find out what father frost liked to do in his spare time. and for those who didn't quite make the cut you can meet. person who are furry frog. aspirations didn't quite fit the bill. so now let's have a look at some other major headlines from around the world this hour of the death toll from the earth quake that struck new zealand has now risen so one hundred

forty five with as many as two hundred still missing rescuers warn the chances of finding any more survivors under the rubble that christ church are slim commotions services are trying to restore power and clean water in the aftermath of the country's deadliest natural disaster eighteen years police are on high alert amid reports of looting and warnings that there could be more tremors to come. and attack on a nato supply vehicle terminal in pakistan has left five people militants fired at parked vehicles destroying eleven oil tankers and pressure was no group has claimed responsibility but the band of pakistani taliban has carried out several such assaults on nato vehicles in the past three years the bulk of supplies required by foreign troops in afghanistan shipped through pressure. i don't update our top stories are coming your way in just a few minutes. thank

. you.