from months to. these stunts on t.v. don't come. explosions rocked the libyan capital in a new wave of violence says colonel gadhafi and the opposition of the battle for control of the country but there's speculation the u.s. and the u.k. could have their own agenda there. a change in course as the fly zones in the middle east and north africa shake the world america's foreign policy is tied to the long. poles and still interested in middle eastern proposals define instability in the region the point man for not really going to iraq in the first half of this year and more interest in trends and it. also was the soviet

union's first and last president celebrates his eightieth birthday look at his legacy as the bad report of russia on the part towards democracy. from our studios in moscow you're watching r t thanks for joining us now a series of blasts have reportedly rocked the libyan capital as colonel gadhafi continues to hold on while several towns near tripoli are now in the hands of the opposition but wait this is say that one of them has come under air attack and the forces loyal to gadhafi have retaken a nearby oil facility meanwhile the u.s. is flexing its military muscle moving its naval forces closer to libya and triggering speculation of possible strikes but the u.k. is also involved ruling out the use of force by international storm is gathering over the libyan leader with the u.s. is spending big. untruth from its own rights council also calls for

a mass humanitarian evacuation for people caught up in the crisis or as world class amounts are to reports on whether nato is ready for a new war. and we do not in any way the use of military assets we must not tolerate this regime using military force against its own people is this history repeating itself the british government getting the guns on standby as a country crumbles into a pose a no fly zone in this case libya in two thousand and three it was iraq it's looking very dangerous it's looking quite possible that they will launch such an attack with or without un approval and so we're looking at almost a repeat of what happened in iraq and in the results so suspect really large of the same but not every country is getting that treatment and libya is not the only african nation in turmoil somalia is drawn out conflict has been called

a slow genocide but there's little sign of u.s. or european military inputs and it's a similar story on the other side of the continent there are events unfolding right now in ivory coast where there is also a conflict an armed conflict between rebels and the government but nobody seems to be thinking of that it's only because fashionable attention is focused on libya but also for the political implications of the middle east as a whole as we all know the west including my own country has got its hands very dirty with the libyan leadership over recent years. libya has the largest proven oil reserves in africa more than three percent of the time so and they could be a lot more undiscovered the only reason they're interested in. the oil here anybody screaming and yelling about all those people last week they were killed in the ivory coast. i guess cocoa was the bat. much of

a national priority in somalia there was precious little help while the body count over the years except for one brief disastrous intervention involving u.s. soldiers immortalized in the movie black hawk down american forces failed great cost to stabilize the country they left and haven't returned and the lessons were learned when it came to iraq which remains of staple even with only feeble sheets of the much vaunted democracy allied troops are equally folks down in afghanistan big time line for withdrawal and an ever rising death toll could be clear to an idiot. that's been made in afghanistan the terrible disaster that was caused in iraq really. want any more countries in the middle east it's a model today's troubles african nations will impose on their government which is still ruling. on american. or iraqi really. help.

the middle east. and american and european government should look for backing. up to a million marched in london even the invasion of iraq in two thousand and three and times have changed this is now austerity britain where starting another war wasn't factored into the budget british troops are already fighting an unpopular war in afghanistan it's highly unlikely the public has the appetite for again getting involved in someone else's struggle battling as they are at home in the face of deep cuts unemployment and it's unlikely to be popular inside this building the ministry of defense has to slash spending by more than seven and a half billion dollars in the next four years it's an intervention britain which by it's hard to afford on many levels. the need to meet our goals in russia song voice in nato says the various opposition inside the alliance

against any military intervention in libya. you know as of today nato has an alliance one to take a decision to intervene into libya some european countries within the bloc are against any military actions without an agreement from the un security council if the u.s. and britain decide to intervene that will be a gross violation of all international laws and this can be sanctioned only going to un of war i talk to the alliances secretary general and i hope moscow's voice was heard. carol turner an antiwar activist says that while the majority of libyans may want even change i thought it was a sea of its foreign intervention. i'm extremely worried the could be a foreign intervention and i think united states and britain i think it's very difficult for them but on the other hand if they feel that there's any opportunity of toppling and installing a pro western regime or if only of how they think feel that oil interests from the

upper tiers of interests are in some way threatened then i think ultimately they won't i would perhaps i'm particularly concerned about the no fly policy speech itself the comparison would be what's happened in iraq in the ninety ninth says at the end of the gulf war of ninety nine he warned the united states and britain and so on a stop list a no fly zone the net result was that hundreds of thousands of iraqis were killed the infrastructure of the country was blown the nets the results of a no fly zone walls not to prevent cools the humanitarian crisis and it doesn't take a great leap of imagination to see thoughtful to the situation unfolding in libya population across the region has made pretty clear in my opinion that although it wants to change regimes it doesn't want foreign intervention you don't need

the green politics to work that out for them to understand what's being said of pool so a person from the right for britain. will have more of a developing situation in the arab world shortly but first let's have a quick look at what else we have for you this hour doctors are pioneering new lifesaving surgery or find out how they're helping to keep taking in a few minutes from. now while the situation in north africa and the middle east is rapidly changing will so is america's foreign policy its future course talk the agenda for u.s. secretary of state hillary clinton as she met with the foreign affairs committee on capitol hill are consistent result looks at the changing tides of washington's priorities. afghanistan iraq egypt. libya. when it comes to u.s.

foreign policy this country's hands are not just full they're often tied secretary of state hillary clinton charged with the task of laying out a plan for the future generations of americans including my own have grown up successful and safe because we chose to lead the world and tackling the greatest challenges but now clear signs that the challenges and the times are changing a lot of people in this country have come to the conclusion that our policy overhaul has been inconsistent sometimes we support bad guys and the bad guys become our enemy. twenty eleven has been a major year with major shifts in prominence and power in northern africa and the middle east. and signs the u.s. will influence maybe waning just days before the regime of the egyptian president hosni mubarak fell both secretary clinton and cia director leon panetta called it

stable until it was. there are also in consistencies on the war in afghanistan in afghanistan integrated military and civilian surges have helped set the stage for our diplomatic surge to support afghan led reconciliation that could end the conflict and put al qaeda on the run but robert what kansas senior u.n. official just said quote it is fair to say that security in the country is that its lowest point since the departure of the taliban even secretary of defense robert gates said this just last week to a group of cadets at west point but in my opinion any future's defense secretary who advises the president to again send a big american land army into asia. or into the middle east or africa. should have his head examined as general macarthur so delicately put it there is also the matter of money u.s.

own economy weak and losing leverage to other powers like china and brazil another frustration voiced by lawmakers doesn't make any sense at all for us to be borrowing money from china and giving it to other countries especially giving it back to china. now when it comes to iran there is a clear position given by the state department the denial of human dignity in iran is an outrage it deserves the condemnation of all who speak out for freedom and justice but in many other regions like the rain albania and most prominently iraq where many many more people are killed at the hands of u.s. allied governments the silence is deafening. and as the landscape changes daily in libya cracks in the foundation here grow deeper we must maintain firm ties with our allies and enemies must be clearly identified it is

a constantly changing position on good versus evil and increasingly diminishing power to influence what's next in washington christine for is now r.t. don't forget you can always find plenty of stories to explore in our website that's our daughter. more mass anti-government demonstrations at this time in america and often middle east workers are demanding respect for their rights but local authorities are turning a blind eye to the concerns of the middle classes. and one of the most expensive delicacies in the world that's caviar quickly common every day feast after russian scientists discover a new technique to harvest the eggs you can find out more at r.t.u. dot com and you can also watch all the best videos on our gucci page. it is easy to.

download the official allocation until i phone the i pod touch from the i choose option. video. keys in mind costs and r.s.s. feeds now in the palm of your. call. the end of the cold war the reunification of germany liberalism and perestroika the u.s.s.r. is first and last president gorbachev today's celebrates his eightieth birthday and his legacy has never hailed as the father of russia's democracy over

a child was born in a small village in the south of the country and even came the reader of the u.s.s.r. it by nine hundred eighty five with his economic and political reforms to pave the way for democracy in russia his best known policy is dubbed better story which aims to revamp the contrary without destroying the basis of socialism or his initiatives also led to the cancellation of state censorship and the creation of free speech and the country or receive the nobel peace prize in one nine hundred ninety a year later however a coup started a chain of events which led to the collapse of the soviet union overthrow reader stepped down and then boris yeltsin became president but to call the shots critics say he was a contrarian to a destructive and chaotic reform effects of which are still being felt today gorbachev still says his actions were timely and necessary.

we realized from experience that it was dangerous to wait much longer but we had to take a risk but we couldn't postpone it we needed changes i don't agree with people to the terrorist threat that failed it didn't fail it was disrupted rails stocks but still perestroika achieved a lot inside russia we had democracy free elections freedom of conscience part of property freedom to travel abroad everything. glasnost there was so much openness the entire country was affected people realized they had finally got some freedom an opportunity to act in foreign affairs reported to the cold war we normalized our relationship with the u.s. we reunited germany we didn't send our tanks our troops there. all our units in eastern europe stayed where they were it wasn't always easy many things did not work out the way we planned at the beginning and when we made our first mistakes we didn't really explain to people what was going on and didn't get them involved in

all those processes we were self-confident and or put in public politics i don't think we have ever lost a major battle nuclear arsenals were significantly reduced thanks to our efforts during perestroika today when the world is so divided we need to find things that bring us together for instance the g twenty is a step which brings us closer it's an instrument and mechanism for hundreds of the hardest and most challenging issues but we need more than that it's a matter of learning to live in a global world. but you can watch the full interview with just over an hour here on r.t. and also throughout the. crosstalk where peter lavelle and his guests discuss how the world could have thrown away. something after nine hundred ninety one we could have a whole separate program remember the soviet union into twenty years ago and yet obama said we have to have a reset which suggests something has gone badly wrong for relational you and i

disagree a lot of things on this point we do what i'm told is russian is dead what did we squander or did we i mean our government squander something that gorbachev had given us i think the answer is we have it could possibly be retrieved i'm not very optimistic but it's possible but i think this legacy too might have been swan well i do think that ending the cold war was called which was great a single achievement and it was a very great achievement i don't think he handled it terribly skillfully towards the end i think he handed his end of the negotiations with the u.s. and with the west rather weakly i mean for example. he dissolved the warsaw pact but didn't really get anything in return for it on the other hand i think obviously the main fault for the thief would be the kind of renewal of the cold war really. doesn't lie with the way just because we didn't respond strongly enough to global needs and then indeed to yeltsin's needs in the early years of post soviet russia.

wants to get across talks on a hearty throughout the day which you can capture over here now a quick look at some other international headlines pakistan's minister for religious minorities has been killed in a gun attack or the country's capital police say gunmen reportedly from the taliban sprayed his car with bullets in a residential neighborhood shahbaz bhatti who was a christian hybrid threatened by islamic militants in the past against the country's harsh blasphemy laws well earlier in the hear a pin drop governor was gunned down by one of his own bodyguards for his opposition to the law and. order in new zealand dust storms whipped up by strong winds or have recovery efforts in the quake ravaged city of christchurch crews retrieving bodies from scores of collapsed buildings have been slowed by repeated aftershocks five more bodies have been pulled from the rubble bringing the death toll to one hundred and sixty three say some of the victims may never be recovered. colombia has

been removed from a list of countries requiring special observation by the u.s. drug controlled watchdog international narcotics control board say the move was in recognition of the countries that she meant in fighting the problem but would continue to monitor developments closely the u.s. two thousand and ten report showed drastic reduction is in cocoa plantations in colombia and that more drugs were seized there than any other state in the world over the past decade. allow for some a change of heart is their only hope for life but a lot of donors in russia means that the odds of survival are firmly stacked against and now a pioneering new to me be used in the country could reverse that trend argues it's not a boy who has the story. it's a smile that come straight from the heart but almost died from heart failure two decades ago and these only visits a cardiology ward for regular check out. look at her she's just a picture of health by now she's been living with

a new heart longer than with her own. dr z. miscarriages operate on a ta should twenty one years ago when a donor organ was her only hope for live one of the best known cardiac surgeons in russia her from hundreds of lifesaving transplants but still thinks of the thousands he couldn't do because of the shortage of donor organs nowadays he's pioneering and need to meet that gives some patients on the analyst waiting list a more definite hold. your. heart transplant is not a panacea firstly to supply a donor organs is so short that you can only help a smattering of patients and secondly it brings with it a number of complications starting with ethical dilemmas in the biological function as well finding an alternative treatment that will allow to preserve a host organ is so crucial. to the treatment of better or to remodeling consists of seven surgeries that together reverse the damage to

a broken heart russian doctor started performing it two years ago and its long term attractiveness is still being tested yet for some like this patient not stare it already proved a real life changer you already when i was first diagnosed doctors told me i had a year to leave now and i have all the reasons to hope that i'll see my little daughter grow up i'm not i was told i may still need a heart transplant in the future but this surgery is that big four years old. but just eighteen syria to risk carried out this procedure is far from being routine yet this successful recovery of older patients has already given to many on the transplant waiting list a change of heart reconstructive stint julie has many advantages that were heart transplant patients don't have to change or an agonizing and far from guaranteed wait for do no organ the chances of success for recovery are higher but like heart transplant these procedure has one major setback the gap between those who need it

and those who get it is too disheartening a huge so we've got our team bus call coming up on r t an in-depth look into the weapon of choice for terrorists around the globe. r.t. has investigated the hidden history of the car bomb in the twentieth century and you can watch our special report in just a few minutes but first all the latest in business with yulia.

right time to get the latest from the world of business and oil prices continue to hit their highest levels in more than two years there's the tension in north africa and the middle east continues to fuel concerns over crude supplies the price of light sweet past the psychological one hundred dollars per barrel mark at one point during wednesday's morning trading were as the branch group froze to almost one hundred sixteen dollars a barrel you can see the figures on the screen this comes after the news that saudi arabia may not take any significant steps to bring down the price of crude oil until brant which is one hundred twenty dollars a barrel which is about eight percent above the current level but both benchmark world so i've seen a slight dip and there are trends with brant currently at around one hundred fifteen dollars of lights with just under one hundred dollars per barrel. now russian oil giant look or less money to maintain its foreign oil production at ten

to eleven million tons yet the company's international pray tell the world overseas will also invest two and a half billion dollars into its extraction projects outside russia in twenty eleven that's according to the divisions president yourself the company's still interested in middle east and despite the political instability in the region it plans to start drilling in iraq in the first half of this year. russia norway are stepping up corporation after the two sides finally came under agreement over the arctic dispute the new stage of economic relations between the countries started last year when russia nor we ended a forty year debate over their maritime borders and agreed to explore oil and gas in the arctic region and the region minister of trade and industry says their strategic know how and expertise can greatly help future cooperation in the energy sector. we have a lot of the. strong companies we have still thought of course as

movies from biggest operating company we have supplier companies to pick knowledge of course with those services and goods for those sector but i think also we have good security and environmental standards procedures and people would use that would be really bored and in the arctic area where the consequences of the worst accidents can be even more severe in other areas. let's have a look at how the markets are faring this hour european shares a low on wednesday as investors continued to fret over rest of the middle east and north africa both the footsie on the sites i ever owned one percent down concerns that rising oil prices got her to calm her cover and prompt investors to sell stocks and against further declines. and here in russia the markets have made it into positive territory is that solid the russian energy sector is benefiting from high oil prices gold companies are seeing significant gains as price for precious

metal gets high and let's now have a look at some individual share moves going as gold just climbed more than one percent energy majors are mostly on the rise of gas from repeating yesterday's losses or pond is losing more than one percent on the r.t.s. . and the price of gold has hit a new record high as investors turn to what's the precious metal in times of uncertainty managed to jump to one thousand four hundred thirty full house on the london board and market and once described how well the price has traded since currently trading out one thousand and that four hundred thirty eight silver is also in vermont record trading at thirty four and a half drive last ounce. you're up to date now but set for a meter and then less than one else time. more business news here on our team.

good samaritan. excellent professional. medics travel much possessing an extra ordinary car. the doctor who

helped many people in his country. the political criminal responsible for thousands of deaths. was it an attempt to repent. or just escape a fair trial. the other line twelve run among. our narky. motherhood. was clumsy.

the team has been to the apology and republish. center of russian defense production. quality heads to central russia. and the cops of become an industry. the harsh winter makes for even more enjoyable. and when everyone can train to be a stuntman. illegalised. russia play soccer on the hot seat. it.