the opposition reportedly offers colonel gadhafi a way out of libya amid rumors of foreign military intervention and the u.s. defense secretary joked that bombing is close. i think that's what's going. on th correspondent in tripoli finds massive support for gadhafi in the libyan capital contradicting international headlines that he's my slated and close to defeat. and new things between the u.k. and libya's government revealed several british universities are on the path and gauging with the gadhafi regime after receiving a controversial cash donation. from

our studios here in central moscow this is r t with twenty four hours a day and opposition has told colonel gadhafi if he leaves the country now they won't put him on trial but libyan state t.v. has broadcast denials that gadhafi offered to quit if his family was allowed to safely leave the country violence continues in parts of libya more than three weeks after protests erupted. has more now from tripoli. the one hand we're hearing from opposition that moammar gadhafi is in talks with them they say that he's asking for an opportunity to escape the country let it opposed parliament should we choose a transition period we're going to beat these opposition groups also saying that he'd once immunity from criminal prosecution and permission to take out of the country in large amounts of cash now all of these reports have been rejected by

gadhafi who has denied these kind of claims on state television the opposition also saying that you can leads now they would not consider seeking prosecution from the international court of justice as i say we're not hearing any confirmation obviously exact opposite from the. it certainly does seem as if the west need it was quick to bury. our huge amounts of public support for him this is a phenomenon that i explored by talking to people on the streets and ascertaining from them just how right and in this case just how wrong the foreign media were in reporting the story. a warning on the streets of tripoli i want to say to just you know what because you. know you can get more much. more to my money get that at the heart of the criticism reports of all places bombed and killed dozens of protesters in the capital city future of libya appears to be on

a knife edge fighter jets have been bombarding the capital of tripoli reportedly on the orders of leader moammar gadhafi. but it is a force. or something that. completely must. pursue the truth seems more to be a city of artists business these are hardly the pictures of a city on the brink of war meanwhile libya's capital tripoli is raising for what could be another night of gunfire explosions and hiding eyewitnesses. they warplanes had been firing at opposition supporters from the air when we invited. freudian media to come to tripoli. and to see. reports. we had. administration management of the channel as. to what they want from these three course and eliminate or delete what does not serve

their purposes which is why people here are angry bahamas taking a few days off from his work as an engineer to join the throngs of gadhafi supporters in downtown green square but i think this is what's what's going on you know. some. sort of leader. but say analysts it's not just what's being hidden it's also what's actually being saved but what we're getting is a us. one sided picture of the situation with the media with the idea that there's freedom fighters involved in media and that there is a government regime in an atrocious terrorist government so. this is nonsense here just. as i would be.

ok. the war is clearly not in tripoli and just killing waste in media has been a little too quick to. force the artsy tripoli's. international pressure is mounting on gadhafi would the u.s. considering military intervention and the u.k. and france drafting a no fly zone resolution for the u.n. and that this embarrassing off the record remarks from u.s. officials that he's going to take on has more. if and secretary robert gates landed in afghanistan hands with a top u.s. commander general david petraeus who greeted mr gates at the airport joking quote welcome back sir flying a little bigger plane than normal you're going to lodge some attacks on leave you or something and of quote the u.s. defense secretary responded to the comment by laughing and said quote yeah exactly well apparently the two gentlemen were unaware of the open microphone the world is now guessing whether that was just a joke or there was a kernel of truth

a lot of people thought that was a highly inappropriate joke mind you this comes from america's top military man although the official position of the us is in order to decide on the military intervention the support of the international community do you want and nato are now you weighing in on the possibility of declaring a no fly zone over libya that would actually involve a large scale military operation including air strikes on media. including strikes on the good air defenses and putting down everything that flies over levy have a vote on a no fly zone could be hard to secure at the u.n. security council where china a permanent member is really cool to the post no fly zone and russia has made it very clear that any foreign military involvement would be unacceptable here's the logic behind the statements made by some western powers we can't allow khadafi killed the rebels so we need to give the rebels a chance and make the fight kind of even because those things are now cut out his armor outweighs everything there's rebels have from russia for example this kind of

intervention even with the best of intentions usually leads to more deaths and destruction than if you let the countries deal with their problems on their own is this monday we heard reports that the u.s. asked saudi arabia if it can supply weapons to the rebels in benghazi the truth is people are really being for it history shows that the practice of arming the other side of a conflict not only does not stop the violence but inflames it even more especially those arms and. being the hands of radicals and erika's themselves have estimated that levy especially the eastern part of the country which is where the rebels have reportedly gave control of his home to a large number of holidays they make up a fifth of this enough to say that one of the rebel leaders the benghazi was once osama bin laden's personal driver and the question is does the u.s. really want that kind of involvement. before morning as i'm not joined by ivan even who's senior fellow and director of the center on peace and liberty at the independent institute in washington d.c.

well we've we've heard that joke between robert gates and general petraeus do you believe they are indeed preparing for military action. no i don't i think this is this is similar to what rah rah reagan said during the cold war when he said the bombing against the soviet union will start in so many minutes or whatever but of course margaret reagan's was more serious because it was the height of the cold war and it was directed against a nuclear armed power but i think this is a bad. saying because you don't want to threaten even in a joking manner something like this especially from the u.s. secretary of defense it was a bad comment i think it was overheard the microphones are on they didn't intend it but i don't think they are planning and if they think gates has been one of the people that have been saying hey let's not do the no fly zone because this would entail attacking a country gates has two wars going now and he doesn't really need a third one i don't think i think obama is resisting pressure from both democrats

and republicans in congress to take military action so can the world really stand idly by and just watch libya head towards its own fate without any intervention at all. well i think we used to do that in the old days and actually the weather the world was probably better when the powers didn't intervene as much but. of course we've always had some intervention with colonialism and that sort of thing but i think. what was said earlier is very apropos the united states gave weapons to them which i had seen against the soviet union and look what happened and with the stakes are much lower in libya since the cold war is over and this is an internal dispute in a country that is really not that strategic to the united states so i don't think we ought to arm the rebels because who knows where those arms could could come could could end up anti-tank watchers could be used for terrorism and handheld anti-aircraft. launchers you put those in a community or

a commercial airport it's just not worth it and also one other thing i think the u.s. is standing is so low in the muslim world after invading two muslim countries we have no credibility if we started attacking another one even if we're trying to help an indigenous. movement because as as your report pointed out there's strong support for gadhafi in at least some parts of libya like around tripoli and that sort of thing and so the muslim world may really want to get rid of gadhafi because he's been kind of nutty but they may not look favorably on a u.s. intervention and this could of course increases terrorism against the united states around the world we clearly understand who they support as you think all of the opposition who is a. well i think they were struggling to find that out and that because we don't really don't know i think italian intelligence probably knows more about it than anyone else because they used to be the colonial power in libya they have the best

ties sadder and they said that because he is still strong in many parts of. least in certain areas of libya and so i think we don't really know who the opposition is and that's the problem if you don't know who you're supporting and you're supporting him just because you want to get rid of gadhafi he is no threat to the west in fact he has been trying to. improve relations with the west for decades and he finally did it by pledging to get rid of his nuclear program but of course we'd like to get rid of them because he is a little unpredictable but the united states would like to get rid of him but i just don't think it's worth the cost and because we really don't know who the who the opposition isn't and giving out giving out weapons hasn't proved to be very smart in the case of the earlier conflicts as you say you don't know who the opposition is could could whoever it is actually then form a coherent cohesive government so soon if you would have thought i mean what what

would happen. well the problem that you find in all of these areas and i think libya is the worst of the three tunisia egypt and libya is the fact that in revolutions you may have a rising of the general population or. but then the most violent and the most armed people and the most useless ruthless people like lenin take over the revolution and who knows where it goes after that so we don't really know if they would be able to form a coherent government after all this or whether it will be friendly to the west or friendly to the united states so that when revolutions get going you don't know where they're going to stop. and that's of course big concern for the u.s. at the moment you say where's that revolution going to stop what's going to happen next is the u.s. actually losing its influence now in the middle east in general. but i think so and as a result of the two invasions u.s.

popularity is down now of course the united states is still a superpower but that doesn't mean that the united states should intervene in every conflict we wanted to be only in the cases i think of u.s. vital interests and i don't think libya is in the u.s. vital interests but isn't oil vital interests many people are saying this is all about oil not about people. well i think it is to some great extent about oil but the problem with the intervening for oil is that there's a worldwide market for oil if libya's oil goes out the market for a while or is reduced for a while the price will go up and the market will adjust and then sooner or later either libya will start producing its oil again or the other countries who have increased their production because libya has decreased its production the price goes up these countries make more money so the market sort of takes care of it the saudi arabia iran other producers will produce more because they can make more money it's not out of altruism anything so i think the market does work

a disruption in any one country is not necessarily catastrophic and i think we need to quit thinking that it is good to talk to you ivan ivan eland senior fellow at the independent institute joining us live in washington thank you. well coming up in just a few moments differences of opinion over the libya crisis top the agenda as moscow welcomes joe biden. as the vice president of the united states arrives in moscow the big question is will the two sides be able to reach a mutual understanding of the situation in libya. that's still to come the first several british universities have come under pressure over the controversial links with the libyan government a public outcry over donations from the gadhafi regime to the london school of economics has forced its the right to to resign when it got the sun started at the university and it has more from london. more details of these connections are emerging all the time the most recent one is another of these his fourth son who

was taught at the school of oriental and african studies also known as. the us then following his student ship announced a very lucrative deal with libyan university where they would give him two hundred fifty thousand dollars in the region off to teach a finance course. we also know of course about saif gadhafi who went to that under school of economics he received a doctorate from there and then his foundation donated two and a half million dollars to the university the director of course of the university has stepped down regulation of parts nation and we've also heard another university that has declared its links with itself ahead of the media finding out that's liverpool john morse which has money donated from libya to run a business school also a health article t. and a neonatal care facility there seems to be quite a lot of libyan money floating around in british universities there's a wide range it turns out for and sports giving money to u.k.

universities and according to a report by the center for social cohesion many courses at british universities wouldn't be able to run without this money. include saudi arabia and china and i'll just take you through a few of iran has generated a total of around quarter of a million dollars across major universities in the u.k. daryn. and so i asked of course that we've already heard of ours. who is the head of studies program at durham university and he says this is an event organized under the auspices of the deal that they have with the iranian government monopolized by pro ahmadinejad's speakers and he also said that money from iran comes with strings attached so there is an enormous amount of concern about this money and how it affects academic independence and freedom of thinking at british universities. saudi arabia has given a total of in the region of sixty eight million dollars to british universities in

edinburgh and cambridge they've used that money to build centers of islamic studies and a saudi prince is allowed to choose members of the management committee out. china also around a million dollars. to form cultural and language centers again so sheffield university and the university of edinburgh have benefited from that money and the chinese government refers to those centers as part of it foreign propaganda strategy really a wide range of money the same suspects in terms of universities appearing a lot but big powerful and important universities across the u.k. receiving money routinely from governments. in london and always have you also in the stories we're covering on our website and today we're asking you who benefits most from the wave of riots in the arab world to express your point of view logon to r.t. dot com and get it from me.

and libya move become a boon of contention between russia and the u.s. america's vice president is currently in moscow and he'll discuss the situation an issue which both countries so far don't see eye to eye on joe biden is also keen to push for the warming of relations between russia and the u.s. with the reset button facing a serious test an r.t.s. europe is kind of has the latest now. this is the first visit by joe biden to russia as the vice president of the united states a lot is one he's going to meet with the president of russia dmitry medvedev and prime minister why do you include you as well the reset of relations between russia and to the united states has been going on for two years now there are definite signs of improvement and the building of friendly ties but nevertheless the views

of each side on some key international issues remain different and libya is no example is no exception since the united states is supporting the idea of getting involved in to be a seat in the situation in libya specifically the idea of shutting down the libyan air space which in reality would mean a libyan planes could be shut down if they take off if this ban is in force and also libyan anti aircraft systems could be neutralized too to make it see for me to pilots to patrol libyan skies a rush on the other hand is against all intervention into the situation so we'll have to wait and see if the two sides buttigieg quarters movie able to reach some sort of a joint understanding all of this issue and if joe biden's visit will continue this also building and from retirees. it's another world headlines now three

minutes past the russian capital a massive explosion in pakistan's largest city has killed at least thirty people and injured one hundred police a car bomb was detonated a petrol station causing several gas cylinders to explode resulting blast flipped cars and collapse nearby buildings. offices of the country's main intelligence agency may have been the target. four people have been killed in a state security crackdown in ivory coast largest city abidjan comes just hours after thousands marched in protest of shooting seven women. by the regime of nor bad boy a neighborhood where it took place is known as a stronghold of the opposition has been the target of increasing health fancy. political deadlock since last year's elections. kosovo and serbia as first talks in three years are being put back after the close of the delegations arrival was delayed relations being frozen between the two countries and because of a declared itself independent in two thousand and eight using to recognize the

sovereignty he. reportedly sidestepped that dispute focusing on issues such as trade and air traffic control thousands of people killed in the conflict between the two in the one nine hundred ninety s. because of those later placed under un control. russia's republic of chechnya once in a renewed for military conflict a state a prestigious sporting event a president eleven from the republic suffered a narrow six four loss against a brazilian world cup winners and tom barton watch the match for us. the atmosphere here at the terek stadium in grozny the chechen capital is certainly very intense what is a friendly football game the stands are absolutely packed they were actually people spilling out of the size of the stands earlier on as everyone pushed to to get a space to see this game again as you can imagine pauline not the most breakneck pace you've ever seen but certainly not without its excitement on

a few misses fortunately some of those from some good there of the leader of chester itself although we did nice to score a goal in the first off eventually this certainly ranks as one of the more old football games in footballing history take it five years ago and you certainly wouldn't have been imagining a brazilian all star veterans team coming all the way to church to play a football match five years ago this city was basically a flattened ruin the remnants of a decade of conflict stretching through the law. ninety nine season into the two thousands but certainly a troubled legacy the one that a lot of work is going into trying to repair the city and if this game does show anything it shows that now even if it's just this brazilian team they have the confidence to come here and play a football game whether that rebuilding process clearly had some effect. the business update is next now with dimitri stay with us live here in moscow.

well you watch your business our team is going to have your company oil prices remain high as tensions in libya persist however it's more of a risk premium with no real shortage seen so far that's according to a. global oil directive from plants agency but are you talking about it is here libya or any other countries bahrain for that matter on on even though people target the loading areas and even when they can the production areas there's more than enough supply out there of crude oil on the market right now so the supply demand scenario is actually fairly stable and also the kinds of production we're talking about losing right now libya is down by a hundred thousand barrels a day or so was i we're losing a million or so barrels a day of production and supply in a market that is eighty five or even ninety million barrels a day of supply is social so so far the impact is limited the question every one of the oil market is will saudi arabia have its own problems to worry about over the

weekend so that that could change the picture dramatically both from current supply demand and going forward as well soaring food prices are keeping the world central bank is worried as they try to inflation low crop stocks and poor weather conditions other key factors which are sending costs up the markets will stabilize by the end of the we have seen a very very solid the second year up train across our culture in commodity prices over the last twelve months and a lot of this is really caught in the production side downgrades by the conditions we're in an environment where demand has bounced back quite nicely after the recession and we're also finding ourselves in if you just mean characterize that's an even trade at this so there's still a lot of uncertainty in the market and we. know in so thing you are going to see the markets reacting quite nervously but we do expect that moderation in terms of agriculture prices in the second half of this year so we do think a lot of the good news in a sense is already in a price. foreigners who tried to make a living in russia of loan realize that for all its ups and downs doing business

here can prove very profitable does that sound a bit over has been following the progress of one french entrepreneur who's life has turned distinctly rosy. can take the fuel and fridge it's like see. i do something i try to do a different way around us grows roses with an unusual twist and smile it's. like intriguing smells with intriguing prices it's a niche market anyway. so you would buy maybe five normal roses and would you would buy one of these and here is where this french business woman built her business eating and we didn't know it's really in the middle of nowhere. it's a small village two hundred kilometers away from moscow first of think you say ok russia is very big there are a lot of fields and you can go anywhere. it was so no laws of this country

and. of the law you don't go just where you want you go where you know then you know it's like a very very small country even split up in france florence bought land and built a one hectare greenhouses and her investments doubled to six million euros much to her surprise in russia you have to go through special entities that have license it can double your costs just because this company can work and then the specialist cannot work her remote location caused all sorts of problems lack of utilities construction delays i'm on garters when she finally sold her first roses two years ago the main problem had people i'm willing to work it's not only my problem what can be the motivation for people. to be able to it's not the money only

right it doesn't work. we have. a higher than average salary you. and if this is not to these notes you know. it's maybe it sounds pompous but there are heroes in ordinary life authority comes to russia and tries to produce something interesting here fly around says help project should start paying back in about five years she plans to expand her business with the dream of offering a tailored service for exclusive clients i can imagine. there's a contest to prison for the eight of march for example it is definitely a business businessman that killed both. live. by their unique value to those who did it on the union it's valid in the world and

would be called by the name of. his wife for florence has been in russia since the ninety's and says she's now learned how to do business here i don't know this problem like. it. was. here by. a good deal but i don't have. not made it bad because i'm french is in the room and because they think they. need to give it part of it. right i think it's part of a particular woman raising a life or french business woman making her way in russia and that's up from the business thing for now the headlines are next to ours and we do speak that's.

wealthy british style. is not the right time. to. market finance come to. find out what's really happening to the global economy with much stronger for a no holds barred look at the global financial headlines tune into current.