bravos in libya gained more ground on their way to the capital while nato prepares to assume full control of operations. headed up the regime is running scared as reports filtered through are intensifying to outside the symbolic and strategic city of sirte told me for more details from the capital city. and the rebel celebration as the advance to the west reportedly to go dark these home town find out more from the rebel stronghold of benghazi in just a few moments. as other bothered op risings in the arab world draw little foreign

interest questions are raised over whether coalition countries are targeting libya for event rather than to protect its people. also this hour radiation surges to a hundred thousand times about normal of the bush team in the applauses to pound battles to prevent meltdown while struggling to lay thousands of the nami victims to rest. a very warm welcome this is live from moscow now there are conflicting reports about just how far west rebels have advanced with the libyan capital tripoli the opposition claims it controls gadhafi his hometown but reporters think the city is still in government hands let's talk to our correspondents in libya for more on this policy is in tripoli. and you can offer is the main goals you for us are first

to you paula the rebels surely have their sights on the capital so where you are now how is the city reacting to the latest gains. of the city is in a state of shock the first reports we got in the early hours of this morning monday actually suggested that the rebels had taken over the city of sirte which is not only a strategic city but it has a great symbolic value for the regime this is of course gadhafi is home town it's about six hundred kilometers to the south of tripoli it's about hof weight between the rebel stronghold of benghazi and tripoli not what we're hearing from the regime is in fact very little there have been no press conferences no forthcoming on says all suggesting that the regime is incredibly worried as the rebel forces at vons closer and closer to tripoli they were never supposed to get this far this is the furthest the rebels have taken land in terms of their advancement so it now seems increasingly that they threats to advance on tripoli although coming through some

of the analysis and some of the assessments coming out of tripoli is that the reports by the rebels earlier that they had taken the city were as much for domestic consumption as they were for the international community the rebels have not made light of the fact that they need these coalition airstrikes they create a vacuum and that vacuum and the rebels to advance forward so they are calling on the international community to keep up with its bombardment of towns the rebels saying that they need this impact to advance further and further the situation in tripoli is dire indeed we're being told that in just a matter of days the city will completely have run out of fuel there are short supplies of water food and medical supplies so essentially the city itself is in a state of lockdown now if you go to you on the rebel stronghold in the second largest city but goals and how people there are responding to the advances further west. well first of all even though there are conflicting reports coming from the front if the hometown of got out he was in fact taken over by the rebels

or not i can tell you that the support of the eastern port of libya is under the full control of the opposition and of the rebels meaning that any and the successful operations done by the rebels out there on the front or greeted here with applause in fact here in benghazi every time there is news of a successful operation done by the rebels out there on the front we hear these shots being fired into the air as a sign of support of the anti god if you move this could happen at any moment during the day or even during the nine time now to tell you a little bit more about the rebels themselves and what the force consists of as we were going from the egyptian border. i saw really agree with all of the various troops from all the men carrying a really old outdated rifles two teenagers with forty seven's and even commandos

big guys with big guns all standing and patrolling the roads there are constant military or security checkpoints along the entire route so i think it's pretty safe to say that this part of the country is really under the. control of the of the opposition so every positive news coming out there from the front if it's a successful operation against gaddafi that we did with great applause here and paul ever is there any concrete evidence with regards to the number of casualties. the million dollar question here is just how many casualties have been injured how many civilians have been injured and killed in these coalition air strikes the libyan state television as well as the government. puts the figure at more than one hundred and they say that the number of casualties continues to climb we know for example that overnight for the first time they were explosions nine explosions in

the city of said we are hearing now of strikes near the city of misrata as well as in the center of the country in sub par all the time those reports of explosions and bring the risk of civilian casualties and the libyan state television is not shying away from a fourteen twenty five seven that the number of casualties caused by these coalition air strikes is climbing and you call it a big gaza is a mediterranean ports you know seeing an increased presence of coalition forces on the coasts. well i can tell you that your ships or are now patrolling the coast of libya to enforce the embargo and also the no fly zone operation itself and actually in this situation turkey which is the only member of nato which is a muslim state it's being quite active in this sense it's already said that several

of its vessels or in this operation in patrolling the mediterranean including a submarine and so i think itself or five other a large vessels and also all the united states italy rumania can and in many other countries are all keen to stablish their presence here in order to support the north fly zone operation but the question is where is this operation going is going to lead to a ground operation or is it going to end. of gaddafi regime but when it comes to the ground operation the rebels have strongly stand their ground stood their ground in saying that there are against any any foreign intervention here on the ground in the country. coalition air strikes have made it possible for the rebels to advance in the country and change do you think. well we understand that nato will only take full command tomorrow tuesday at

a summit that will be held in london at that summit they will be the establishment of a steering committee by and large most people here are waiting to see whether in fact this changes the situation on the ground but certainly the same psyche from speaking to people here is that they don't really believe nato taking full control of the military operations in libya will make that much of a difference there are still outstanding questions outside outstanding concerns concerns such as for how long this operation will continue we're hearing the time frame of anything from three months to a year two more years people on the ground increasingly concerned that this operation could just continue and continue the other could. cern's are the rules of engagement and still they doesn't really seem to be that much clarity in terms of when how and if the coalition partners can operate the fact that the united states was meeting with operation until now it was something that the rebel fighters enjoyed and certainly for them they would prefer for this to continue they do understand that when you have twenty eight members now calling the shots it does pose a much greater struggle for robust action on the ground but the latest word from

the united states is that it will be providing a support base some kind of support structure particularly in the terms of coniston and also in terms of jamming communication lines ok for that many thanks many thanks to both of you all clear there of wood from the capital tripoli and we get this from the rebel stronghold city of the or russia's foreign minister says the international coalition is acting outside the limits of the u.n. resolution on libya syria is also demanding independent verification and reports of civilian casualties in the foreign forces assault all these tests are also. from the very start russia has been a reluctant participant in the what is going on in libya at the moment what worries the foreign minister right now in this statement he says that it appears that coalition forces are taking sides and his worries come amid a nato statement saying that they will stick to the books and do what is stipulated

there no more no less well let's look at the u.n. resolution it says there that it authorizes all necessary measures to protect civilians will their words all necessary measures could be open to interpretation but protecting civilians is definitely stated there as the goal and so what worries the a russian government is that the offensive is going beyond just protecting civilians that the coalition forces taking sides is clearly not stipulated well let's hear more from the foreign minister sergey lavrov we should do. is taking part in a civil war in libya by talk between colonel gadhafi troops and the supposed in the rebels this was not sanctioned by the u.n. resolution which stated that the coalition can only enforce a no fly zone and protect the civilian population should the recent concerns about young confirmed reports of civilian deaths caused by the airstrikes and we would like this information to the time of the u.n. has every means to carry this out and we are expecting this to happen as soon as possible so again it's a he's going back to what is stipulated in the u.n.

resolution and again when russia abstained from voting they clearly stated their position that they are against the use of force on civilians by the gadhafi regime however they did have a lot of questions with regard to the rules of engagement the limits of engagement and right now these are the questions that are coming forward and again as the accompli gun folds in libya we can see a lot of the countries especially those that had abstained to keep looking at the actions versus what is stipulated and had been agreed upon on paper. today with developments in the bill online all twitches stream gives you fast and accounts from our correspondents there all say regular updates on all facebook page and what they see on nations video reports on artie's channel.

now syria's a government is promising reforms following a wave of deadly protests in the flashpoint coastal town of the kitchen have been deployed on twelve people were killed over the weekend to make calls for political freedoms our correspondent in the capital damascus. we witnessed a very tense weekend here in the syrian capital with thousands of people gathered on the streets there were huge traffic jams people were shouting and shooting and also saw dozens of people attacking the local bureau of our jazeera news channel as people here were saying that they were and happy with the coverage events unfolding here by the channel of course it is much more tense in the south of the country

where dozens of people have already been killed in the clashes with people here are demolishing is for the country's emergency law to be lifted now the mercian civil war imposes restrictions on public gatherings it also authorizes the government to arrest anyone who is suspected of threatening the country's security and now of course their uprising in syria began with a bunch of schoolkids in the south of the country who started writing and say governmental slogans on the borders they were arrested after the dozens of people took to the streets demanding that those schoolkids are released government officials are saying that's the emergency law is to be lifted but they do not specify when exactly that's going to happen of course another reason for the rallies here in syria is the uprisings in other arab countries that inspired a local people to go to the streets however it is unlikely that we going to see a military intervention in syria such as the one taking place in libya for example

as the u.s. a secretary of state hillary clinton has said the situation in each other country is very different and is unique the main reason for the military intervention in libya for example is the fact that the country's leader is using air force a having armor against its own people and according to hillary clinton the situation is not quite the same here in syria nonetheless steering authorities have deployed. troops to the south of the country to stop the protesters. of more on the situation among the arab nations let's talk now to middle east expert we han and she's in london for us now a state of emergency has been in place for half a century in syria how willing of your party is that actually lift it now. what i think we should expect that the authorities in syria are going to try to

establish what the minimum is that they have to do to reverse the trend of demonstrations in the street but we've seen that in other places before yes syria is unique it's not exactly the same as egypt or tunisia but too little too late actually seems to for fuel the momentum of the demonstrators who feel insulted by the idea that you just have to tell them go away we'll look after it will make some changes but we know what's best they react badly to that but there is a presidential did history is never in syria with the current president succeeding his own father so what's your assessment of how far he'll go to cling to power in the existing power structure. well he's shown quite a lot of tenacity so far he had to establish himself after his father he was not the one he was not the son who was groomed for power his older brother was but his

older brother was killed in a car accident most people don't think there was one thing mysterious about that but anyway. then found himself inheriting his father's mantle and he had to mediate between competitors from the old guard that used to surround his father he survived all that he's also so sure and tenacity in terms of surviving the criticism which was intense against him in connection with the assassination of prime minister hariri former prime minister hariri of lebanon which resulted in syria having to pull its troops out of lebanon and looked like bashar al assad would have to deliver some of his key henchmen including one of his brothers to an international tribunal for trial in connection with that assassination but he seems to have written out that danger to pretty much so this is

a man with tenacity and adaptability and he alley government claim foreign forces the backing of the protest is do you think that's likely. now exactly where the configuration is inside syria it's difficult to tell because on the one hand in terms of the state operators you have the bath party and that is almost such a part of the system that you can't tell where the people belong to it in order to get on within the system or because they actually believe in its principles but it is a power structure that is down to the grassroots and obviously there are people in that power structure who have vested interests and whether they could change the leadership or contemplate change of the leadership if it also meant lock stock and barrel change of the party structure is one question and then you have the security services of which there are several with overlapping remit deliberately set up in competition with each other to prevent any one of them becoming too powerful so the

situation belittle it against popular mobilisation on block against the leadership right here professor rosemary hollis of middle east policy that is that says university in london many thanks for those thoughts. on civilian deaths are being reported in syria as well as bahrain and yemen and it's leading to questions over why the coalition's military might is being aimed in libya while other arab nations violently unravel daniel bushell now explores why the allies changed libya to send their forces. coalition leaders claim they're just in forcing the no fly zone over libya but have been engaged in widespread and heavy attacks on colonel gadhafi as ground forces and buildings and targets linked to his regime so what are the real motives for france the u.k. and u.s. leading the attack on libya some say it's pure vengeance but they're certainly

settling accounts and taking revenge turkey says it's disturbed by france's eagerness to invade but expose believe ankara shouldn't be surprised gadhafi is accused of ordering the bombing of u.t.a. flight seven seven two which killed fifty four french men and women in one thousand nine hundred nine a u.k. court found the gadhafi agents the year before planned the bombing of pan am flight one hundred three over lockerbie which killed forty three british and one hundred eighty nine u.s. citizens he blew up his intelligence agency did a terrorist bomb very similar to the lockerbie bomber in the u.k. it was called duty flight seventy two and it blew up of an asia with the loss of everyone on board so i would argue that there's an element of revenge for a strong element of revenge now more recently gadhafi has hurt french commercial interests all. he find french will for a towel have

a billion dollars he also bought russian fighter planes instead of french or felt shits. but now coalition bombs are reported to be killing libyan civilians gravitationally the west is resorting to heavy bombing and civilian casualties are of no concern. that could increase regional hatred towards the west after. there will be quite. a resistance from of it count. critics say the western led military alliance is simply taking. in what's an internal civil rebel seek to overthrow an internationally recognized government western forces should be prosecuted not just for civilians but also for killing libyan conscripts. people. so. when. you see.

the army as nato chiefs arrive to plan the next stage of the bombardment of libya there are growing calls for them to be held accountable for what they describe speak as collateral damage but which in brutal learn which means the death of innocent civilians the coalition know it's haunting gadhafi the original reason was only to impose a no fly the trouble is the more civilian deaths their causes the more they risk being accused of the same crimes as gadhafi himself. see brussels. now at japan's trouble nuclear plant high levels of radiation detected in the trench outside one of the reactors there waiting say it's one hundred thousand times above normal similar to the levels found the water used to cool reactor number two on sunday at the plant operator tepco mistakenly said levels were ten million times

above normal the japanese government slammed the company for what it called alex on mistakes and handling the crisis fears of a nuclear meltdown began when four of reactors were severely damaged by the mouth of the earthquake and the tragedy has claimed over ten thousand lives saved far while over sixteen thousand are still missing as are. ford said leaving distraught communities struggling to cope with the overwhelming number of dead. instead of a problem. a mass grave the japanese always chromate their dead but not the kramatorsk at full capacity. have been turned into merge and see graveyards. these people be buried in contravention to japanese tradition when there is an opportunity they'll have to be exuma and they need their cremated instead of

a priest a town official conducts an impromptu ceremony is only just devised. this is horrible we're just trying to bring these people closure as best as we can get is a traditional fishing town after being struck by the earthquake and the tsunami it was then ravaged by fires that last a day. or at least five hundred dead in the biting when family members get just a few minutes before construction workers bury the coffins. crematoriums to be able to process these bodies. many of the relatives have themselves lost houses as well as their loved ones. on this list of other things for two weeks we search for my cousin and now at least we know what happened to her meanwhile soldiers raked through the remains of the town untouched since the disaster they say there may still be hundreds of bodies below the rubble. out of.

japan. but you get more on the situation in japan while website. there is a full court account of events from when the country was hit by the way. the color of. my skin square internationally now having trouble with exports as people feed goods made spread radioactive contamination also online five colleges sound the alarm the japan example is just the start of a dedicated. from the pacific ring of fire. now in just a few minutes the russian presidential advisor on afghanistan tells us that the nato mission days on course to bring nothing but misery to the troubled country first lady is going to update. welcome to business r.t. good to have your company in the year disaster in japan could reduce global car

production by thirty percent that's according to the latest research from i.h.s. consulting many japanese carmakers are holding work at the local factories with producers in other countries suffering from a lack of components being distributed consulting says while companies currently have some reserves they could be used up by mid april if automakers find no alternative global production may fall for free hundred thousand cars a day around two hundred thousand meanwhile general motors ford and poser have already partly cut production in a number of european plants. copper and the mini map enjoyed a strong run over the last few weeks rallying in line with the broader industrial commodities the markets are being supported by the prospect of robust demand linked to future reconstruction in japan gail berry barclays capital investment bank says demand is likely to push growth. the reconstruction work that will be needed in japan is certainly going to be

a boost for industrial commodities and and for the base metals i think to begin with what we'll see is a base over of a dip in demand because of the disruptions to manufacturing activity within japan itself but after that i think is caroline's a rebuild and. office blocks are rebuilt you lynsey and increase probably starting sometime in the second half of this year and going into into two thousand and twelve an increase in demand for things like call for our means and lead demand actually will probably benefit straight away because you need to lead for a batteries and things like backup diesel generators and so on. so we're going to markets now and in europe they are flat and mixed fluctuating up to their biggest rise in almost six months last week versus remain cautious on renewed concerns

about the japan's nuclear crisis and the ongoing unrest in the middle east. slightly up just point one percent while the dax is down a point to. where russia markets are trading in the red this hour following losses in asian markets the r.t.s. is down forty four percent my six point one percent is take a look at some of the stocks most energy companies are losing this hour gas from is bucking the trend is up zero point three percent in the mindset meanwhile banking stocks are down this burbank down half a percent roster they call it is still the biggest gain of two and a half percent continue its rally from friday when it turned out to be the sole contractor for the social government program. russian oil group b.p. may be broiled in a dispute between its major shareholders but it's still trying to improve its operations as it gets on with the every day business of extraction the company's vice president explains to business out see some of its plans for increasing

efficiency. we are going to spend time both one from a million dollars. in the following investment into energy if you show support and total results in three years will be a bald story follow the thing to me when goals f.x. will fit and to save all it's not a question about to doing more capacities so these money will spend two more energy efficiency to realize some innovations projects and draw us some energy intensity for improvements in our technical process so when i will be back next out with an update i'll see that.

line. would be so much brighter if you knew about someone from funds to pressure these. stunts on t.v. don't come. wealthy british style sun it's time to buy the finest with. the fam.