ambassador it's hard to be a hotel suite for him how would prince or to the school in the hotel in china truly wins if it's only taught your group if it's a good goal how would international house good to cheat every green the rules for children in total. here in tripoli the regime is showing signs of crumbling and it reports that more and more senior officials are defecting on points new in the capital city join get a few moments and i'll bring you will. there will be no american boots on the ground in libya we see press reports at least indeed for cia operatives on the ground so much on the ground as i would find of u.s. top brass getting grilled in congress with many still on certain most of what the goal of the libyan campaign is and who is going to pay for it. and the integrity of america's motives are scrutinized as it ignores civilian deaths in gaza and salva

such but jumps at the opportunity to bring democracy to other regions. also a palestinian engineer disappears from a train in ukraine before resurfacing in an israeli jail with the scandal gallery momentum kiev denies any involvement in the incident. fired from our studios in central moscow you're watching archie with me and he said not way thanks for being with us it's true pm here in the russian capital eleven am in london first this hour the u.k. has reportedly been hosting a senior aide to the libyan regime is believed to be seeking an exit strategy for the leader moammar gadhafi some media sources suggest that more top ranking libyan officials have now fled the country following in the tracks of acts foreign minister moussa koussa archies polis lawyer is in tripoli. we know at this moment

of at least two high profile defections the country's foreign minister mr mr russo koussa is currently in london where he is meeting with british officials despite the fact that they say they will not grant him immunity and then mr ali abdul salam tricky he's also a former foreign minister of libya he was also an ambassador to the united nations where he served a term as president of the general assembly has also announced his departure now there can be no doubt that this is a psychological blow to the gadhafi regime certainly what we're hearing from london is that the regime is on the verge of crumbling but here in tripoli the government has actually laughed off these kind of suggestions of defections when questioned about what is the depiction of the foreign minister the country's spokesperson mr mousavi put him said that this was an old man he was exhausted he was suffering from diabetes and he actually approached the government for a leave of absence in which he could seek treatment it would not mr receiver him say that they have gone to the foreign ministers and he went so fast to say that if

the prime minister returns he will be welcomed back now when we questioned him about rumors we are hearing of at least another ten people who have defected the latest news we had was that a group of libyan officials who traveled to tunisia for talks are actually staying there and among them are a former prime minister and also the becoming head of the country's parliament the government has said it is simply unaware of this now almost as important if not more important are reports that we are hearing that for the past fortnight one of the most trusted aides of the gadhafi regime has been in london where he's been holding secret talks with authorities there over a possible exit strategy for gadhafi so the questions that people are asking a number one is gadhafi planning some kind of exit and secondly for just how much longer can his regime survive with the defection of such high profile members his troops are still advancing the current fighting is centered around the strategically important town of brega which is on the coastal road to tripoli now

it is essentially fighting that's happening out in the desert. the rebels are fighting from behind sand units for strategy they use in small traps from where they've fired rocket artillery they've been seen spotters with by law killers to go and see where those rockets landed and she reports back we're hearing that there are a lot more organized the rebels themselves but they still calling on the international community for assistance in the form of weapons fighting in the eastern part of the country in the city of misrata continues there in the last twenty four hours we've been told that at least twenty civilians were killed by government shelling in residential areas here in tripoli airstrikes and anti aircraft gunfire continues now for two weeks there almost nonstop demonstrations in support of the libyan leader moammar gadhafi and rallies being held one was held overnight thursday at his compound. at the same time we're hearing from the vatican's top envoy to libya that at least fifty civilians have been killed in the air strikes in tripoli alone most of those casualties in the eastern tripoli suburb of and one such incident

that we've been told about is when a house collapsed on the family with small children inside you can stay till a vision is also reporting what it says is a statement that is from gadhafi himself although he doesn't appear on television it is rather a news reader who reads out the statement saying that these nato airstrikes are just going to cause more civilian deaths and just spark a crusader war. well u.s. defense secretary robert gates and chairman of the joint chiefs of staff mike nolan faced a grilling in front of congress over the libyan campaign gates said washington shouldn't the libyan rebels. leave nation building for other countries. twelve days into the u.s. bombing of libya. u.s. congressmen were hoping to finally get some answers but after two hours of questioning the secretary of defense and chairman of the joint chiefs of staff they were still confusion about the u.s. is end game i think

a policy success would be the removal of the cut off the regime the military mission is a limited one and does not include regime change. who the rebels are we don't have much visibility into and of those who have risen against gadhafi each element has its own agenda. and whether the u.s. will arm them discuss our plans if you're any regarding arming the rebels they seem to be getting there but swept but keep in mind pass the buck on that one deferring to the white house once there was a qaeda decided to bristle in there and obviously we would clearly have a problem with that how long the u.s. will stay the bottom line is no one can predict for you how long it will take. for that to happen and whether the u.s. is that war at all these are combat operations were intended to be combat operations from the beginning i don't know why this administration has not been honest with the american people that this is about regime change or your sector

defense you ought to be an expert on what's an act of law of war or not peats told congress the president actually did not make his final decision on what to do until thursday night less than forty eight hours before the first two hundred tomahawk missiles were fired we don't understand what he's doing still and i don't think he has the support of this congress on was the briefing of the armed services committee. but there wasn't what is clear the cost five hundred fifty million dollars in the first ten days alone and it estimated forty million dollars a month but not how it will be paid in terms of how to pay for this. there is a. we are in discussions with the white house would be very difficult for the department to eat this cost it's well and repeated over and over again there would be no american ground troops there will be no american boots on the ground in libya

who is the person on the ground. and close air support missions against gadhafi forces there's no one on the ground the recent press reports at least indicate there are cia operatives on the ground so boots on the ground as i would define it and if other sending troops i guess is we've all read about it in the newspapers the same time i see that's my concern is that we read about things in the newspaper and then week it's a common ask the questions formally handed control to nato today and operation odyssey dawn and beginning operation unified protector but newspapers quoting vatican sources said that forty civilians were killed in coalition air strikes guaranteeing that there will be plenty of more questions for a top american military brass here in washington for the artsy washington d.c. . but as top officials across the world continue to rally against moammar gadhafi faction some believe their reaction is and consistent former conflicts so that

leaders can sometimes get away with the crimes they commit if they have the backing of the west are going to take out reports from washington. and for handshakes for someone who just three years ago gave the order that led to the deaths of civilians in the republic of south the city of bam dealing with one of the great leaders of the world the georgian president with his fluent english is a welcome guest on american t.v. shows where he's never asked the question why in the middle of the night on august the seventh of two thousand and eight a georgia begin the major artillery bombardment of the sleeping city of tskhinvali and other peaceful palace in. the region which georgia wanted to bring under its control was razed to the ground. hundreds were killed in the attack. nearly lost his daughter in second street is bombings she was visiting relatives in

one of the counties south of setia i believe psychics really should be removed from office i think you should be tried in international court for rule crimes when it comes to me even though the e.u. finding mission determined that he started to worry two thousand and eight and ordered the bloodbath in south of the georgian president is still supported in the west they have no strategic interest in. supporting his overthrow the notion that decisions get made on the basis of humanitarian concerns is simply false it doesn't it's not the basis for the decision about libya it's not a basis for decisions about georgia about palestine about kosovo the question of who is held responsible and how is very much a strategic question it's not. a legal question as it should be to boost its strategic importance among other things georgia has dispatched one thousand troops to join allied forces in afghanistan and became the leading troop contributor

relative to georgia's overall population soundless and as this fox news interview shows almost on stoppable praise of the us is also believed to have played a role in the west's according saakashvili no matter what his clients america's like because it's based on breaks and america and more and more even wrote the role for you have to really show mr president for a graduation that the bastards are here now as the world has declared a no fly zone over libya to stop gadhafi many wonder why a no fly zone was never on the table when the georgian president launched his dad lee campaign or when israel bombed the gas of three weeks in a row on the question for example of gaza where you had a blatant act of aggression clearly a violent massive violation of not only international human rights norms but work crimes crimes against humanity being created fourteen hundred people killed of whom

more than nine hundred were civilians more than three hundred were children it was a horrific situation that went on for days the problem there is that israel is the protector protectorate of the united states and the u.s. was not going to allow anyone the united nations or anyone else to actually engage in a serious way in stopping that massacre you would think if a leader commits atrocities he would be put it like they could benefit the now banned from travel but with results that's not the way politics works but the interim president killed scores of civilians but was exonerated by the west politicians accept him as a friend business leaders are looking to invest in his country and it seems the grass is happy to continue turning a blind eye to the blood of people's heads. i'm going to check our reporting from washington r.t. . oh scandal is flaring up after the arrest of a palestinian engineer was confirmed by the israeli government to write

a boosie see accused of links with hamas benefits from a train your care of earlier this month well ukrainian police saying they're not responsible for the operation let's cross live now to our alexei yourself he is following these developments and actually take us through how this scandal develops . indeed this scandal has makings of a major international scandal this story has definitely more questions than answers and more mysteries than we can imagine the palestinian engineer. who went missing in ukraine in the middle of february he was on board a train from of to kiev when allegedly two men walked into this and removed the man from the train they had no information whatsoever on his whereabouts until thursday when the israeli prime minister openly admitted that the man was kept in a prison on israel's territory now his connection to the hamas is being named as one of the reasons for such actions and he is waiting for charges to be filed

against him but his wife and himself are saying that these allegations are not true in fact he's ukrainian wife. turns to the u.n. high commissioner for refugees to sort this issue out and she believes this alleged kidnapping was performed by the israeli intelligence service the mossad now what's interesting about the story is how exactly this man was removed from the ukrainian territory i spoke to one of the former security officers and he told me that in case of a planned operation between the two countries intelligence services this usually is not a problem with a man is arrested then he is quietly deported from the country but in this case both the intelligence service and the terry ministry say they had no idea of any actions by their israeli counterparts moreover the country's interior minister alexander is going to israel to sort this issue out and to ask his israeli counterparts on how exactly they perform such operations without letting them know

without letting the ukrainian side know of any actions like that so indeed we're waiting for any developments in the story this has the makings of a major scandal because this is not the first time that the israeli intelligence has been involved in such actions i'd like to remind our viewers not in january last. a man who is believed to be connected to the hamas terrorist cell was assassinated in a hotel in dubai eleven men with fake french and irish passports and other passports as well were put on the international wanted list by the united arab emirates but this scandal has not yet been resolved although nobody in israel has been denying that it was the mossad who performed is this assassination and indeed this story in ukraine is the latest twist in the operations by my side so the country's interior minister has now a very difficult task to tell his israeli counterparts not to do anything like that on the korean territory without letting them know where you of course will continue

to follow this story live from kiev. thanks for that. now to israeli businessman owed one hundred million dollars by the georgian government have been found guilty of bribery by a criminal court in tbilisi and comes out to a lengthy trial with both businessmen maintaining that they were the victims of a government set up running food was handed seven years in jail and three hundred forty thousand dollars fine for his associates he of given six and a half years and a sixty thousand dollar fine if i was an international. treaties government should pay the two businessmen over a breach of contract controversal trial has also caused a fall out between television tbilisi with israel canceling a planned trip. georgian official craig craig neuer believes that the men were entrapped by the georgian government. there was in fact a. cooperation and collaboration between four important ministries of the

government and probably with the approval of the president of the ministry of finance the ministry of justice the ministry of the interior and the prime minister's office all of which came together with the to entrap road if you fuchs was that informed through diplomatic channels that he would not be released until the arbitration award was waived. well russian space agency has dedicated its latest science space craft launch to the anniversary of your regards legendary flight fifty years ago blasting off from kazakhstan in four days time the launch will carry two russian cosmonauts and american astronaut to the international space station artie's tests are silly and that's the story. well it's a few days before the a crew of the t.m.a. twenty one it blasts off into space and as expected in a few days in the run up to the actual flight they're going through the preflight preparations and right now what you're seeing behind me is the actual capsule that

will be taken suspects this is the top part of the space shuttle will where the actual crew will be staying and the crew members that we have a for this flight are some antibody seckel and american astronaut ron garan now what they're going through right now is actually called a fifth check literally checking whether they fit into the seats that have been made as designed especially for them each astronaut cosmonaut has a different build a different weight different height and so they have to customize everything inside the cabin crew area so that they're going to feel comfortable doing the tasks are supposed to do now the blast off will happen in approximately about four four days and they're going to be doing about forty experiments in space what special about this if you can see in the background is that you can see a uti of their god in the first man in space a logo of him a banner having a very special about this why does that it's happening very closely i mean first really fiftieth anniversary a few to got its first quite space that was of course april twelfth and nineteen

and sixty one all the p five preparations are very precise and followed down to the last detail but it's not just the of mathematics the science of the rocket science that is that we actually follow to the last detail but it's also the traditions to be a cosmonauts and astronauts have to go through a few days before the flight and today they have gone to the museum as have the other cosmonauts who have gone to space they visited the museum. museum and they put their signatures every single person that has launched a god god into space had done the exact same thing they signed he went to u.t. oh they got it cottage as well they've visited that and it's again it's even more special now that they're doing this because of the fiftieth anniversary of the first launch of you got it. let's take a look at some other stories making have. mines around the world this hour japanese officials are planning to pump out contaminated water from the quake at reactors at the fukushima nuclear plant authorities hope the miserable health resume efforts to

restore its facilities cooling system it's unclear when the operation will start as radiation levels around the site are continuing to rise the latest stats show it's now ten thousand times the legal limit in groundwater or the. intense fighting has broken out across ivory coast financial capital those forces attempting to unseat the country's entrenched president laurent gbagbo begin from attacking presidents in recent days for supporting the internationally recognized president of the sign and walked off took control of the majority of the country fighting marks the culmination of a prolonged standoff between rival supporters of the two candidates following last year's disputed election u.n. has now introduced sanctions placing an asset freeze and travel ban on the incumbent president. now for all russia close up series where the team travels to the heart of the country's industrial power.

now sold on the border between europe and asia we're inching nabhan screen and surprise powerhouse that has been a vital cog in the gears of russia's economy for centuries now it's almost it's also i should say a major manufacturing area producing everything from military watches to grades metal works and was. discovered some of those heirlooms of the past are experiencing a comeback collectors and the public turned to timeless classics. time stands still. this time catherine rightly is like being the time you heard me anything has to be here over the last thirty to forty years in fact when i look around here are some of the archives there are the trees just like this one player from back in my childhood they were made in one thousand nine hundred seventy one i put up with the thinking was that i was in coming to watch wait till people hear

you say things differently because i watched the world over you may have heard of these russian divers watches they have been hard by collectors worldwide for several decades now but most can only get their hands on costly replicas which have nothing to do with the originals the real deal is being made right here and. we produced these watches until nine hundred seventy four for the soviet navy then we stopped because there was no need for them but now suddenly they become so we have renewed production but in a very small part of the now these are the famous divers watch as opposed to watch planes is known for of course there is nothing dainty about them they're extremely heavy and well frankly very bulky so i don't think i could pull them off but for any watch and there was in two big things this may just be the ultimate choice and

it's not only watch vance taken care of here. has something to offer even some modern day swashbucklers history some sort of story from eight hundred fifteen slot host was the center of cold production in the country in a proper term essentially supplied weapons to the entire russian imperial army. these days the town supplies cold steel widely used by russian special forces and military and city officials and state gifts and rewards for outstanding service. or clients include the late russian federal security service and private collectors the cold steel weapons are more of a symbolic item now rather than a functional wonder they signify power and on a tuesday i think every officer should at least have a cutlass in its possession. so whether you're looking through reaffirm your status with a blade or to keep time with a heavy duty military watch as opposed to the town of ironworkers from managed to

evolve with time we have what you want to call those courts he should have been screeching. prime minister putin has once again been spotted behind the wheel of an eye catching vehicle. test drove the first russian hybrid car you will be you with a trip to the residence of president did in the moscow beaches no gas guzzler was it has been you know her up and is aimed at saving both energy and money the prime minister is something of a carton whose ears and thrill seeker summer he volunteered to buy a new highway in a country as far east in a sports car made by our domestic manufacturer he also managed to retrieve it up to two hundred per hour in a former one car about four months. well next is the business or an art with katrina stay with us. thanks for being with us here on r.t. and time to bring you up to date with the business news for this hour business in

russia could be in for a tax break president dmitri medvedev says the social tax rate which pays for house care and pensions should be lowered went up to thirty four percent at the beginning of the year and many analysts say it's having a negative impact on all types of business however so medvedev upon it and still young sons taxation is not the main issue for investors. i don't think the the issue is investment in russia is a is a tax system i think taxes and actually it's was one of the it was seconds here are reasons why russian isn't quite is not as good as a real wasn't to be. done the research was actually shows as a major impediment to invest investments in russia both local and foreign as a bureaucracy and not a tax system. now let's have a look at how the stock markets are performing the nikkei closed down almost half a percent friday as the second struggled to repair the economic damage from tokyo. the hang seng on the other hand was up more than one percent with hong kong's

energy producers leading the why on rising oil prices european stock markets are trading in positive territory with both the footsie and the tanks up almost one percent with banks reacting to the results of the irish stress tests the central bank of ireland stress tests on the nation's banks showed that four of them needed total of thirty four billion dollars in order to meet the new capital requirements of the government is now going to radically restructure the banking sector and reduce the number of domestic banks by creating two new banks meanwhile shares in bank of ireland jumped twenty seven percent as it will be one of the country's main banks under the new plans and the energy sector shares in b.p. also rose to the same high oil prices and here in russia both the r.t.s. and the my sets out this hour almost one point two percent for the afghans and one point one two percent for the my six. now let's have a look at some individual shares oil majors of the major game is at the moment with lukoil adderall is now trading more than one point five percent each banking stocks

are also on the rise with spurs bag around one point seven seven percent on the my six. the price of oil has reached a two and a half year high and made new concerns about the situation in libya brant crude is currently trading around one hundred seventeen dollars a barrel russian crude is up to one hundred eleven dollars a barrel a forty five percent rise since a year ago experts say it's a good time for russia to use the extra oil revenue to fund innovation. if you want to have some in the way you have a strong money and explain me you know where we can find money except on his business in russia so it's a very simple thing and another it is also a simple goal and gives reasons to be very very difficult industry why not do in the way you say this is a business we have a stock on project we've got pros you can take you. there i stream would be fickle

from technical point of view if we want to go with no way sions why not. always wins in our them because business. that's a very valid point and that's all of business week business news this hour you can always keep up to date on line it out c dot com slash business. if.

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