i know what's really happening to the global economy is because reports. in the. here interest me the regime is showing signs of crumbling amid reports that more and more senior officials are defecting on point to stay in the capital city and joining in a few moments and offering you will. there will be no american boots on the ground in libya recent press reports at least in the heat for cia operatives on the ground so boots on the ground as i would the four of us top brass get grilled in congress with many still on certain as to what the goal of the libya campaign is and who's going to pay for it. also the price of dealing with georgia through israeli businessman owed millions fi tbilisi are jalen find on bribery charges but say the

government framed them to avoid paying up. close do you to engineer when conversing in ukraine so late to resurface in an israeli prison the scandal is gathering momentum with everything pointing to our special look at rationed by the assad which the cranial authorities had no idea all joyn mean to you all the latest details. boil prices are at a two year high but should russia have found that the extra revenue into the oil business find out more about twenty minutes time. it's thirty am here in moscow this is r g coming to you live thanks for being with us first up this hour the u.k. house 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 mussa koussa artie's publicly or 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 uneasy with british officials despite the fact that they say they will not granting 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 lost all of these kind of suggestions of defections when questioned about what is the defection of the foreign minister the country's spokesperson mr mousavi but 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 would not mr receiver him say that they have granted the prime minister this and he going so fast to say that if the prime minister returns he will be welcomed back now when we questioned him about rumors we're hearing of at least another ten people who have defected the latest news we have is that a group of libyan officials who travel to egypt is here for talks are actually staying there and among them a former prime minister and also the current 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 all four of these 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 say can be 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 sangean is the strategy they use in small trucks from where they fired rockets artillery they've been seen spotters with by law killers to go and see where those rockets landed and to report back we're hearing that they are a lot more organized the rebels themselves but they're still calling on the international community for assistance in the form of great friends 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 as is the 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 airstrikes in tripoli alone most of those casualties in the eastern for police . 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 to 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 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 mullen faced a grilling in front of congress over the would be a campaign aide said washington should close is the libyan rebels and shouldn't stand believe nation building 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 engaged i think a policy success would be the removal of. the khadafi 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 need regarding arming the rebels they seem to be getting their butts where but it's in mind pass the buck and that one's deferring to the white house once it was ok to decided to bristle in there and obviously 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 at 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 you 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 gates 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 very few of the armed services. 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 the discussions with the white house would be very difficult for the

department to eat this cost as 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's the person on the ground but historically close air support missions against gadhafi forces there's no one on the ground recent press reports at least indicate the cia operatives on the ground so boots on the ground as i would define it and if other spending troops i guess is we'd 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 the u.s. formally handed control to nato today and the 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 and ford artsy washington d.c.

. former u.s. intelligence officer philip drove the explained why it's impossible to avoid a ground mission in libya if secret agents are already operating in the battlefield . the problem is if you have several thousand rebels who are not used to using weapons have no idea of discipline or how to fight a battle a general is not going to make a big difference you need to have people training them and directing them at a lower level and the cia people are doing this out a lower level that means they will inevitably get involved in the fighting and this is what robert gates as recently as today promised would never happen boots on the ground. still to come here an artsy craftsy factor this through time. despite the fact that the earnings season was somewhat slow in coming to watch that story still people hear from you when you make something we should be hunted by wants to lead the world over fancy watches to cold steel black prince

a craftsman of the ural show on their skills in the latest close up series. also prepares for an anniversary space flight sending a new team into orbit fifty years since mankind first trip to the final frontier. both scandal is flaring up after the arrest of a palestinian engineer was confirmed by the israeli government to see accused of links with a mass vanished from a train your kids earlier this month and craning police say they're not responsible for the operation or seize alexy has the details. this story has definitely more questions than answers and more mysteries than we can imagine the palestinian engineer. he 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 his car and removed a man from the train there had been 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 put against him but his wife and himself are saying that these allegations are not true in fact he's ukrainian wife. turned to the u.n. high commissioner for refugees to sort this issue out and she believes that this alleged kidnapping was performed by the israeli intelligence service 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 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 jury ministry say they had no idea of any

actions by their israeli counterparts moreover the country's interior minister alexander would you know if he is going to israel to sort this issue out 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. the russian space agency has dedicated it. to the anniversary of your legendary flight fifty years ago busting off from kazakhstan in four days time the launch will carry two russian cosmonauts and an american astronaut. artists are silly 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 the 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 space this is the top part of the a space shuttle with where the actual crew will be staying and the crew members

that we have a for this flights are a simple answer but circle and american astronaut ron garan now what they're going through right now is actually called a fit check literally checking whether they fit into the seat belt have been made it is 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 are they're going to feel comfortable in doing the task they're supposed to do now the last off will happen in approximately about four four days and they're going to be doing about forty experiments in space what's special about this if you can see in the background is that you can see where you got in the first man in space a logo of him a banner hanging down a very special about this flight is that it's happening very closely i mean first really fiftieth anniversary a few to go got its first flight and space that was of course april twelfth mightiness sixty one all the preflight preparations are very precise and followed down to the last detail but it's not just the mathematics the science of the rocket

science that is that they 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 had gone to the museum as have the other cosmonauts who had gone to space they visited the museum. museum and they put their signatures every single person that had launched a god gone into space had done the exact same thing they signed it went to u.t. over got it cottage as well they visited that and it's again it's even more special now that we do miss because of the fiftieth anniversary of the first launch of you've got. two israeli businessman. a hundred million dollars by the georgian government have been found guilty of bribery by a criminal court in tbilisi comes after a lengthy trial with both men maintaining that they were the victim of a government stand up let's get the more on this case for recovering the groucho she joins us live and following the developments carrie know what can you tell us

about the outcome of the trial. well if we are to come is that six on the hop years this is how long israeli businessman rooney books will hop to spawn in a police state prison and his business associates the surf grandkid has been convicted as well for six years in prison with a maximum of seven years for these kind of private bribery in georgia and also each one will how to pay out roughly over three hundred thousand dollars to the georgian side now rudy folks israeli businessman was arrested in but to me and to jane it took the last year after coming to that country at a personal invitation of the georgian prime minister and these invitation was a aimed at settling a long running financial dispute with georgia who says that he had agreed with some of the country's top senior officials that he pays out seven million dollars in return for as parts all but the whole amount of money hundred million dollars he

was awarded for his investment in georgia but later the georgian authorities but it wasn't a north of given to him that it was and also from the israeli businessman and that they regarded it as a bribe all supporters of the israeli businessman say that it was yes and he was yes another big some of the georgian folk began to machine that does the course hearings. proceeded with a number of with a number of violations. i'm told being for about five months in prison. i think. judge simply had no chose to leave the view so mental because it would show that they would be illegal imprisonment q this would shoulder to the law enforcement authorities will be probably made illegal operation against them so therefore the judgment that was you know has to be exposed kind of resume a kind of

a coup will what they want the law enforcement bodies made before that. because through this hostile have some kind of fact on georgia israel relations israel of course is a major investor and trade partner for georgia. why did i need to israel is a longtime partner and didn't last trip and rooney hoops is actually one of the biggest and busters he brought money to georgia at a time when it was racked by a civil war and when there was no there were no businesses running in that country in the nine hundred ninety s. and of course relations between the two between israel and georgia was stunned seriously it seems that case started that rooney foods has been on trial in georgia since january these years and also just quite remarkably to. last a long time ago the israeli side so that the visit all of you but odds are should be it was both because it was

a very sensitive timing at this point we haven't yet received any official. any official response to that book as of now from these rebel side but most probably it will be very now that we. consider trouble following the trial of ronnie food who we now know will be spending some seven year was almost in activities which are going to be no thanks for the. posting a look at some other stories making news this hour japanese officials are planning to find out contaminated water from the quake at reactors at the fukushima nuclear plant authorities hope the measure will help resume at first to restore the facilities cooling system it's unclear. when the operation will start as radiation levels around the site are continuing to rise the latest tests show it's now ten thousand times the legal limit in groundwater near the plant. tens of thousands of protesters flooded the streets of yemen's capital demanding the president's resignation crowds once again turned out in sanaa central square chanting

anti-government slogans demonstrators inspired by the uprisings in egypt and tunisia accuse the country's government of mismanagement repression and the fatal shootings of protesters. intense fighting has broken out across ivory coast financial capital those forces attempting to unseat the country's and trance president laurent gbagbo begin to attack his residence in recent days forces supporting the internationally recognized president of the sanya the torah took control of the majority of the country friday marks the culmination of a prolonged standoff between rival supporters of the two candidates following last year's disputed disputed election un has now introduced sanctions placing an asset freeze and travel ban on the incumbent president. now for russia close of series where the team travels to the heart of the country's industrial power.

base along the border between europe and asia were in the two robinson region and to reprise powerhouse that has been a vital cog in the gears of russia's economy for centuries now it's also a major manufacturing area producing everything from military watches integrates metal works there's art to use really go to school discovered some of those arab looms of the past are experiencing a comeback as collectors and the public turn to timeless classics. time stands still and most. of this time found through ironically it's like being in a time certainly anything has to be fair over the last thirty to forty years in fact when i look around there are some of the art. phrases like this one that flew back in my childhood they were made in one thousand six thousand nine hundred seventy one this by the bag with burns they say was the word incoming it was like

oh what's that great still people here don't think you can make things different you can buy what you like the world over you may have heard of these russian drivers 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 in the town of the toast. 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've become popular so we've renewed production but in a very small cars now these are the famous drivers 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 enthusiastic all there was in two big things this rangers choice and it's not

only watch fans taken care of here that those test something to offer even some modern day swashbucklers. with some sort. from eight hundred fifteen slot host was the center of calderon's production in the country of return essentially supplied weapons to the entire russian imperial army. these days the town supplies cold steel weapons widely used by russian special forces and military and state officials and state gifts and rewards for outstanding service. well clients include the your fleet russian federal security service and private collectors the cold steel weapons are more of a symbolic item down rather than a functional one you know they signify power on and on to this day i think every officer should at least have a cutlass in his possession. so whether you're looking to reaffirm your status with a blade or to keep time with a heavy duty military watch as opposed to the town of iron workers who managed to evolve with time will probably have what you want in college sports he should have

been screeching. reports and has once again been spotted behind the wheel of an eye catching vehicle a premier test drove the first russian hybrid car moby with a trip to the residence to make the middle aged in a moscow reach and no gas guzzler was introduced by businessman nicole all horrible and was aimed at saving both energy and money the prime minister something hard to see as we'll see earth on my face last summer he volunteered to inspect the new highway in the country's far east in a sports car made by a domestic manufacturer and he's also reached speeds of up to two hundred fifty kilometers per hour in formula one car. let's cross over to the business that's a crane and joins us with a live update. thanks

for staying with us here in our city and welcome to the business bill is in for this hour this is in russia could be in for a tax break president dmitri medvedev says a social tax rate which pays for health care and pensions should be lowered it 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 businesses however parts of it is a partner and still young says taxation is not the main issue for investors i don't think the issue is investment in russia is a tax system i think texas that actually is one of the was second to reasons why russia isn't going is not as good as a real wasn't. and second shores as a major impediment to invest investment in russia both local and foreign is brokers and lot of taxes. let's have a look at how the stock markets are performing now the nikkei closed almost half a percent all down on friday as the sector struggles to repair the economic damage caused by so here's a right hand saying on the other hand was more than one percent up was hong kong's

energy producer is leading the way on rising oil prices era b. in stock markets are trading in positive territory this hour with banks reacting to the results of this irish stress tests the footsie is up zero point eight two percent of blacks up one point zero eight percent the central bank of ireland stress tests on the nation's banks tried the door of the need a total of thirty four billion dollars in north in the new capital requirements 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 just twenty seven percent as it was named one of the country's main banks under these new plans in the energy sector shares in the pay also rose two percent on those high oil prices and here in russia both the r.t.s. and the my six continue to gain as our as investors are encouraged by high oil prices the r.t.s. is up one point three seven percent and of my six one point three six just behind

there now let's have a look at some individual share moves oil majors are the main gain as at the moment with rosneft trading up more than one point five percent banking stocks are also on the rise with sperm bank around one point six percent this hour on the my six. the price of oil has reached a two and a half year high amid new concerns about the situation in libya brant crude is currently trading and while one hundred seventeen dollars per barrel russian euro crude is up to one hundred eleven dollars about forty five percent rise since a year ago experts say it's a good time for russia to modernize the economy. i don't see any other source of money in russian federation except oil and gas business so that is why i have so they're sure that the result of them gets money it would be impossible to build a new warning to russia and i absolutely sure that good news today is a very difficult business so that is why i think first of all we must think about innovations inside go and get visas for them because business is

a part of this process or one of the musician so that is why investment universe one thing for green fields into both fields into a new technology is a new and his business he's a very important part of modernization of all evil. well that's all the business news for this hour but remember you can always keep up to date on line at ati dot com slash business.

disarming saddam hussein. charge of iraqi citizens. this event brings further assurance that the torture chambers and the secret police are gone forever. playfellows again every embassy in kabul. chance to watch occupied afghanistan. and now occupy sales at guantanamo bay. in the med. it is appropriate to that in accordance this would just be a kid with the kid even. if a slap somebody slapped if you can shoot him enough so that it shocks especially if it gets slapped but you don't actually break any bones could deter gaze into a piece that we use in jail kuantan are approved by the senior leadership of. the

we have nothing to. believe transference. question is the same. i should have been a dish musician finding the mark of the battle for libya is a so-called humanitarian intervention there so noble and straightforward must intervention. look like something has been to the yaroslavl original question crops have become a major industry. now our team goes to a former top secret military stronghold. which today has limitless possibilities for extreme sports. with a long lost secret and damask steel has been discovered. and the real soviet fleet divers watch is amazing. when it comes from the chilly up.