visible in. the children of each college. but you know what you know soto be able to make her toes you're good enough to do a procedure it's no wonder most times. in serbia let's use available in most good clip we can see they are going to. as a growing number of senior libyan officials are reportedly fleeing the country the regime stands firm with resume to tough on the rebel held city. there will be no american boots on the ground in libya recent press reports at least indicate the cia operatives on the ground so boots on the ground as i would define it the u.s. top brass gets grilled in congress over the libyan campaign but failed to clear up confusion over the aims of the operation and come from. georgia once the world to know its own to complain to why fall is corruption so

what is rhodey folks a businessman georgios a hundred million dollars sentenced to seven years in prison told the details are coming up in just a few minutes. live from our headquarters in central moscow you're watching our team with me and you see now why it's six pm here in the russian capital three pm in london more civilian jobs from coalition strikes are being reported in libya with seven people found that after the recent bombing of the eastern city of greg the u.k. is said to be holding talks with a senior aide to the libyan regime is believed to be seeking an exit strategy for colonel gadhafi after a series of high ranking defections but as our chief probably reports from tripoli the government doesn't seem ready to back off. we know at this moment of at least

two high profile defections the country's foreign minister mr mr moose of course there is currently in london where he is meeting with british officials despite the fact that they say they will not granting immunity and then mr. tricky is also a former foreign minister of libya he was also an ambassador to the united nations where he served two terms as president of the general assembly has also announced his departure now they 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 with these kind of suggestions of defections when questioned about what is the defection of the foreign minister the country's spokes person mr morsi it for him said that this was an old man and 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 was to receive him said that they had granted the foreign minister this and going so fast to say that if the foreign minister returns he will be welcomed back when we questioned him

about rumors we're hearing of the least another ten people who have defected the latest news we had was that a group of libyan officials who traveled to to musea for talks but actually staying there and among them are 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 or for it is there over a possible exit strategy for gadhafi so the questions are people are asking another one is the graphic planning some kind of exit and secondly for just how much longer can his regime survive with the defection of such high profile members at the same time be hearing from the vatican's truck envoy to libya that at least fifty civilians have been killed in the airstrikes 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. margie's goes to reporting there from tripoli follow us on twitter to get instant updates from her and one of her latest tweets she talks about how there is tension ahead of friday's prayers in the libyan capital to follow us and get breaking news from all of the r t underscore column you can also check out her insights in paula's blog on our main web site r t v dot com. u.s. defense secretary robert gates and chairman of the joints chief of staff mike mullen have faced a grilling in front of congress over the libyan campaign but struggle to answer vital questions as to what is the exit strategy or how to cover the cost artie's

kayleigh fort has more. twelve days into the u.s. bombing of libya. u.s. congressman we're 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 ending 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 need regarding arming the rebels they seem to be getting their books were helped but gates and mullen passed the buck on that one differing to the white house but there was a qaeda decided to bristle in there and already said we would clearly have

a problem about how long the u.s. will stay a 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 the american people that this is about regime change or your circular defense you ought to be an expert on what's an act of war act 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 committee. 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 gates and mullen repeated over and over again there would be no american ground troops there would be no american boots on the ground in libya who is the person on the ground but it is direct in close air support missions against these forces there is no one on the ground recent press reports at least indicate there are cia operatives on the ground so boots on the ground as i would define it and of other spending troops i guess is we'd all read about it in a newspaper the same time i see that's my concern is that we read about things in the newspaper and then we get to come and ask the questions feeling for an artsy washington d.c. . former u.s. intelligence officer philip giraldi feels the opposition in libya is so

disorganized but foreign forces on the ground will have to be involved at some point. 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 general is not going to make a big difference you need to have people training them and directing them at a lower level and of cia people are doing this at a lower level that means they will inevitably get involved in the fighting and this is what robert gates has recently the promise would never happen boots on the ground well i don't know if you know the of the american folk story about the tar baby where the baby looks like a baby but once you grab hold of it you stick to it and you never get loose this happens far too many times in terms of american involvement in countries that we don't really understand very much about and in situations that we don't understand and what happens is these things continue for a lot longer than anyone anticipates. well as the military campaign in libya rages

on questions remain over who exactly is calling the shots and next hour in our cross talk so peter lavelle's gas share their views on that issue here's a quick look at what's to come. we have to be a little skeptical that that's a you a good u.s. strategy to go in and then hope for it is the idea that he had hoped i guess you could quote the president's own saying to run a strategy like this or we're going to get into some vomiting and that sort of thing and hope for the best and i just don't see going to war in that way is responsible and i can't believe the u.s. foreign policy establishment is supporting that type of a half baked option but this is not the u.s. against gadhafi in fact the u.s. says they can i but. this is a forty three countries internationally you are. going through it is the u.s. against. the driving most of this is my point please can i finish my point please five out of countries two of them are engaged in the military action but norway

canada. and the netherlands sort of denmark one two three countries france britain you know this is not the u.s. against good to have you know we have not invited to you as to come in. so many years in prison that's how doing business in georgia has ended up for one israeli investor ronnie food was found guilty of bribery by a tbilisi court but his lawyers say he was entrapped by top officials so the government could avoid paying one hundred million dollars prison this man let's cross live now to our tease accepting a grandchild why she is following the latest developments care free not how does the businessman whom the georgian government always millions and up in jail oh nice who question andy rooney folks is not just a businessman who did major business with georgia back in the times of the soviet union he's also known recon still in turkey where he also has some major

investments he says an oil. as an oil. business might also we knew your thought something fifteen years now he looked. last year only folks received quite a surprising invitation from the threshold of georgia to be exact from the prime minister of georgia it was quite a surprising invitation because we've the georgian side roni folks had a long time running dispute over one hundred million dollars which he believes the court ruled georgia. for every agreement on construction of an oil pipeline back in the ninety's now georgia oppose those allegations and was not eager to pay the debt to rony folks and togo last year the businessman received an invitation to come to the country to finalize details of the deal these rounded businessman was absolutely convinced that he had a strong hand in spring last year an airport in london ruled the georgia should pay

out now shortly before that visit there was an unofficial gathering an official meeting in turkey where these really businessman and georgian representatives were sitting for some four hours in a luxury hotel room. after a court hears consumption of corney out which both sides admitted they came to a verbal deal now it was not an agreement stilled on paper it was a deal that. that these really businessman should pay seven million dollars to the georgian officials and they from their side would pay a reduced amount of seventy two million dollars instead of one hundred so the deal was sealed everything needed to finalize it was for these really business men to come over to georgia and shake hands with these really prime minister. to make it

all legal now minister after this happened in front of t.v. cameras of georgian television and here the two sides fine. agreed there was these arrest of both rudy folks and his business associate now they both have been on trial in the billies cif since january this year and now they are sentenced to seven and six and a half years. in prison and each of them will have to pay roughly over three hundred thousand dollars each to the georgian side now the question is indeed how did it happen there a businessman who georgia owes that he did you months of money and up in court and ends up in prison well the lawyer all grown you folks that it's smart trap by the country's senior officials it was in for. the cooperation a 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 or the ministry of the interior and the prime minister's office all of which came together. with the plan to increase probably few fuchs was that informed through diplomatic channels that he would not be released until the oral tradition award was waived. now it's not the end of the story the lawyer all thrown he thinks also sir that ever since the convict ever sees his crime was arrested in the last year he's been under pressure from the georgian authorities that he could be released under one critical condition that he admits guilt and pays out the reward which georgia owes him. refused to do either. over following a very complicated story thank you for that update. here with our team live from

moscow still ahead for you this hour. close to engineer went missing in ukraine too late to resurface in an israeli prison the struggle is gathering momentum with everything pointing to our special operations by the assad we speak regular authorities had no idea. all the details coming up in our report from kiev that's in just a few minutes plus. despite the fact that there is a still was there was no incoming things like oh what's that great still people here for you when you make something we should be hunted by watch collectors the world over are to close up team visits the place where time seems to have stood still but thankfully that's not a fact that a crowd of watchmaking trying nothing russians urals. prefers japanese officials are planning to pump out contaminated water from the quake hit reactors of the fukushima nuclear plant authorities hope the measure will help

efforts to restore the facilities cooling systems it comes after radiation was detected in groundwater during a plant for the first time the levels were ten thousand times higher than the legal limit authorities say they don't plan to expand the twenty kilometer evacuation zone despite the fact radiation was register forty kilometers from the facility american writer and japan expert alan curtis says the action of the government shows it's trying to save face. so one of the biggest problems they are dealing with here is this whole thing is that left in the hands of the electrical company and in most of the large countries of the world i think if you had a problem of this seriousness you'd have now the central government coming in with all the big resources at their disposal the army the navy the resources of this company are not up to it they don't have enough cars and vans and someone to get to the site well them that they're in a big wealthy country. there are other ways to do it and yet the government just

seems to paralyzed unwilling to make a move beyond what some direct threats in the electrical company are telling us that there are many problems not only the variations but one of the curious questions is why are they staying at a facility that is subject to radioactivity just five hundred meters from the site there have got to have been ways to bring in tents to go temporary shelter say one kilometer or even two which we knew were the amount of radioactivity that they're exposed to the issue is not so much what the electrical company did or didn't do but why the central government seems unwilling to step in and it's one of the weirder aspects of this that the japanese government seems unwilling to accept reality when it comes to serious danger outside the twenty kilometer limit actually it's not just the u.s. results even the japanese government's own results that's published according to

a. nuclear radioactivity testing facility which was reported about a week ago announced the same results so it's obvious that people in this hamlet forty kilometers away are in danger and yet the government seems stunning shingly unwilling to move. i can only guess that it's something to do with face saving. the. government doesn't want to admit that. it's again sure it has gone beyond a certain artificial limit. as the nuclear crisis in japan continues to unfold summary about fukushima might run into another term noble in fast track the ukrainian reactor has the world's worst nuclear accident on our web site you can find exclusive photos from the area around for twenty five years on this even. it's trying and images and also

a follower column and want i don't know are to me. a scandal is flaring up after israel confirmed it was behind the abduction of a palestinian engineer in ukraine last month there are accused by tel aviv of links with hamas is now waiting a trial in an israeli president elect think ourselves how to tell. this story has definitely more questions than answers and more mysteries than we can imagine the palestinian engineer. c.c. went missing in ukraine in the middle of february he was on board a train from high above to kiev when allegedly two men walked into his good

argument and removed the 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 and 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. turns 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 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 is 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 creative intelligence service and the interior 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's going to israel to sort this issue so the country's interior minister has now a very difficult task to tell his israeli cards the guards not to do anything like that on the crane instead it's already without letting them know. at twenty one minutes past the hour of let's take a look at some other headlines from around the world this friday in ivory coast fighters supporting the un backed president of that telephone you are lame siege to the residence of the embattled leader of foreign. forces loyal to the torah have advanced in recent days seizing a key forward and the country's capital back has been refusing to step down feet in the very first presidential poll the u.n. has imposed sanctions against him including a travel ban and the freeze assets. huge rallies have

taken place in the yemeni capital as tens of thousands of supporters and opponents of the president have taken to the streets with tensions high between the two camps hundreds of security forces were deployed at checkpoints across the city yemeni president aliyev abdullah they addressed the crowd think that ruled in the country cannot be changed by force the demonstrations come a bit stalemate in his talks with the opposition on the transfer of power. time now to take off with our russian close up team who make it their mission to bring you a taste of some of the most interesting places in that country. time their focus is in the urals the border between europe and asia. region an industrial powerhouse that's been fueling russia's economy for centuries now among

its trademark goods are highly sought after military watchers and graves. are g.'s a radical who should go back to look for herself. time stand still and let almost. all of this time catherine rightly it's like being in a time the tourney anything has to be here over the last thirty to forty years in fact when i look around me are some of the archives through i'll touch phrases like this one that's in the back of my childhood they were made in one thousand six thousand nine hundred seventy what's this i could pack up with certain things it was so what incoming does that go with what i've read still people here continue to make things which are being hunted by what's collectors 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 in the town of looked almost always. 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 have renewed production. now these are the famous diver's watches which they've got balls 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 poses to all there was in two big things this may just be the ultimate choice and it's not only watch fans taken care of here but those have something to offer even to modern day swashbucklers. from eight hundred fifteen as low cost was the center of calderon's production in the country return essentially supplied weapons to the entire russian imperial army these days the town supply is called steel weapons widely used by russian special forces and military and state officials and state gifts and rewards for outstanding service. clients include the army

russian federal security service and private collectors the cold steel weapons are more of a symbolic item now rather than a functional one signified power in order to this day so whether you're looking to reaffirm your status with a blade or to keep time with a heavy duty military watch is that almost the town of iron workers who manage to evolve with time but probably have what you want it includes quality to have been screeching. next is the business news here in our see you yes they were. that's right time for your business update and business is in a rush it could be in for a tax break president richard rivera says the social tax rate which pays for health care and pensions should below it 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 how whether their movie is if a partner at ernst and young says taxation is not the maybe sure for investors. i don't think the issue is investment in russia is a is a tax system i think taxes it actually is is one of the second to reasons why the russian economy is not as good as a real wasn't to be. done research concession shows as a measure of pediment to invest in investments in russia both local and foreign as a broker and not a tax system. let's have a look at how the markets are faring this sour your stocks have risen on friday after employment the second straight month of solid gains non-farm payrolls rose more than expected value two hundred sixteen thousand jobs last month the jobless rate disappointing to our two year low at around eight point eight percent the financial markets took the report as a positive sign for the economic outlook. and birkenstocks markets are trading in

positive territory at this hour with banks reacting to the results of the irish stress that the central bank of ireland stress tests on the nation's banks show but all of them need a total of thirty four billion dollars in order to reach a new culture requirements in the energy sector shares in b.p. also rose more than three percent on high oil prices. and here in russia both the r.t.s. and the mice it's continued to gain this hour as investors are encouraged by high commodity prices both the r.t.s. and the my six are around one and a half percent it's now how to look at some of the individual show moves energy majors are in the like at the moment with gas from trading more than two percent our banking stocks are also on the rise in a bunker is up around two percent banks was resting it is among the main losers africa as the poor try to turn results it's done almost four percent on the dissects. all the monthly inflation rate in russia appears to have slowed

down consumer prices in march group by a bunch of hundred percent economic development ministry says the april figure is unlikely to top point four percent the annual rate of inflation russia is somewhere in the region of nine point five percent. i live the price of oil has reached a two and a half year high amid new concerns about the situation in libya branch purchase currently trading at around one hundred seventeen dollars a barrel while light sweet is hovering around one hundred seven dollars chairman of german energy company which is whole says he's expecting oil prices to hold around current levels. we do see an oil prize which is in the order of negative magnitude of one hundred ten dollars plus per barrel i think that the recent developments you do see in the arabic waldon in japan will really keep the oil price on this for the level we do see right now but the volatility will increase and pending on what is

really happening on our global this therefore we have to deal with the situation but the level on short term i do see a bit. so we have time for now join us in last and one last time for more business news here on our team.