colonel gadhafi regime probes a diplomatic solution to the conflict in libya worth fighting continues around the rebel cities. casualties rise in the past almost lost her the last rebel stronghold in the west of this country was not the side able to break the deadlock on policy in the capital such as tripoli joining in a few moments i'll bring you more of. the battle insurgents plead for the coalition to arm them to compensate for the a lack of discipline training and manpower of. the russian pilot is said to stand trial in a new record for alleged drug trafficking book last year maintains the man was

simply kidnapped by the u.s. . and it's only a matter of hours before the three spaceman blast off its orbit marking the fiftieth anniversary of you to go got its first flight. the most important think you'd be pleased to make or you would see them to block the peace proposal sixty billion dollars share spot with state owned was their details in other words. this is our timeline from moscow i'm reading your welcome to the program more than two hundred fifty injured libyans have fled fighting in the western city of misrata forty humanitarian ship the victims of the ongoing clashes were transported to the opposition's makeshift capital benghazi archy's correspondent policy or brings us more on the changing front line from tripoli. the fighting here on the ground seems to be located in to primary cities in the east of the country it's around the city

of brega where pro and anti gadhafi forces have been fighting it off weeks now but that frontline keeps shifting and at the moment it's actually not clear who is in control of the city of bread or in the last six weeks that city has changed control six times so just gives you a sign of how quickly that front line is moving in the west of the country most of the fighting is happening in and around the town of misrata and there we are hearing that the government has stepped up efforts to eliminate and he could have his supporters now we do know that a turkish humanitarian ship has taken two hundred and fifty patients civilian casualties to the city of benghazi doc some doctors on board that ship are saying that the injuries are incredibly severe and that the civilian death count is likely to climb now over the weekend there was a request from nato to the united states to extend its participation in these airstrikes for another forty eight hour was elected on expires today monday with

the u.s. increasingly saying that it wants to withdraw from the operations as the president barack obama comes under increasing criticism from within his own administration the sense on the ground though more and more is that there is a stalemate being reached which is why people here are looking for some kind of political solution to get him out of this or we said they have witnessed an increase in diplomatic activity on behalf of the gadhafi regime in the most recent attempt a former libyan prime minister has headed a libyan envoy to the greek city of athens and there he's been holding talks to try and seek a way out of this crisis we know that this week that envoy will be traveling to motor and to turkey what we are hearing is that could not be my feet open to some kind of settlement plan but that plan would see someone from his inner circle taking over power it is interesting though because when i'm here in tripoli and i'm talking to officials they are all tight lipped about any kind of settlement deal people here so. refusing to believe would even entertain the idea that duffy could

be seen some kind of way out of all of this and certainly when you talk to protesters here they are just completely i got asked at the suggestion that gadhafi would ever betray them which is essentially how they would see any kind of settlement plan we are also hearing move forces from the international stage though that if the plan is to be reached it has to include the dark feet sitting down now in the rebel held stronghold of benghazi they have been talks between key opposition members and members of the bush administration their main question at the moment is the whole question of whether or not to supply the rebels with weapons and also the british have been trying to find out information about exactly who these opposition fighters are we continuously hear these reports that there are suspicions that there are al qaeda and his beloved members among their ranks so those talks trying to determine how the way forward in terms of cooperation between the coalition and the opposition there is also along in concerns about the fact that the rebel fighters themselves are disorganized and they have admitted that in

a recent coalition air strike that killed thirteen rebel fighters that that was actually the fault as my colleague expose further in this package a war on these. forces or just a few miles ahead for the rebels this is the time to cool their guns in the group everyone. on the other side is avoid all these men have really. every day in the rebel stronghold of. those killed or missing or war and for the first time at least a dozen rebels are reported to have been killed in a coalition strike to. realize they have no choice except the losses.

more than two weeks of classes the no fly zone was put into effect over libya and nato planes have been trying to rein in gadhafi is heavy artillery clearing the way for the rebel fighters on the ground and there is even speculation egypt and the u.s. may be secretly training them but the front line is still shifting back and forth with the rebels achieving only brief advances west this is. either you anyway. the opposition says they are ready to take weapons from any willing state in order to get our feet but it's highly unlikely more weapons will help improve the discipline many teenagers would know in their training or combat experience but. it seems that they are think they are not you know very much reprise and to all of what's

going on on the ground we are seeing very articulate people talking to various governments in europe but also to the americans whereas on the ground we are seeing rebels armed rebels completely disorganized who do not have much of a they do not seem to have any political points to make aside from of course getting rid of gadhafi according to some estimates only twenty percent of gaddafi is military might have been destroyed despite the coalition's efforts instead his forces are reported to have changed tactics come of watching themselves as rebels to confuse nato pilots above so let's face it with the current pool level of organization and training the rebels alone are no match for gaddafi is superior forces and it's only with the help of the alliance that something could be achieved but the question is how far is nato itself planning to go you've got this kind of

forty eastern libya. and coming up in just a few minutes here in our team sweden commits its forces to operation odyssey dawn find out why some swedes are unhappy about their country's role in the intervention and stop cozy relationship with nato. in syria another arab country torn by and say government uprising tens of thousands have marched in memory of protesters killed on friday the country's president bashar assad has blamed western influence for the turmoil in the pan in general as jane's corbett believes foreign military intervention could be on the cards for syria with iran the ultimate goal the president has being so great now with the libyan case and if they are able to get away with those if the forces of western imperialism are able to get away with this in libya then it's really just a question of implementing the seam scheme in syria and we've seen how it can be done by seeing and funding in training and arming and supplying rebel forces in

your country and basically covert attempt to implement regime change and i think that's exactly what an intervention in syria would be about ultimately it would be to isolate iran obviously syria being an absolutely vital strategic partner and a long term partner of the brand and providing that land link to hezbollah. and so it's absolutely a geo strategic location and it's very strategic for rand so i would see if the if syria is the next country to fall into this imperialist intervention i think that would definitely be the long term goal would be to isolate iran to hopefully eventually in the imperialist eyes to overthrow archimedean injured some regime. journalist james corbett talking to r.t. earlier. eight swiss fighter jets have arrived in italy and are now under nato command they will be used to enforce a no fly zone over libya despite the fact sweden isn't a member of the alliance swedes are already venting anger at their government for

committing troops to afghanistan and feel their national interests are being sacrificed in nato and the us i do so now we have more. sweden widely known as a voice of neutrality and peace and swedish people believe still believe that we are nonaligned and the truck. why then does we didn't need antiwar groups like oh fuck sweden is very integrated. activities. in their administration and also with over five hundred soldiers in afghanistan right now that are under nato command whatever the swedish government thing but the fact the government says this about swedish combat troops in afghanistan we see our participation in international crisis management missions in a popular mandate as an expression of solidarity and responsibility of sweden in

the world. the question is whose popular mandate when you go to the major city concert it's what it's. doing to have an. most swedes aren't aware of how aligned sweden is with nato do you have ignored it you have a military and so politicians cooperate intensively with the united states and with nato and the world for most of the population to totally unaware. the public is told it's peacekeeping under the program partnership for peace for heaven's sake partnership for peace is just an empty chair before late to make though is also active in doing military exercises sweden is home to meet or the north european airspace test range twenty four thousand kilometers of restricted airspace ground room a testing playground for nato and the u.

mass and has activists arguing that this is where war starts right here at home. neutrality or nato some say the ground time sweden makes the choice critics claim there's so much how long support for the alliance of the nordic nation might as well join the club officially give up on a line status. and he's now a r t cough and sweden. and we're giving you have dated on the latest developments in the air and online in can follow our twitter stream and time larches correspondents are on the ground leave you bring you the latest developments and eyewitness accounts of the fighting there so log on to find out what caused the years here in tripoli and you go keeping you up for the from the rebel headquarters in ghazi and also follow us on facebook and check out our latest videos on you tube . the russian pilot constantine is facing trial on

monday in new york for alleged international drug trafficking he was arrested in liberia last year by u.s. officials who failed to notify moscow claiming a communication of blood was to blame but pilots lawyers accuse american agents of kidnapping and torturing him and authorities us if you're going to reports it will take more than an admin error to excuse the actions of the u.s. . a legit tons of cocaine a pilot snatched up and brought to a foreign prison and a wrong fax number this is the case of constantine your shann pro russian pilot in his forty's scooped up by u.s. officials in liberia last year brought to him and hadn't jail and along with four other suspects charged with international drug trafficking. is now for a long time he did not even know where he was when he was brought to the u.s. he was put in solitary confinement and he didn't even know he was in the united states constantine's wife victoria just to write to new york she says her husband

was kidnapped by american agents while america says your show was smuggling drugs to south america africa and europe mostly from it is why a lot of liberia a pilot has complained he was beaten and tortured following his arrest. they tried to pick fights with him provoking him constantly close to trying to stay away from all that he asked them why are you treating me like this i didn't do anything to you and i have not been found guilty which tori believes the case against her husband was by the u.s. not also why the u.s. is involved in this is unclear he has never been to the u.s. in his entire life he never had a u.s. visa and was in third country upon his arrest. when constantine you're shankill was arrested russian officials were not julie notified and moscow cited a breach of international law we have. apologized to russia and the state

department's excuse we pressed the wrong button on the facts and. to be brutally honest notifying romania instead of russia to observers this seemed a joke and a series of questionable details in this case the idea that there's a bank of buttons that they push and i guess if they push the next one they would have gone to rule rwanda which is next on the alphabetical list so that sounds like a. strange story and i don't think anyone would buy that here shimkus case is often compared to that of victor boot similarly snatched up by the us in thailand and currently on trial in america for arms trafficking some see a tendency here they can use interpol they can use. picking up the phone to russia and trying to talk about this is going out and kidnapping people i think this is part of the carry over from the bush cheney administration the defense team has long case of provocation and unsuccessfully called for its dismissal the

prosecution meanwhile has been fighting to limit the scope of issues that can be addressed during the hearings but want to exclude questions regarding the legality of trying your show and a u.s. court allegedly lesions in the investigations leading up to his arrest and official conduct during and after the pilot's arrest essentially all the media arguments of the difference after almost ten months constantine your son calls trial date is finally here a jury is deciding his destiny if found guilty he will spend from ten years to a life sentence behind bars. forty new york. also take a look at some other stories from around the world them more than four hundred people were injured when police opened fire on a crowd of protesters in the n.y.c. guy police use live rounds and tear gas to disperse demonstrators who were marching towards the presidential palace of march was in protest at a security crackdown the rallies in the southern city of taiz that killed two and

injured hundreds on sunday and so government supporters have the calling for the resignation of yemeni president ali abdullah saleh since february. a double suicide bombing at a certain muslim shrine in pakistan has killed at least forty two people children were among the dead as well but blasts went off in the punjab province as believers gathered for a three day festival police. say they arrested the third it's happened and failed to detonate his device to tell about his claimed responsibility for the attack sophism has come under attack in the country before many muslim hardliners view the belief as this loving. and i worry coast forces loyal to you went back to tell us some of tar are preparing for e-file course that oppose the entrenched leader incumbent president laurent gbagbo has refused to stand down despite losing the election last november earlier the united nations urged the atar

to investigate hundreds of deaths blamed partly on his supporters something he denied however human rights watch said that both sides had committed atrocities as many as thousand people were killed while in clashes in the west of the country last week. filomena results a cause of stars incumbent leader and also time does arrive as one of the country's presidential election was ninety five percent of the vote for by was up against three other candidates more than a thousand international observers who are following the ballots say it was well organized with no blatant violations that survivor has been in power for two decades and enjoys the exclusive constitutional right to be elected for a limitless number of times. a crew of space men is about to depart for the international space station from the baikonur cosmodrome in castle stamp mission comes on the eve of the fiftieth anniversary of you regards historic first flight artists are still you isn't by us. there are three men who will be blasting off to

be international space station and they are alexander was also the captain. as well as a nasa astronaut ron garan if they're going to be launching off from the launch pad which is called got him started it is very significant for the three men of course as expected they have been asked several times about how they felt about the significance of their mission is happening so close to this important day in space history and ron garan actually put it quite well let's agree you were saying that fifty years ago on that day the human race became a different species no longer confined to the boundaries of the earth and also if you ask the astronauts will think if they keep mentioning especially coming from russians and americans is the cooperation that they think the space program has really perpetrated because between the two sides even at the height of the space race with regard to the work they're going to be doing at the international space station the russians of course will be working on the russian side the american obvious merican side you have saying that he's really looking forward to the

experiments it will be doing with regard to ecological monitoring of the earth even he made reference to the recent disaster in japan and he is for him he's very passionate about trying to find answers and how to help human being so you have helicopters on standby military personnel you also have doctors just in case something goes wrong of course the families of the astronauts may have been very worried i think since the start of the the announcement of this two and a half years of training they've always been by the side of the astronauts go with your preparations so as you can imagine everyone is getting ready so for more of that let's take a look at this story. before every blast off comes the fanfare so used to it may twenty one crew members stand in the spotlight their families close by it's only a matter of hours before the shooting to orbit in a spacecraft bury the image of utica god in the first man in space to celebrate the achievements fiftieth anniversary what's. more the cruise captain was what's called

the guardian when i was in kindergarten they gave us a play rocket i spent all my time inside and i would let all the kids get in there since then they started calling me god and preparations have been intense both for the crew and their so use rocket any astronauts can attest to the arduous process. working in training was so hard sometimes we fell asleep behind or dance because we had to take many exams and sometimes we had to repeat those exams after a long and meticulous process of assembling the spacecraft are so used to your mates what you want is finally in position waiting to take its crew to be of your national space station well that's a key business to get to russia's will make their first a flight to space and in america you will be flying to so used for the first time but far from the frenzy and the glare of camera lights a better halves of the astronauts have been going through preparations of their own albeit more personal ones it's really hard to explain the wave of emotions are

being feeling watery anxiety and primate he on the other hand held his own he showed no emotions i was more worried and excited he took our photographs with him those that show us and our daughter not. ever since the official confirmation that their husbands are going to space every little thing becomes a momento i'm wearing my husband jump through me close knit community with my husband here all the wise when her husband clothes among the women a close bond is for carmel garand wife of nasa astronaut ron garan gave oksana and sawyer a bracelet as a symbol of unity if. we're going to be as united as our husbands have become. because for six months these women and their husbands are literally going to be worlds apart this are still your r.t.

baikonur in kazakhstan. and if you'd like to blast off yourself all that's needed is good health a strong mind and a small fortune that's according to the had of the russian space agency i told you from may have a full interview is coming up in just over an hour here on our team. and sure why he dismissed tourism will continue and develop when we first started sending tourists to our space and we straight away knows is that they felt quite well jury short flights all you need is to be a normal healthy person some of the troops were over sixty and they felt quite well so you only concern i have is that nobody should ignore safety measures for the safety regulations for space tourists should be the same as for regular nasa we're all schools most space program. careers next door the business news here in r.t. .

how about. russia's partner they are is to make a new attempt to block the british company's proposed sixty billion dollars share swap with state owned they claim that the breach has their shareholder agreements with b.p. in russia last month they are one a key ruling from the stockholm arbitration tribunal it down the african way deal between think he ever had reached an agreement outlining taking as a primary meaning for the peace energy exploration in russia he while b.p.'s trying to convince the courts that the proposal here to proceed. the russian government is preparing to remove ministers and other senior officials from the boards of state

owned corporations the move is seen as part of president medvedev zbig to improve corporate governance and boost foreign investment seventeen russian companies will no longer be able to have taught state officials on their boards as of first of july among them finance minister alex he couldn't believe the country's second largest lender p.t.b. and done maker. first of october all ministers on the boards of the state run companies are to be replaced with less senior officials or independent directors. it is natural and you could disasters could put an end to the development of atomic energy around the world constantine seaman a head of the national energy security fund says it may change russia's plans to build you play stations abroad. all such serious and can resume over new nuclear reactors of course if you do have a very serious superdome with. the world to stop speaking about. nuclear stays

with you move. into work here in the very strange country is the way. it was. because it was already announced plans to build these and for example of this will in one go there's rising but now we can forget about the it. will be more careful use nuclear energy it may be easier so that is why i was saying that it will do so we could see a reduction of possible nuclear stations in the rules and of course reduction of the plans of outsiders and. have a look at how the stock markets are performing markets in asia are gaining on monday japan's nikkei finished point one percent higher hong kong stocks the vast with some export focus companies gaining amid strength in the u.s. dollar and i'm charles and property developers who are leaving the balance among the top gainers is china construction bank which was why i have sat. and the russian markets are trading higher reality has gaining over half

a percent my six this is up point four percent is our energy majors are boosting the indices on high up oil prices and the movers are concerned state owned gas monopoly gas problem is a point four percent is advancing roughly the same amount pipeline operator trance nafta is gaining eight percent the south. or prices have reached another thirty month high with brant crude currently trading at around one hundred nineteen dollars per barrel and light sweet at roughly one hundred eight dollars a growth is supported by father jobs data from the top will consume of the united states and supply worries over tone oil in the middle east investors are also concerned about comments from iran's oil minister that there was no need for opec to hold an extraordinary meeting on a price rise in one of the for the oil price parts. and finally for the first time in five years russian companies that change that barring preferences and turn to the country's domestic market national firms cut their overseas on sales and

boosted the ruble down corporate foreign currencies insurance fell almost twenty percent to five point two billion dollars in the first quarter compared to last year on the contrary ruble gone sales jumped almost seventy percent to an equivalent of nine billion dollars that's up to higher oil prices bolstered growth and sparked appreciation of local currency. that's your update for this hour but you can always find more stories just log on to our website dot com slash. the book.

is easy. to. see. wealthy british style the best but i didn't write.