thank. you. the. colonel gadhafi regime probes a diplomatic solution to the conflict in libya worth fighting continues around rebel cities. casualties rise in the battle misrata the last rebel stronghold in the worst of this country what's not the side table to break the deadlock on points in the capital city of tripoli join me in a few moments and often you will. be in battle insurgents plead for the coalition to arm them to compensate for the air lack of discipline training and manpower. to russian pilot is set to stand trial in a new york court for alleged drug trafficking but moscow maintains the man was simply kidnapped by the u.s.

. and the soviet matter of hours before three states may have lost off into orbit marking the fiftieth anniversary of beauty got its first flight. i mean business because russian partners to make a new attempt to walk from sixty billion dollars ship swap with state owned last details coming up in our business bulletin. on pm in the russian capital you want you are tea with me rena joshie more than two hundred fifty injured libyans have fled fighting in the western city of misrata aboard a humanitarian ship the victims of the ongoing clashes were transported to the opposition's makeshift capital benghazi as the u.s. agrees to support nato during air strive some monday a day after all across the country continues to mount artie's correspondent paula

sleazier brings us more from tripoli. the fighting here on the ground seems to be located in chief primary cities in the east of the country it's around the city of brega but that frontline keeps shifting and at the moment it's actually not clear who is in control in the last six weeks that city has changed control six times 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 military and ship has taken two hundred and fifty patients civilian casualties she the city of benghazi doctor some doctors on board that ship will say that the injuries are incredibly severe and that the civilian death count is likely to climb we certainly 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 gadhafi might be open to some kind of settlement plan that 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 simply refusing to believe even entertain the idea that gadhafi could be seen some kind of way out of all of this and certainly when you talk to protesters here they are just completely agusta at the suggestion that gadhafi would it will betray them which is essentially how they would see any kind of settlement plan we're also hearing move from the international stage though that if their plan is to be reached it has to include gadhafi to get him down in gaza either 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 exact. these opposition fighters are we continuously hear these reports that there are suspicions that there are al qaida hizbullah 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 alarming concerns about the fact that the rebel fighters themselves are disorganized as my colleague gets falls further in this package i wore on the side of the road. got out these armed forces are just a few miles ahead for the rebels this is the time to cool their guns and regroup with everyone men facing ten on the other side discipline is vital but do these men have any. every day in the rebel stronghold of benghazi more pictures of those killed or missing or put up on walls and for the first time at least a dozen rebels are reported to have been killed in

a coalition strike still many locals say they realize they have no choice but to accept the losses. but when. the mission. more than two weeks of classes for no fly zone is put into effect over libya nato planes have been trying to rein in these 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 but the front line is still shifting back and forth with the rebels achieving only brief advances was this week. either you anyway. the opposition says they are ready to take weapons from any willing state in order to be good but it's highly unlikely more

weapons will help improve discipline. teenagers with no new training or combat experience. it seems that they are think they are not you know very much representative 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 not sure 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 gadhafi is military might have been destroyed despite the efforts instead of his forces are reported to have changed tactics come of watching themselves as rebels to confuse needle pilots of all so let's face it the current pool level of organization and training the rebels alone

are no match for gadhafi superior forces and it's only with the help of the alliance that something could be achieved but the question is health for its nato itself to go you're going to spin off towards the eastern libya. coming up in just a few minutes here in r.t. commits its forces to operation odyssey find out why some sleeves are unhappy about their country's role in the intervention and stop iran's cozy relationship with me here. in syria another arab country torn by an anti-government uprising tens of thousands have marched in memory of protesters killed on friday the country's president bashar alas it has blind western influence for the turmoil in the pan and journalist james corbett believes foreign military intervention could be on the cards for syria with iran the ultimate goal. the president is being set right now with the libyan case and if they're able to get away with it i suppose 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 same scheme in syria and we've seen how it can be done by for mentoring and funding training and arming and supporting the rebel forces in the country and basically covert attempt to implement regime change and i think that's exactly what an intervention in syria would be about old familiar would be to isolate iran obviously syria being an absolutely vital strategic partner and a long term partner of rand and providing that land link to hezbollah fit in and so it's absolutely a geo strategic location and it's very strategic for rand so i would see say that if the if syria is the next country to fall under 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 thirteen. and found journalist james corbett talking to r t earlier eight swedish

fighter jets have arrived in italy and are now under nato command they'll be used to enforce a no fly zone over libya despite the facts we isn't a member of the alliance swedes are already venting anger at their governments for committing troops to afghanistan and feel their national interests are being sacrificed to nato and the us any sonali reports. sweden widely known as a voice of neutrality and peace and swedish people believe still believe that we are nonaligned and literal. why then just we didn't need antiwar groups like on fox sweden is very integrated in gold in those activities. in their administration and also with over five hundred soldiers in afghanistan right now that are under nato command whatever the swedish government or thing but

the fact the government says this about swedish combat troops in afghanistan we see our participation in international crisis management missions and are popular mandate as an expression of solidarity and responsibility of sweden in the world. the question is who's popular mandate. when you talk about nato strategic concept it's what it's sticking because they want it they don't have an old. most swedes aren't aware of how aligned sweden is with nato leader you have ignored it you have a military and some politicians cross-breeding intensively with the united states of america and the large mass of the population being totally unaware. the public is told its peacekeeping under the program partnership for peace for heaven's sake partnership for peace is just ended chambre for late to nato is also they've been

doing military exercises sweden is home to meet or the north european airspace test range twenty four thousand kilometers of restricted airspace plus ground room a testing playground for nato and the us and has activists arguing that this is where war starts right here at home. neutrality or nato some say the ground times we did make the detroit critics claim there's so much have gone support for the alliance that the nordic nation might as well join the club officially and give up its unaligned status. and use the now i r t gothenburg sweden. well we are keeping you updated on the latest developments in libya on air and online and can follow our twitter stream any time r.v. correspondents are on the ground in media bringing you the latest developments and eyewitness accounts of the fighting log on to find out what post we're is hearing

in tripoli with your position on keeping you up to date from the rebel have been you can also follow us on our facebook page as well as check out the latest videos on our you tube town. well russian pilot konstantin here she 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 communication boy was to blame the pilots lawyers accuse american agents of kidnapping and torturing him as our season associate tribune reports it'll 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 shango a russian pilot in his forty's scooped up by u.s. officials in liberia last year brought to

a manhattan jail and along with four other suspects charged with international drug trafficking. 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 arrived to new york she says her husband was kidnapped by american agents well america says your show was smuggling drugs to south america africa and europe mostly from minnesota a lot or liberia the pilot has complained he was beaten and tortured following his arrest. try to pick fights with him provoking him constantly of course to try 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 or tory believes the case against her husband was by the u.s. . 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 your shankill was arrested russian officials were not duly notified and moscow cited a breach of international law we have. apologized to russia and state departments excuse we pressed the wrong button on the facts and. to be brutally for 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 and look alphabetical list so that sounds like a. strange story and i don't think anyone would buy that here she comes cases often compared to that of victor boot similarly snatched up by the u.s. in thailand and currently on trial in america for arms trafficking some see a tendency here if they can use interpol they can use. picking up the phone to

russia and trying to talk about this just going out and kidnapping people i think this is part of the carry over from the bush cheney administration the defense team has long legal the 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 they want to exclude questions regarding the legality of trying your schenkel in 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 main arguments of the defense after almost ten months constantine your son calls trial is finally here a jury is deciding his destiny if found guilty he will spend from ten years to a life sentence behind bars in. new york. more world stories for you this

hour on r t more than four hundred people were injured one opened fire in a crowd of protesters a yemeni city of who died police used by browns and here gas to disperse demonstrators who were of arching towards the presidential palace a march was in protest at a security crackdown of rallies in the southern city of tire that killed two and injuring hundreds on sunday as i governments of course have been calling for the resignation of yemeni president ali abdullah saleh since february. violence has once again brought pakistan after a bomb blast hit a small town near the afghan border at least six people have died and eight others injured when the remote controlled device exploded a boss station and the country's northwest. police suspect taliban militants with links still qaida were behind the attack on sunday at least forty two people were killed in a double suicide bombing at a soup the muslim shrine during festivities in the punjab province. and i

rico's forces loyal to the un backed al assad the tar are preparing for a file of course to depose the entrenched leader the incumbent president who 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 says that both sides had committed atrocities as many as a thousand people were killed in violent clashes in the west of the country last week. preliminary results see as incumbent leader of the time has arrived as one of the country's presidential election with ninety five percent of the vote has revived was up against three other candidates he has been in power for two decades and enjoys exclusive constitutional right to be elected for a limitless number of times at a national observers have sharply criticized the ballot saying down it failed to improve on previous elections which were deemed neither free nor fair.

crew spacemen is about to depart for the international space station cosmodrome in kazakhstan the mission comes on the eve of the fiftieth anniversary of you were garant story for life tests are still you. there are three men who will be blasting off to be international space station there. is also the captain. as well as a nasa astronaut ron garan and as you have mentioned this launch is happening on the eve of the fiftieth anniversary of utica got his first flight in fact they're going to be launching off from the launch pad which is called god and start to it is very significant for the three men of course as expected they had 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 who went to even saying that fifty years ago on that day of the human race became a different species no longer confined to the boundaries of the earth and also if

you ask the astronauts one thing to keep mentioning especially coming from russians and americans is the cooperation that they think the space program has really. hated 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 someone 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 his age he's very passionate about trying to find answers and how to health and 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 they have been very worried i think since the start of the the announcement of this two and a half years of trading they've always been by the side of the astronauts going through preparations so as you can imagine everyone is getting ready for more of

that let's take a look at this story. before every blast off comes the fanfare so you see i'm a twenty one crew member stand in the spotlight their families close by it's only a matter of hours before they shoot into orbit in a spacecraft bearing the image of utica god in the first man in space to celebrate the achievements fiftieth anniversary what's more the crew's captain was once 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 astronaut can attest to the arduous process. working in training was so hard sometimes we fell asleep behind or desks we had to take many exams and sometimes we had to repeat those exams after a long and meticulous process it was circling the spacecraft are so used to bates

what he wants is finally in position waiting to take its crew to the international space station well that's a t.v. as a signal to russia as 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 the 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 worry anxiety and pride he on the other hand held his own he showed no emotions i was more worried and excited he took a photograph with him those that show us and our daughter not stamps ever since the official confirmation that their husbands are going to space every little thing becomes a memento i'm wearing my husband's jumper it's moving me close knit and unity with my husband here all the whys of where their husbands clothes among the women a close bond is formed carmel gerund wife of nasa astronaut. ron garan gave oksana

and zoya a bracelet as a symbol of unity. 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 well if you'd like to blast off yourself. all that's needed is a good healthy strong mind and a small fortune that's according to the head of the russian space agency i tell you permit point three it's coming up in just over an hour's time here in r.t. . ensure. that space tourism will continue and develop when we first started sending tourists to have your space and we straight away notice that they felt quite well jury shorter flights all you need is to be a normal healthy person some of the tourists were over sixty and they felt quite well and you only concern i have is that nobody should ignore see if you measures

for safety regulations for space tourists should be the same as for regular nasa we're all schools most space program. well kareen is here with the latest business news. there are a lot of both and i would go straight to our top story this hour b.p. and its russian partners. axis we know about are back in court on monday. arbitration tribunals of throw out b.p.'s proposed sixteen billion dollars share swap deal with russian state owned rosneft it claims the deal breaches a shareholder agreement with b.p. which says ten k.v. could be its primary vehicle for all exploration in russia and ukraine last month they are succeeded in getting this stock on the arbitration for good all to rule against the exploration deal with what's there. if you prime

minister it is certain one of the principal architects of that b.p. deal could soon be forced out of his position as chairman of the rosner board and started me permitted it signed a new order prohibiting ministers and other senior officials from being on the board of major state owned corporations in total seventeen russian companies are on the restricted list and will have to remove top state officials by the first of july finance ministry c couldn't will have to leave the country's second largest lender of d.t.b. and duncan producer of roster the move is seen as part of the president's bid to improve corporate governance and the foreign investor. and some of the stories japan's national and u.k. disasters could put the brakes on the development of atomic energy around the world because i can see when the head of the national energy security fund says it may change russia's plans to go nuclear stations abroad. but there will be more all such serious increases of new nuclear reactors of course if you have the very

serious superdome our plans. to stop speaking about construction or forward new cause phase of the vulgate in georgia here in the very strange country is the way. of this because of the already announced to build nuclear stations for example of this world and one of those rights and with now we can forget about it i think we'll be more careful these nuclear energy may be easier so that is why i was saying that it will be some we could see a reduction of nuclear stations in the ruled and of course reduction of the plans of outsiders and. let's look at the markets now european stock market edge go in early trading on monday you case footy club twenty percent started stick out the trading session as later covered germany's dax is edging higher as well several stocks are on the deal news for you paying off our network operator vodafone group

rose. over one half percent after agreeing to sell its stake in french operate it has authority to do things. get worse when markets are trading higher as well the r.t.s. is getting point six percent of the market is up over a quarter of a percent or so our energy majors are boosting the indices on higher oil prices now let's look at the individual share move state owned gas monopoly gazprom is up one point three percent is a balancing point eight percent bucking the trend though is look for a setting nearly a quarter of a percent. and or prices the recent numbers thirty miles high with brant crude currently trading at around one hundred nineteen dollars a barrel and lights at roughly one hundred eight dollars prices of being supported by positive jobs data from top well consumer of the united states and supply worries over toward more oil in the middle east the rest is also concerned about comments from iran's world minister that there was no need to hold an extraordinary

meeting for the rise in oil prices. for the first time in five years russian companies have changed their preferences and turned to the country's domestic market national firms have cut their overseas phone sales and that corporate foreign currency insurance almost twenty percent to five point two billion dollars in the first quarter compared to last year on the contrary ruble bond sales jumped almost seventy percent twenty. nine billion dollars that's after high oil prices bolstered growth and sparked appreciation of the local car. so i have a real good back in less than one hour with more driving. twenty

years ago the largest country. had been. where it's taken to.

see india auntie's available to the grand central shirts of the. president. beatriz of. taj mahal hotel hotel.