during the intercontinental had only one slave who to shirts in hanoi hilton for a summer said grant sedona sweet. book royal so i don't kowtow to your ability to share some. in the medieval available in the world and resort and spa. as russian journalists seized by opposition forces in libya nato experiences with great flights knocking. on point to save in the capital city of took me to join me in a few moments and i'll bring you. a sphere as a grow all stalemate in libya opposition take to the coalition airstrikes on the rise in france amid criticism the intervention was an act of impulse and imperialism brought of and protecting civilians. plus a hairy situation for prince harry the british royal and his charity expedition

gets stranded in the arctic after a crack on an ice runway their return. and the georgia's attempts to project a democratic him a job tarnished by the state of its legal system or even the lawyers getting prosecutors. continue this is all to you live from moscow at least to a russian journalists have been captured by libyan rebel fighters russia's foreign minister has voiced his concern about the situation that is taking steps to resolve it our correspondent now has the latest developments and paula hello to you so this is not the first instance of journalists being taken hostage during this ongoing conflict in libya what what we know now about the fate of these russian ones. what do know is that two russian journalists were. popular russian newspaper has been

seized by opposition fighters in the east of this country we are hearing that among them is also a captured russian television crew but we have no independent verification of this and we are receiving some reports that the crew might have been released we have been told that the journalists are now in the city of being gone see the rebel headquarters where they are facing questioning we understand that a short time ago the germans were working in the town of baiji job which is some seventy kilometers to the rates of benghazi they were able to put through a call from a satellite phone t.v. news through that since then all communication has died not is the first time that we are aware that rebel fighters have actually taken journalists captive normally it's the other way around if anything the opposition forces try the upmost to try and assist in this most of the journalists working on the frontline are there because they are invaded with the rebel fighters certainly we've seen a very different picture on the other side of the coin with gadhafi soldiers at the

moment they have at least foreign journalists in big hands the libyan spokesperson was it put him speaking here in tripoli about those four journalists there the government was investigating but if indeed the story was true it would be because the journalists who are working here immediately with after work permits there have been dozens of journalists who have been arrested by the libyan authorities in the past and they have in turn have been deported from this country now the russian foreign ministry is following the story very very closely it says it is a very war if it says it that it has made contact with a consulates of turkey as well as it to be in benghazi at the same time it says that if the germans are not fleet today it might have to make contact with those countries who reportedly have units on the ground to try and assist them this is what the russian foreign minister had to say. which will give course we are worried about before dinner june is to have been seized in eastern libya by. opposition i

think that we can change the leadership of countries that reportedly must have their special forces on the ground this is a serious matter and we don't want to miss a chance which will allow successfully reduce our journalists. so at the moment we don't have too much clarity exactly where those genocide's a story that of course we following but as of yet no reaction from the tripoli government per se on the fate of those russian journalists. on wednesday coalition mistakenly launched a strike against rebel forces who has never released any form of explanation or even apology to try and quell what appears to be growing resentment about three and the forces. we just heard from the nato secretary general anders fogh rasmussen he says that he deeply regrets the incident but that's just follow an earlier statement by made so that it was aware of what happened but that it was not going to apologize at that stage and said that it may be mistakenly have carried out an airstrike that we have been told by doctors on the wrong yet at least five

opposition fighters did and more than twenty two injured what seems to have happened is that those rebel fighters put themselves with tanks and heavy weaponry and they were trying to make a surprise attack on gadhafi soldiers but the nato pilots have since turned around and said that it becomes increasingly difficult to tell who's who on the ground nato is saying that it had no information prior to this is strike that the opposition fighters were actually using tanks and weaponry similar to that of gadhafi now most of the emotions on the ground all running high increasingly there is a lot of criticism being leveled at nato from the opposition fighters firstly they say that they are not carrying through with a commitment to a system they've destroyed only thirty percent of the duckies heavy weaponry and insecurity they say that nato has not actually fulfilled its obligation to try and protect civilians as many leaders now a say a beginning to actually kill the very people that they're supposed to be hoping.

this is the second weekend and the second attack that nato has carry on also after you attack in one week ago in which thirteen people were killed they too were rebel fighters if no to is supposed to be helping the right policy or their lot in tripoli thank you. with us cutting back its involvement in the strikes that mission has become an issue should be dependent on french jets because all these are daniel bushell reports the longer the campaign lasts the more french people themselves are beginning to wonder about the reasons for the country's leading role. france was among the first countries to push for a military solution in libya but now watch as a questioning its justification for going in print once again on what i call the imperial condominium a recurrent quest of africa already having long term connections on the continent called forgive colonel gadhafi for fighting its military in neighboring chad in the

1980's and challenging its corporations in the region ever since the french quarter . is it a french quarter see or or is it a sarkozy. try to convince the world that he is the men in this capacity to be the leader of the g. twenty. and also. try to survive in frost reports gordon was plotting an invasion already last year of prompted accusations of revived imperial ambitions calculated as a vote for france's president the move has backfired french foreign minister islands you pay since the invasion could last days or weeks but not months into its third week war in libya is turning out longer and harder than wanted. with gadhafi forces still standing firm rebel gains only come with the heavy hand

of nato helping the war in libya would pose for interpreting these abroad and restore the government the popularity of power in then the bombing continues opposition on board is growing these demonstrators say they see through fraud his noble claims france claims humanitarian intervention but it's really imperative. in local elections nicolas sarkozy got stumped he's un people to be willing just nineteen percent of the votes the french president hoped for ratings lift from the wall. he's got the opposite. because of more. presidents for ever for the last forty duels given france's troubled history in the region maybe fear some countries may remember their common paused and unite against their former colonial master. countries that had genuine revolutions genuine raisings and then being able to unite i think that is something which the imperial

powers don't really want to see with thrall's facing a growing backlash and abroad any talk of a quick fix altitude. don't you see paris. next hour there's more on libya and our cross talk debate show where they'll be asking has foreign intervention achieved its goals and what is the next step for international forces. there are massacres taken place in this right there and no one can get to them and can't get to them by seeking to get to them by larry and then in general in the west or libya so let's let's let's actually characterize things in the proper context there is no. making to the engineers and we really got the intervention is failing to protect people that's exactly the point the people. are making they're saying we are for this intervention but it's

not working. this is r.t. now the e.u. commission has announced that portugal would need about one hundred ten billion dollars to stay afloat after greece and ireland it's now the third nation to seek a financial lifeline from its european neighbors with fears that spain could be next and according to john gordon of the e.u. referendum campaign eurozone governments are oblivious to the strength of the opposition to their drive to preserve the troubled euro. we don't have a duty to portugal we didn't have a duty to power our island we made seven billion pounds worth of welfare cuts and then we gave seven billion to ireland go figure that does not work and now spain's going to go the same way and our lousy coalition government won't give the british people the right to have a vote and they don't know the reason they won't give us the vote because they know that seventy five percent of people in a recent e.u. referendum campaign and congress poll say they want to get out of this expensive

undemocratic club and the euro is going to crash and burn spain will follow portugal and i say not a penny to portugal not one single penny one single cent one single euro it's nothing to do with the united kingdom we want our country back thank goodness we never ever joined this madness how can you link the economy of an economic powerhouse of the united kingdom or germany with somewhere like greece you know well the answer is you can't and it's failed and the sooner it collapses let's out we're having a referendum on may the fifth on the alternative voting system that's not a referendum we need the referendum we need in our great country is it straight in or out should we stay or should we go should we say to you and the british people won't out but whether we get a referendum not this kind of becoming irrelevant because this currency is doomed we all want to part in sketch you know this these to see such power is no more well

let me say this currency is dead it is deceased is is it is extinct it can not survive spain will go next. coming up there are three more financial trouble across the atlantic just. one of the country's top credit agencies telling the feds something has to get alistair growing alarm over american status for us credit ratings is one of the possible downgrade of the country's rating. the granny vs the internet our seventy five year old woman managed to leave huge swathes of both georgia and on media off line. but i thought the runway has britain's prince harry stranded on an ice floe in the arctic the incident comes just a few weeks before the wedding of prince william and his arteries peter oliver reports that third in line to the throne will be keen to get back so as not to miss the important preparations as the stars of the world and prince harry has been

taking part in a a two hundred mile trip to the north pole is part of his role as the patron of the charity walking with the wounded those taking part in last walk with courier included for amputees who were injured during the conflict in afghanistan four british soldiers there know how he had hoped her in the charity hope to raise two million pounds from this walk that they've been they've been taking part in and they they just about finished it they're probably in the russian territory on the on the arctic and we're awaiting a flight hold however they want me to crack in the ice on the landing strip that they were due to take off from as many that they couldn't do that in a stop there at the moment but of course we're hoping that he will be able not only to get back for the royal wedding at the end of the month but he's due to be on duty on monday in his role as a british army officer so he'll be there's plenty of people wanting him back and back on duty but i think it's not going to be really him to fly in and rescue him just yet we're hearing from the organizers of this trick that

a rescue party is on its way and how he should be taken off but i spoke very should very soon. now are georgia's legal system is under fire for failing to match its claims of democratic development the number of prisoners has significantly increased since president saakashvili came to power with only seven acquittals and twelve thousand legal cases over the last year always claim it's practically impossible to get a fair trial. the people of georgia do seem to have the right to. speak their mind . but if you're unfortunate enough to be detained it appears that for many all your rights go right out the window and should the case get to trial there can be very little hope of an acquittal no matter how good your lawyer is. in the last three years i've managed to win only three cases but if we were to look at statistics thousands of cases heard in george's courts you would see that

acquittals make less than one percent of the numbers. a recent human rights watch report on changes within georgia's legal system only positive steps there were a lot of concerns as well according to the w. like increasing the prison term for administrative offenses from thirty days to three months come in contradiction with all democratic developments as international organizations insist curial can only be used as a last resort debates about the fairness of georgia's legal system continue but the numbers speak for themselves last year alone out of twelve thousand guilty verdicts only seven work whittles various international surveys show that nearly half of the population has no trust and their country's traditional system even the lawyers feel it's a lose lose game understandable since a lot of them end up behind bars themselves. saakashvili doesn't want an independent court system the prosecutor's office is dominant and police are the

main instrument of power and political pressure there is no need for justice or lawyers he's trying to influence advocacy and when he fails he arrests or discriminates against lawyers who don't cooperate every since we surely rose to power with the rose revolution his interests clearly pointed aggressed their legal system based on fairness and justice does not seem to be a priority according to some the justice system in georgia today actually measures are worse than that of the soviet times. georgia holds first place for the highest number of prisoners kept in europe which is a very somber fact i remember reagan used to call the soviet union the evil empire and then later george bush called george and beacon of democracy but how does these beacon have five times more prisoners per capita than the evil empire. it certainly seems as though there are some areas where the beacon of truth is not going to

shine can't you know that about our i t e c ga. ga with the story of how the internet was brought crashing down in two countries apparently all by one elderly woman a blackout lasting several hours hit georgia and armenia officials say the seventy five year old woman was scavenging for copper when her digging accidently damaged a broadband cable underground she's been charged with the destruction of property and may face a community service because she's denied she had anything to do with. me not even one look at me i'm sick and tired of moebius do they have any witnesses show me those witnesses who can say you was me who damaged the cable. or you can have your say on this and many other stories we're covering at our website that's our t. dot com and here's what else we have lined up for you there right now a raging inferno as a gas tanker flipped over and burst into flames at a packed parking lot and all southern russia to find out the full details and see more of these dramatic pictures of r.t.

dot com. and the two elephants from moscow's zoo on an extended holiday to spain have decided that having too much of a good time to return home can join the stampede to our team dot com. so nearly twenty minutes past the hour here in australia with our say feuding u.s. political parties are once again in deadlock over negotiations on the country's budget but disputes threatening to shut down the entire government which could cost the taxpayers almost a billion dollars a day. lauren lyster explains there are fears that federal inaction could be the cause of yet another financial meltdown. while u.s. lawmakers in washington over the budget and hurled blame across the aisle for the

gridlock calling opposing colleagues relatively small that stream group of india logs who wore an anchor dragging down the budget negotiation process give me another group of decision makers has been weighing in on the to be one of the country's top credit agencies telling the feds something has to get done on this debt ratings agency standard and poor and moody's have been warning for months that the u.s. debt could threaten the country's golden aaa credit rating telling investors in u.s. bonds essentially they may have to worry about getting paid the u.s. debt problem is big fourteen trillion dollars big meanwhile the solutions lawmakers are coming up with to solve this problem are small this tiny dot represents even the larger sixty billion dollars in cuts republican lawmakers originally proposed and meanwhile the u.s. government each year continues to spend a lot more than it takes then resulting in more than a trillion dollars in budget deficit so with all of this there rating agencies as

unsustainable and a concern and it could pass the u.s. has been on for over forty three cents of every dollar we spend this year. we vote against the future of our children continuing on this trajectory of borrowing and spending however would not be an option according to financial analysts if the u.s. was downgraded so what would happen it would be another crisis it would create global shock waves in part because most models and understanding of the global investment landscape including landscape take is their sort of central aim for the u.s. ten year treasury bond as the risk as it is the interest the u.s. pays on its debt is down green it was one hundred eighty seven billion in two thousand and nine and i'm do you propose it increases to eight hundred forty four billion that number would grow exponentially faster with

a downgrade because the west would likely have to pay higher interest rates to borrow money meaning less money to spend it home then we have to start cutting really aggressively and for many things they're too important for americans really to to be able to agree to cut them right now drastic cuts in everything from energy to education to the military whether the u.s. would really be downgraded is up for debate the u.s. has the exorbitant privilege after all of printing dollars the global reserve currency to pay its global credit card bill the scarier scenario may be that the u.s. has even reached this point a situation that once would have been unthinkable foreign minister r.t. washington d.c. . right now let's get to some other headlines from around the world this hour and a prominent muslim leader has been killed in india controlled kashmir and last outside a mosque. was a vocal opponent of violence and condemned the common practice of throwing stones at the military as activity was often criticized by separatist groups however at

this point nobody has claimed responsibility for the last. radioactive water has a leaked at the nuclear power plant in japan. after thursday's powerful earthquake the facility lost three of its four power connections after the quake but one of them was restored later and the only guy was site is about one hundred also kilometers from the stricken fukushima station which is still to be made safe following last month's quake and tsunami. tens of thousands of egyptians have again taken to tahrir square in cairo to demand that also president hosni mubarak be prosecuted for his crimes demonstrators also want his immediate family punished for the theft of state property the protests come as a side of increasing frustration by the military's progress in removing figures of the previous regime from office. and his family have painted the house arrest since he was deposed. well coming away about him it is time it's moscow out and this

time of the team had to start city as well russia's most illustrious cosmonauts have all been trained it's on the outskirts of the capital the host of a chance to prove he has what it takes. i'm kathleen loaded into the centrifuge cause. we have a pristine. building of tremendous speed this really pushes you to your limits. people should pay for that.

was coming around less than ten minutes time and although dimitri is here with a business. hello and welcome to the program an arbitration court in london ruling on the legitimacy of the sixteen billion dollars share swap between b.p. and the aft has upheld the injunction blocking the deal and tribunals decision appears to mark another victory for al for access or no he's partners in russian oil for b.p. they are has strongly objected to be his proposed tie up of course and that saying it broke their shareholder agreement london correspondent lawrence has more. well this is as you say essentially yet another victory for. the consortium of russian shareholders in b.p. it means that b.p. doesn't get what it wants that b.p.

rosneft cannot at the moment go ahead we remember that the swap part of the agreement refers to receiving five percent of b.p. and b.p. in exchange receiving nine in the halls percent overall and this is merely holding an injunction that was already made earlier we saw a court say that the entire deal which also involves a tie up between b.p. and have to explore parts of the arctic shelf where there are believed to be huge reserves of oil and what they had already said that couldn't go ahead then b.p. came through and said well maybe if we can't go ahead with the exploration deal maybe we can just go ahead with the shafts what i want to and the courts has today are being junction saying it karns b p k b p the a.o.l. consortium argues that the deal between b.p. and rush never breaks the elements of their foundation agreement when they first set up a p.p. which said that any business or any work that b.p.

wanted to undertake in russia had to be agreed that's how first refusal on that work and they say that this breaks the terms of that contract this is probably not the end of this story b.p. is looking to extend the deadline for the shuswap which was supposed to be the fourteenth of april that was when the sas what had to take place under the terms of the original deal they're now looking to extend that and see if they can go ahead it's a later date so they probably will be reapplying to the court to see if they can make this deal work in some way. commodities now will prices. on the middle east and africa we should contribute to the growth. as you can see the one dollar more than one hundred. eleven dollars per barrel brants almost sergeant twenty three when the hearth reports say an oil field in libya has been damaged this is fueling concerns the civil war may destroy the country's will in

the us. you are still at the opening of the us market have opened moderately positive there rebounding slightly from yesterday's losses caused by you have quake in japan stocks however could gain momentum of oil prices ran up to levels not seen since september because. there are new markets still trading in the black after a positive opening in the states and the footsies up twenty percent the dax percent the mining sector is leading the way on high gold and silver and copper prices therefore we're seeing calves likeness of b.h.p. billiton leading the way with some of the top ok there's also air space and defense sector is posting gains da systems rules royce group around two percent this out. here in moscow another eighteen minutes of trade for the r.t.s. adamites next they are up to a stronger than one hundred percent while my six only point for energy majors leading on both boards is as we've seen the very high oil prices of course take

a look at some individual shares gas problem up almost two percent in the top again among heavyweight stocks up just point three percent despite high oil prices polymath sold is up to two point two percent the slightly lighter stock this is on the back of course of high in this crisis. russia is said to join the world trade organization by the end of the year however prime minister putin says the country will only start plying with w t o rules once it's a full member. it sponsors of sums goes up i've already said it hundreds of times we declared it's everyone during the accession process we will only implement the beauty of the big ations when we become a full member but before that we can do as we wish if we start implementing w.g. obligations without being a member partners lose the incentive to give is exceptional. in your bullshit but it was and that concludes this edition of business r.t.

will be back in around fifty five minutes time with more lawrie's next with headline the staples. wealthy british style. guys.