don't tease don't come. nearly one hundred people killed and thousands of homes devastated as torrential rains triggered flash flooding in a popular southern russian resort area. libya's first election in half a century gets off to a turbulent start with in the capital contrasting sharply with boycotts and attacks across the country. and a deadline set for julian assange extradition to sweden expires on saturday but the whistleblower remains in the safety of ecuador's london embassy awaiting for an answer to his plea of asylum. live from the heart of moscow this is r t. a welcome to the program continuously

rising death toll from the massive flooding in rushers southern resort region has now reached ninety nine people and the area was swamped by a trench will rain just over the past twenty four hours with the latest on the situation as a tease. something unimaginable those are the words of the regional governor as he flew over just one of the regions hit by enormous flash flooding in the south of russia the rains came at night over a month rain forming in just a few hours upstream from some of these coastal resorts that meant that when the flood waters arrived there was an awful lot of water that came very fast and it came without warning the result was chaos people were drowned in their houses or trying to escape from the vehicles or the floodwaters some were electrocuted when a transformer fell into the water people reported traffic lights and pavements

ripped up by the force of the water thousands of people have been clambering on anything they can to get some height to try and escape from the floodwaters. you know as of the rain was so large there were two children only by a roof but we couldn't hear them we could only throw someone close to them to let us go but i am relatives who are in the house including a paralyzed grandmother and a young woman with her three month old child last time got a call from them they thought the water level was almost reaching the ceiling and they didn't know how to get out we haven't heard from many forms of the emergencies ministry here in moscow they are trying to get some control of the situation and coordinate efforts in an extremely difficult situation rode by german that washed away gosh it is very difficult it is actually ourselves are just a little bit less you are going to escape from the flood waters to the rescue

efforts are made more difficult and more dangerous by the region status as a famous holiday resort thousands of russians go down to the black sea coast every year there are around seven thousand children that go to holiday camps there in the summer it's the middle of holiday season many people go on registered and just go to come. there which means a lot harder to try and keep track of people hundreds of homes have been flooded and people have been trying to get to refuge centers around a thousand emergency ministry workers both local and flown in from moscow are trying to help people do that and to try and limit the damage the meteorological office though warns that more rain storms are on the way and that could mean more flooding. obviously reporting right now it's been a rocky start to libya's first elections in half a century armed gangs have stormed a polling station in the north while boycotts shootings and abductions have

affected voting all across the country and in benghazi where last year's uprising began protesters this morning burned ballot papers and decried the vote as a sham in old more than one hundred polling stations failed to open now over three thousand seven hundred candidates of vying for seats in parliament are predicted to be dominated by islamists today less than a year since more market was executed by a crowd of revolutionaries it seems the country is more divided than ever former rebel commanders and tribal chiefs fight for power all across the country with little hope that elections will stop the violence their support now for. this is the new libya political parties are now free to operate across the country . so too are countless armed groups they one spot to oust moammar gadhafi from power today it is day who are in control now tag militias who answer only to their own

commanders have grown more powerful than libya's police and army. which mark we must put limits on these militias because they are dividing the country they are why libya is falling into decay almost one year after a nato backed uprising ended gadhafi is rule libyans are taking to the polls for the first time in decades but with tripoli's transitional national council too weak to quell ongoing violence many fear that elections will do little to bring peace was the conditional council they said that they are going to protect this country with gadhafi gone there is nothing left he said that libya will have national unity where is it. here is what libyan style democracy looks like armed groups. calling for more autonomy stormed of been gauzy polling station last sunday setting voting lists and ballots ablaze renewed tribal clashes broke out in libya's city of this past week alone saw the deaths of nearly fifty people with hundreds wounded and

when members of a local militia seized libya's biggest international airport in broad daylight last month security forces simply stood by and watched. they vary in size from gangs guarding neighborhoods to small de facto armies like the one ins in taiwan which still holds libya's most famous prisoner saif al islam when international criminal court staffers tried to visit gadhafi son they too were seized and held captive for nearly four weeks justice militia style may prove to be the biggest obstacle to whatever government libyans elect some groups are boycotting saturday's vote while others align with various political parties a dangerous trend that could deep in existing divisions secularists islamicists even former members of al qaida are among the nearly four thousand people vying for a seat in the country's national congress the choice of candidates is the will during. that is precisely the problem this is because of their own i don't know. how congress need to forgive terms and winners and. so i think because. millions of

and stained fingers will mark libya's first experiment with free elections but as the cases of iraq and afghanistan have shown voting booths alone do not equal a democracy and in the example of libya the line between freedom and anarchy is growing dangerously blurred whatever the outcome one thing is certain if unhappy with the result libya's armed groups now know what to do next. we are against i'm a dictator but if history repeats itself we will. see catherine of our t.v. moscow. oh now for more on how the votes going and exactly where the vote is going on let's speak with a journalist and contributor for the monthly magazine called the press have joining us live on oxy good to see you today thanks for coming on the program so as you were listening to the report understandably for many it's a day of celebration in libya but given that much of the eastern parts of the country remain under the rule of the gangs who are effectively trying to sabotage

the vote how much weight at the end of the day think there will carry well i think the elections are significant in that there is more ability to politically organize now than there has been in the past independent trade unions student groups political parties are functioning but it's hardly an exercise in democracy because the militias still have the main control and what they do particularly the militias aligned with political parties it's a very dangerous trend a sudden with many signs of the transitional government simply is not stepping forward to try and quell the violence but as you're suggesting that many of the fighting rebel factions have their own policies who are all part of the n.t. see now as in tunisia and egypt it's the it's the islamists that are predicted to come to power in essence the arab spring for many could actually be an islamic spring why do you think religious factions are now getting so much support well of course there's many different factions amongst that is from this party split. libya

considered itself country even under moammar gadhafi the extent there was organized opposition or was off from this numerous and they're trying to capitalize on that my during my trip trip to libya i did not see the extreme kind of islam that we've seen in some other parts of the middle east and i think we're going to see in terms of the election results some combination of center possibly more rightist islamist parties and now suddenly with nothing. much of the resistance to this election comes from areas where the uprising against gadhafi began also those against the election maintain that the revolution has been stolen from them how do you read into that well the overthrow of gadhafi has given rise to . autonomy movement in particular in the eastern part of the country and that's where some of the most serious violence has taken place those forces are not

capable of winning elections fairly so they're disrupting the elections and as a response i think i again interviewing a lot of ordinary working people or people in the street during my visits people are very very upset they think a new strongman is going to come to power which does not work they fought for and do feel that their revolution is being strong now if somebody from any when it comes to considering what needs to happen in libya there must be unity that must be concessions made on every side but how do you make concessions when you've got all the groups causing trouble there's a battle for regional power and many refusing to back down from their own demands it just seems like such a mixed bag that the end of the day how is anyone going to get a straight result from all of this well it is indeed extremely difficult and it's not going to change overnight. people for various proposals for example to have a weapons buyback program. to exchange weapons for money but at the

end of the day it's a political solution. if the government has credibility they can pressure the militias to dissolve. basically. the border from tunisia there's a lot of turmoil in tunisia but people don't. hold demonstrations they hold rallies they don't shoot each other in the streets and libya has yet to get to that point so as you mentioned as unrest in tunisia we could also go back to the years of iraq or afghanistan of what's going on in in syria. in libya democracy has it because. what it has become in the sense that there is greater freedom to organize and anyone. on the left for example would try to organize during minute gadhafi era was or be really repressed as where the islamists as were anybody who opposed him so at least now you have somewhere over one hundred newspapers you have political parties you have the right to hold rallies people are you know holding strikes for the

first time for an independent trade unions to me those are all helpful signs and i think people are very committed to not seen another dictator arrive this western interference is an issue the u.s. and western europe are very interested in maintaining the oil supplies from libya and i think there is evidence that they're back in some of the more right wing islamist and military forces there as their forces of so-called stability so you mention the issue of keeping the supply of oil flowing out of libya gigi you think that's that's the main route of all the issues of western intervention or western presence in libya oh is it as we are meant to believe all about the truth and democracy. why should i or you or i would be shocked if it was not a search for truth in democracy of course it's about oil for why is the west not intervening in mali where you've got a civil war and. forces and a very unstable dangerous situation civilians are being killed so there's no talk

of western or nato which are attack on mali mali doesn't have oil libya. it's main exports to italy after that to germany britain and some of the countries that were pumping the loudest for military intervention are the ones who get their oil from libya so i think there's no question that geo political positioning between tunisia and egypt it's are critical area as well as their oil were key factors and had very little to do with democracy. john list and a contributor to the progressive magazine joining us live here and many thanks for coming on the program today thank you for having me. we are still to come for you in the program here on our discord in the heart of latin america the ousting of our guys president its relations between neighbors one regional expert shares his views on what lies behind the story. moscow has

slammed the friends of syria meeting in paris describing it as one sided and immoral over one hundred nations taking part in the talks pledged to throw a lifeline to the syrian rebels and urged u.n. action against damascus the demands would include tougher sanctions and if necessary military intervention this undermines last week's geneva conference called by syria's special envoy kofi annan that saw the world's major powers unite over the idea that both sides of the syrian war are behind the violence. right here at the center of research on globalization says was it just not interested in a peaceful syria. i think at this point these western powers are paying lip service to the kofi annan plan and at the very same time undermining it completely by letting weapons come into the country from all sides just a couple of weeks ago the new york times reported a bombshell article that confirmed the american cia is operating in

a base in southern turkey and they're coordinating arms smuggling into into syria to from the free syrian army and if we look at things like the cooler massacre and the kinds of bombing tactics suicide bombing roadside bombing that we see going on in syria now this is not characteristic of syria or lebanon this is characteristic of al-qaeda in iraq. now it's not only the diplomatic advantage which seems to be on the side of the syrian opposition but the media one as well as artie's guy nature can explain such overwhelming backing a backing and ultimately echoes yet another conflict. syrian rebels have rejected the peace plan that was put forward by the international community they made it clear that violence would continue so far the coverage of the conflict in syria has been so one sided that it seems the rebels could get away with anything the media in the us and in the west in general have focused only on what the government has

been doing almost entirely leaving out the atrocities act of terror committed by the rebels presenting a completely black and white picture but a conflict like the one in syria is never black and white and never simple the slanting of the coverage reminded some of former yugoslavia before nato when bombing former yugoslavia at the end of the one nine hundred ninety s. the media focused on crimes committed by the serbs completely washing down the atrocities committed against the serbs with me here is jim the director of the american council for casa paul so i thank you very much for joining us thank you what are the similarities you see between what's going on in syria and what has been going on in yugoslavia inform you that there are similar is i would say on all three crucial levels as we look at syria one has to do with the international system the rule of law the role of the security council another one has to do with the status of sovereign states and how you treat a sovereign state that has an insurgency within its borders and the third thing is what we might call on the ground when you take

a complex historical circumstance with communities historic grievances as you said in your introduction atrocities and violence of that are committed on both sides in conflicts like this and attribute only to one side what you do is you to you you come up with the concept of do you fit the facts into the concept you don't take a step back in good faith look at what's really going on look at the suffering of people on both sides and how in good faith can you pour water on the fire to try to calm things down instead would you do as you find a smoldering fire you pour gasoline with words like genocide and so forth and then try to set. the stage for what you really want which is a victory for one side the side you've chosen and the utter destruction of the other side you know and one of the side lights of this in both kosovo and syria is something that's important to me is the fate of the christian population and why is it that in the name of fighting terrorism and promoting democracy and all this

other nonsense the united states always seems to find itself on the side of jihad just elements engaging in terrorism with the predictable results for the christian population as we saw in kosovo when half the christian population were the docs christian serbs had to flee the province and thousands of them were killed by the liberators the cause why a british army. i think that there are i think there are a couple of different explanations for it i think one is our cozy relationship with saudi arabia the gulf states that we want to show we're on the side of our friends who are so important to us when it comes to frankly money and international commerce i think by the way that even in a less dramatic form we're making a similar mistake when it comes to egypt and basically adopting the muslim brotherhood is our chosen voice of democracy in egypt which is also the same force that stands to benefit in syria if if our policy is successful. thank you mr texas we heard it many times the first casualty of war is the truth and we see it

happening time and time again that media urge to simplify matters and to eventually push a certain agenda becomes a weapon in itself a weapon which creates victims of its own in washington i'm going to second. meantime i russia and china have rebuffed washington's threats of consequences for what it sees as siding with the regime in syria the secretary of state hillary clinton said the countries must pay a price for the pacific in support of the assad regime. we've been asking you what are the reasons for such harsh rhetoric i hear how the votes are stuck it out from our website i see dot com for this hour so far the majority believe the move point . to the frustration of the west over its hump of military drive nineteen percent think russia and china are stalling the peace effort just down to the rest now of being split between the two remaining options clinton's words undermined the geneva peace accord preventing any joint progress in the harsh rhetoric was aimed at boosting public support for president obama's reelection efforts dot com you still

have time to log on and cast your vote. well you can always find more on this online including other stories for example the fiery spotted in the sky over the u.s. and europe the u.f.o.'s were seen flying in the night sky by people on two continents almost similar taney asli has plenty more information on that online. plus israel slams the door on the u.s. and banning officials from entering the country on a fact finding mission to inspect the settlements in the west bank. it's good to have you with us here on r t today the deadline set by the u.k.'s

highest court for julian assange extradition to sweden runs out saturday but the whistleblower says he won't leave the safety of the ecuadorian embassy in london a decision on his request for asylum is made sarah ferguson more from just outside of sandra's current place of refuge. it's been nearly two and a half weeks now that julian assange has been holed up inside the ecuadorian embassy here in london after presenting himself on the nineteenth of g seeking asylum now today is the deadline for his extradition to sweden of his appeal to the supreme court in the against a sexual assault allegations failed so would have been the day we could have seen julian assange is put on a plane and sent to sweden and of course the big. legal team have always said is that he would be then. gets in very strict free trial detention conditions and the

overriding fear is that it would make it much easier for him to be extradited to the u.s. but of course that's not going to happen today because julian assange took that dramatic step to seek asylum and you can see here today a number of his supporters still keeping vigil outside the ecuadorian embassy for the banners of support for about seventeen days on a daily vigil we're hearing solitary redesigns years of war resister an all star standing with the ecuadorian people in the heart that i might the right decision which is drive the car short of a real sense amongst his supporters that this decision and the handling of his legal case it was a real failure for the u.k. in terms of defending human rights well now at the same time that you're in a sound just fighting his fierce battle against extradition we see wiki leaks once again coming into the spotlight and taking the headlines with a dramatic revelations over a new big leak the syria files more than two point four million e-mails that the

group say that they have that they going and have already indeed started releasing and that the inner workings of not just the syrian government but also western countries and western companies as well and that's going to be released in stages over the next. because of weeks the last big leak of course the u.s. diplomatic cables cable gave all the serious files even bigger than that eight times bigger in terms of documents and a hundred times bigger in terms of data and already we're seeing some of the revelations from not being explored so wiki leaks once again showing really that it is still able to do what it does best despite the fact that today in a stone age is this fight continues r.t. sara for fourteen right now venezuela has pulled its diplomatic staff from paraguayan after being accused by the government there of meddling in its internal affairs last month's impeachment of president fernando lugo blamed for

a deadly crackdown on farmers affected the country's ties with its neighbors political analyst. believes it's a sign of the u.s. promoting its own interests in the region. paraguayans suffered a coup d'etat literally on the first twenty first of june when its democratically elected president for number was ousted in a twenty four hour pietschmann trial it must be the fastest impeachment in modern history there are such agencies as us aid the united states agency for international development and it all has a lot of other aspects that spillover outside of paraguay because paraguay is considered together with bolivia the geo political hard in the south america so american control over power of wife who also limited brazil's exit towards the pacific as a brick country brazil russia india china and south africa and the united states at the same time is again promoting after that we american free trade association with

its traditional allies in our region mexico panama colombia peru and chile so we would serve as a pacific wall against what they consider what the americans consider dangerous brazilian expansion because of the fact that it is not just in the commom within the bric countries but very much so even to a certain extent a political or a potential political ally of russia and china is to fly from moscow this is r t the u.s. prides itself on free speech but should the same right extend to that of social media one site now looking at plans to block posts they deem to be racist or offensive and the resident is in new york now to find out if internet companies should be able to decide what's acceptable and what's not. twitter is instituting a new policy of blocking posts it deems racist is it ok for social media websites

to pick and choose what can and can't be that but this week let's talk about that. right but some people still do. but that's the world we live in so should it be out there for people to see or should twitter take it down twitter should take it down so we're free over here in new york where we live free but doesn't the racist person live free to post whatever they want do you have kids do you worry about them being exposed to racist comments. well that's not good yeah but you can express whatever you want to anyway you should be able to express your freedom yeah you might not agree with raised this them but do you agree that people should be able to say what they want not on a social networking site like i know why not is just going to tell us a people should keep their own comments to themselves but that's the whole point of twitter is reading it out something way about what it was that's what it's not ok to use to say whatever you want now the internet you shouldn't just be able to say

whatever you want no the rest is the phrases though if you write something it doesn't have to be racist even though that the words are sometimes you can write some things that all racist but but the words are not so it depends on the human side how you interpreted it you block the negative in the drama but you're also preventing free speech right there so i guess it's a tossup so is it ok for twitter to decide what stays and goes and since their company. again they probably have to have a canal it's a company that judges it because who are they to say what their website true true but who are they say what's racist and what's not there do you think twitter hiding that kind of. racist content is going to make a difference and help people not be racist or is it racist is just going to persist it's going to happen we've changed it not enough it's i think that's their way of

preventing some form of cyber bullying but it's not going to change anything whether or not you think it's right for social media companies to censor content on their sites the bottom line is this wouldn't be an issue if people would just be better citizens and doubt being raised. by this is all too let's get to an update now of our top story for you one hundred three people now have died in the massive flooding in the southern russian across nadar region dozens have been injured thousands of homes devastated as five months worth of rain fell within twenty four hours the rescuers are trying to evacuate survivors but the rain has turned roads and severed communications making the efforts to stream really difficult but here is a popular seaside resort with thousands of russians flocking the jury in the holiday season we will be bringing you more information as soon as we get it here on. all right i'll be back with the headlines in just

a few moments. thank . you wolf for science technology interview.