it starts on t.v. dot com. more than one hundred people killed and thousands of homes devastated as to run chill rains triggered flash flooding and a popular russian resort area. tension overshadows libya's first election in half a century with cheers in the capital contrasting sharply with boycotts and attacks across the country. as the deadline set for julian assange his extradition to sweden expires in a matter of hours but the whistleblower remains in the safety of ecuador's london embassy waiting for an answer to his assignment from the. international news and comment live from moscow this is r.t.

with the twenty four hours a day one hundred five people are now known to have died after a massive flooding hit the southern russian resort region of. there been warnings the death toll is likely to rise the area was swamped by torrential rain for around twenty four hours. is in the devastated region. we're trying to get through the flood stricken area which isn't easy with all the roads we destroyed going to war so jammed with clean car five months worth of rainfall within twenty four hours turned a beautiful seaside resort into an emergency aereo fateful danger throughout the day the number of victims kept growing by the our bodies were being found along flooded and upturned roofs many never managed to get out of their vehicles and flee the elements many were called by surprise when rising water filled the ground force of houses trapping people inside going through predominantly rule community there are almost no multi-story buildings so there is a literally nowhere to run from the flood the lot you want to manage supply

involved to roofs and trees and wait for emergency workers to pick them off several people were electrocuted when the choir failed into the water that covered the pavement to local supermarkets who were completely destroyed getting altitude dry ramps isn't easy either those highways and rain routes that they can have a hit from the elements blocking many escape route thirty two trains were either councils or stopped on their way to the black sea cruise this last year struck in the midst of the holiday season krasnodar is one of the most popular inaccessible teesside resorts among russians and thousands block here every year to other towns that suffered badly no one of these can get injuries are now packed with tourists on our way to disaster stricken area was sold dozens of cars from moscow with lichens plates for inside syria and russian market many of those don't do the wholesale instead just setting up a camp on the beach which makes them all the more difficult to find and rescue and one of the most warring bacteria because the the region how this many summer camps

for children currently filled with over seven thousand kids and now we're going to pass one of them to cancel the little knock and luckily from what we saw it has not been hit by the flooding. i witnessed as an survivors have been sharing their firsthand accounts from a region devastated by the animals. but. a stream of water hit my car i lost control of the car turned over and hit a tree i just managed to climb out of the back door and cling to the tree it is like you did. 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. that was good but i am relatives who are in the house including the paralyzed grandmother and a young woman with her three month old child last time i got a call from them they said the water level was almost we're actually the ceiling and they didn't know how to get out we haven't heard from them soon. there's no

cross light or to correspond to being let's say who can tell us more about the rescue efforts in the stricken area a huge operation is now underway just what's being done by the authorities to tackle the impact of this disaster. well emergency services have actually been focusing on rescue children as well as the elderly first and foremost so they they obviously the people who are struggling to get out of such affected areas the next thing to remember is that right now a lot of people have lost their houses they've lost their belongings so one important thing that the emergency services is actually doing is making sure that everybody has a shelter that they have warm clothing and blankets as well as a food now there's been about thirteen thousand people affected by this this national disaster so authorities are making sure that all hands on board right now are from psychologists who can talk to people who need to talk to because

a lot of people have lost some of their loved ones and some of their belongings as well as having medical services on board from doctors to nurses to nurture those who might need their help now earlier on president putin actually visited the area giving out his support to the people of the region and just saying that the country is with you at this time and we're all thinking of you and we're obviously going to put as much effort and services in making sure that you get what you need you know emergencies like this there's a lot of money that's going to go back into rebuilding these areas from all the flooded areas as you can see there around thirty million dollars is what they're thinking up until now is what they're going to need to actually put back their town together so we have to wait and see until the end of the next coming days what that actual number and figure will grow up to be any theories emerging as to why there have been so many victims predicted to be more. well at the moment you know when

situations like this happen a lot of people. you know they need somebody to blame they need somebody to pinpoint why this actually happened to them remember this happened overnight people were sleeping they were not expecting to wake up to this so you know theories and sort of things that have been kind of throwing about people are saying that perhaps this is something that could be manmade i'm just going to pull up the map right now and just show you this area now as you can see the affected area that most of the rescue efforts right now is coming from is that area of crimps now between chris and that port area arrive big is the water reservoir and now this water reservoir a lot of the locals are saying that authorities could have actually opened the pipelines from that water reservoir and actually wanting it not to fall down to the both important part of this area obviously they're port to right the but what happened is that then that flooded water went up here emergency assail images of it

is saying that is not true and that that reservoir is actually still locked up this is a natural disaster and you know theories like this shouldn't be running around especially when people are trying to do their best to rescue and obviously offer some support to what's happening now when you think of this area you think is it a flood related area has this happened before in two thousand and two we actually saw. two hundred people actually die during a summer a summer. during the summer period where two hundred people die so hundred or one hundred people now just in over twenty four hours it's a lot we'll see what happens and we'll keep everybody informed yes as you say. yes you keep us up to date on the developments in russia southern region of course the dark very much indeed to bring whatsoever. this is r.t. if you live from the russian capital within twenty four hours a day seven minutes past the hour now joy tension and sabotage today all characterizing what was libya's first election in half

a century armed gangs stormed a polling station in the north while a boycott shootings and abductions of across the country in benghazi were losses uprising began protesters burned ballot papers and decried the vote in or more than one hundred polling stations failed to open for the three thousand seven hundred candidates fought for seats in parliament predicted to be dominated by islamists today less than a year since moamar gaddafi 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 across libya with little hope that election results will stop the violence parties lucy camp has this report. this is the new libya political parties are now free to operate across the country . so to a countless armed groups they once fought to oust moammar gadhafi from power today it is they who are in control that 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 there while libya's falling into decay almost one year after a nato backed uprising and that gadhafi is ruled 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 what is good what is the transitional council which they said that they are going to protect this country with gadhafi gone there is nothing left they 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 taun 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 aligned 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 can this me give the good times when you're convinced. this is i think this is

. millions of nk 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 any dictator but if history repeats itself we will. think of. well with polls closed the vote counting is underway the general consensus so far is the islamist factions will pick up the line share of the vote as they did in post revolutionary tunisia and egypt and reese erlich journalist and contributor for a monthly magazine the progressive says it's not them he's concerned about but the foreign backed militias sabotaging the election. libya considered itself

a country even under moammar gadhafi the extent there was organized opposition it was often led by this going to us and they're trying to capitalize on that 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 those forces are not capable of winning elections fairly so they are disrupting the elections and as a response i think i get an interview a lot of ordinary working people or people in the street during my visits people are very very upset they think that a new strongman is going to come to power which is not what they fought for and they do feel that their revolution is being stolen and western interference is an issue the u.s. and western europe are very interested in maintaining the oral supplies from with. some of the countries that were pumping the loudest for military intervention are the ones who get their oil 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 the

forces of so-called stability. still to come in the program this out discord in the heart of latin america the ousting of hardline president its relations between neighbors and the regional expert she has his views on what lies behind this story . because the u.n. special envoy to syria kofi annan says the international peace efforts have not succeeded so far as the volumes continues to spread over the syrian border five people being killed in neighboring lebanon as the army clash with rebel gangs a writer at the center for research on globalization says they'll be helping the violence since the opposition supporters continue to aid the rebel fighters by providing arms. i think at this point these western powers are paying lip service to the the kofi annan plan and at the very same time undermining that 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 of the cia that confirmed the american cia is operating in a base in southern turkey and they're coordinating arms smuggling into into syria to the from the free syrian army and if we look at things like the houla 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. it's not only the diplomatic advantage which seems to be on the side of the syrian opposition but the media as well as aunties going to church can explain such overwhelming backing echoes 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 assad 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 went 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 me 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 and 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 who are poor water on the fire to try to calm things down instead we do as you find a smoldering fire you pour gasoline on it 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 thoughts christian serbs had to flee the province and thousands of them were killed by the liberators the way. i think that there are i think there are a couple different explanations for it i think what is our cozy relationship with saudi arabia in 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 the 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. russia and china rebuffed washington threats of consequences for what it sees as siding with the regime in syria the second your state hillary clinton said the countries must pay a price for that persistent support for the assad regime. one of the reasons for such harsh rhetoric but let's look at the screen and say public see the majority believe that the points of the frustration of the west over that. drive. think russia and china stalling the seven presses split between the two remaining options as we can see that clinton's words undermine the geneva peace accord that any joint program and the rhetoric was aimed at boosting public support for president obama's election that's not going to. cost you about.

this and plenty more money money to come including something bright lights were spotted in the skies over parts of the u.s. in europe. and plenty more on the phenomenon online. plus israel slams the door on the u.n. building officials from entering the country on a fact finding mission to inspect west bank settlements. the deadline set by the u.k.'s highest court for june in a sound his extradition to sweden runs out in a matter of balance but the whistleblower says he will not leave the safety of the ecuadorian embassy in london until a decision on his request for asylum in south america is made. there's more from outside the place of refuge. it's been nearly two and

a half weeks now the 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. his legal team have always said is that he would be then. gets in very strict free trial the tension 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 rita chartreuse war resister an all star standing with the ecuadorian people in the heart that i might the right decision which is to offer the guy short of a real sense among 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. of weeks the last big leak of course the u.s. diplomatic cables cable days well the syria furrows 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's still able to do what it does best despite the fact that today in a soldier's fist fight continues. the u.s. projects open free speech but should that same right extend to social media the resident is in new york to find out if internet companies should be able to decide what's acceptable and what is 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 bad but this week let's talk about that.

very thing all right but some people still do. well 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 live 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 freedom you might not agree with raised the them but do you agree that people should be able to say what they want not in a social networking site like i know why not this is just going to take us a people should keep their own comments to themselves but that's the whole point of twitter is reading it out something like that or even such where 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 so 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 providing free speech right there so i guess it's a toss up so is it ok for twitter to decide what stays and goes and says 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 racism 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 process it's going to happen say it we've changed it not enough it's i think that's their way of preventing some form of cyberbullying 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 in. people would just be better citizens and that being raised that. venezuela has pulled its diplomatic staff from paraguayan health to be 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 has affected the country's ties with its neighbors political analyst agency which he believes it's a sign of the u.s. promoting its interests in the region paraguayan suffered a coup d'etat literally on the first twenty first of june when it's democratically elected president for number was ousted in a twenty four hour pietschmann trial it must be the fastest pietschmann 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 paraguayans

considered together with bolivia the geo political heart in the south america so americans over pair of wife will also limit brazil's exit towards the pacific as a brick 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 an economic ally 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. not date of our top story now here on r t one hundred five people are reported to have known have died in massive flooding that hit the southern russian president our region dozens have

been injured and thousands of homes left devastated after five months of rain fell within twenty four hours rescuers are trying to evacuate survivors but the rain is swept away roads and severed communications making or if it's extremely difficult here is a popular seaside resort with thousands of russians flocking there during the holiday season we'll bring you the latest information on the disaster as it develops right here on our team. well coming up very shortly the report questions why america's all over sensitive markets are ignoring right britain's growing banking scandal that's coming your way after a brief recap of the day's stories right here on live in moscow.

industry claims in the process is perfectly c. c c's squished so that brings nothing but our income for. the environment knows better and the industry isn't telling the whole story. they're goddamn liars. they're here to. make as much money as they

can and get the hell out of. the world to the future science technology innovation all the news developments from around russia we've got the future covered. i.