over one hundred thirty people are killed and thousands of homes devastated as a popular southern russian resort area is hit by flash floods. tension overshadows libya's first election in half a century with cheers in the capital contrasting sharply with boycotts and attacks across the country. the deadline set for julian assange and his extradition to sweden is due to expire within hours but the whistleblower remains in the safety of ecuador's embassy in london awaiting a decision on his asylum. international news and comment live from moscow this is r.t. with twenty four hours

a day russia's interior ministry is now reporting that over one hundred thirty people are thought to have died after flash floods devastated the southern russian resort region of class and the death toll is expected to rise to richel rains have battered the area for over twenty four hours. is in the region. we're trying to get through the flood stricken area which isn't easy with all the roads here that destroyed by the water that were jammed with clean cars 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 after in groups 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 couldn't because 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 and bob

to move and trees and wait for emergency workers to pick them up several people were electrocuted when it's wire failed into the water that covered the pavement to local supermarkets were completely destroyed getting out to dry land isn't easy either those highways and rain routes that they can have a hit from the elements blocking many as pedro 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 flock here every year to other towns that suffered badly you know what i see finns getting jiggy are now packed with tourists on our way to disaster stricken area was sold dozens of cars from moscow with lichens plates for inside bierria and russian far east many of those who can hold still 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 factor is because the the region how this many summer camps

for children currently filled with over seven thousand kids an hour ago would pass one of them the chemicals a little knock and luckily from what we saw it has not been hit by the flooding. and witnesses and survivors have been sharing that firsthand accounts all the disaster. but. the 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 because i couldn't even hear the voice 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. i was covering our relatives who are in the house including the paralyzed grandmother and a young woman with her three month old child last time we got a call from them they said the water level was almost reaching the ceiling and they didn't know how to get out we haven't heard from them since. artie correspondent

to bang with say has more now about the rescue efforts in the stricken area. emergency services have actually been focusing on rescue children as well as the elderly first and foremost 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 jury 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 others 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 of 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 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 there 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 effect of the area that most of the rescue efforts right now is coming from is that area of crimps now between chremes and that port area right the 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 first important part of this area obviously that 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 one 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. of the news now here in r.t. joy tension and violence all characterizing what was libya's first election in half a century going stormed polling stations in the north and the east boy called shootings and abductions of more devoting across the country in benghazi where last year's uprising began protesters burned the ballot papers and the crowd voted and all more than one hundred polling stations failed to open one man is reported to be killed when militias protesting the elections clash with voters in the country's rest of east today less than a year since mama gadhafi was executed by a crowd of revolutionaries it seems libya is more divided than ever and authorities lucic of enough reports there is little hope that the election results will then the violence. this is the new lead.

political parties are now free to operate across the country. so too are countless armed groups they once fought to oust moammar gadhafi from power today it is they who are in control red tag militias who answer only to their own commanders have grown more powerful than libya's police and army. which 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 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 transitional council 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 a 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 tahn which still holds libya's most famous prisoner. when international criminal court staffers tried to visit gadhafi son they too were seized and held captive for nearly four weeks justice militia proved 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 islamised 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. i don't know. how congress may give the gift. so i think. 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 i'm a dictator but if history repeats itself we will. seek out of our t.v. moscow. ted role a spokesman a lady who knocks he's a political columnist and

a law he thinks that libya is not yet ready for democracy. libya is a country that needs to settle out into an idea of a post gadhafi unified idea of a libyan nation state that all libyans regardless of their sect to their sectarian tendencies and tribal affiliations can get behind until they can do that there's not any point holding an election even if you didn't have violent what you would effectively is a civil war that's carried out at the ballot box where different sects and tribes are turning that are running candidates against one another and trying to dominate their countrymen that way that's not a recipe for democracy if they're she just not ready at this point law and order is really the top priority of running host gadhafi in libya so whether it's a strongman or a governing council which i would recommend that is composed of both of the little

figures from throughout throughout the country what you really need is police forces on the street ready to meet a law and order in the service of a libyan state and right now yes that that the transitional government is obviously finished but they just can't go from the transitional regime into a democracy at this stage they're just it's just not going to work it's going to add to the instability and prolong the crisis rather than bring in a quicker conclusion to it i think libya should have waited years before it got ready for its first elections. the u.n. special envoy to syria says international peace efforts have not succeeded partly as a result of divisions between wild powers this comes a day off to u.s. secretary of state clinton said russia and china will pay a price for supporting assad well for more on this we can cross to petra and maybe analyst and editor info was dot com it's quite an admission from the special envoy

to syria do you think the conflict can ever be resolved politically. politically diplomatically this conflict in syria cannot be resolved at the table i was on your program a week ago i said that the geneva talks will fail and they have and the reason they failed is because while they're all sitting at the peace table trying to make a road map to peace both the west including the u.s. and the u.k. and the gulf states like saudi arabia and qatar are working to arm and back a rebel faction and multiple guerilla armies within syria to overthrow the regime how could peace talks be ever carried out on any kind of bilateral basis when this is going on so it's not the international community's failure it's the failure of the u.n. and the special envoys to recognize that they cannot take the side of the u.s. and the u.k. their funding and backing rebels in

a proxy war it's absolutely ludicrous that kofi annan thinks that he could actually achieve anything and clearly there are a lot of division among the international community particularly russia and china hillary clinton saying she wants russia and china to pay a price if they continue to be intransigent as she says what will sort of price is she talking. i think with hillary clinton and she's also speaking at the friends of syria meeting in paris so hillary clinton it's very important that she's looking to talk tough ok this is an election year in the u.s. so you have obama going for reelection hillary clinton could be shuffled in her position come november she could she could become a vice presidential candidate or something like this but this is typical talk out of washington the ultimate price that china and russia will pay with regards to the u.s. is not to be known china has an incredible economic advantage in leverage terms over the u.s. by holding a trillion dollars and treasury notes and russia is not is not in the western bloc

so i think this is a lot of this is rhetorical bill this is trying to create a narrative that the syrian regime is wrong and that the west are right in there in there wanting regime change in syria a lot of this is trying to it's a kind of a media game of language and hillary keeps banging on the same points over and over again even though they have nothing to do with reality isn't that a danger that despite what's happening domestically in syria this could actually turn into a regional conflict already we've seen five people killed in lebanon a turkish jet shot down recently while it's becoming goes on amongst those that well pass' it as they call themselves is then not a danger although it's spreading much further now beyond syria's borders. well if you look at the planning if you were if you were in the pentagon right now or any of the top think tanks in the u.s. or even a year ago the plan is build the plan is regional destabilization ok the u.s.

embassy has drawn up plans as far back as early this year and is already organizing plans as far back as april to evacuate twenty thousand american citizens from lebanon and embassy staff an ngo workers ok this is this is really happening ok you haven't read about it but it's long good sort from in beirut that is happening now what does that mean that means they're already planning for the destabilization of lebanon washington so is this good news for lebanon no it's not just briefly then what is the end goal for all of this regional destabilization what's the main aim here just briefly from your point of view. the main aim from from a western geo political perspective is to first bring syrian government down so that it is no longer an ally of hizbollah then the next step is to bring neutralize hizbollah and possibly to confront them militarily and to dissolve hizbollah this

will be easier done by destabilizing lebanon through some kind of a conflict once isabel is eliminated the door is now open for israel and the u.s. to unilaterally strike iran which they've been talking about on and off for the last six or seven years so they can't do that yet because as we saw in two thousand and six hizbollah took the israeli army and sent it home basically limping home after the two thousand and six conflict between lebanon and israel so his ball is a major obstacle they are allied with iran and so once they're neutralized the door is open for an attack on iran and that is the precursor to world war three as we know it is not something anybody really wants to see but it seems to me the talk out of washington and london is that they're looking in that direction so we should all be very concerned about this grim prediction and very interesting perspective thank you very much indeed for joining us live in london well he's a writer at the center for research and globalization says that some international

powers publicly support the annan plan but privately stoked of on its by aiding the rebels. 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 it completely by letting weapons come into the country from all sides just a couple of weeks ago the new york times they've 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 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 one as well and as and he's going to explains such overwhelming backing echoes in the the 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 what has been

going on in yugoslavia inform you that there are there are similarities 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 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 the 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 its elements and gauging in terrorism with the predictable results for the christian population as we saw in kosovo when half the christian population with a box 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 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 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. just remind you check out more stories from around the world online at our website. including something else rapidly moving right. nearly at the same time in the skies of europe in the u.s. may be the moment online. and israel slams the door of the u.n. human rights council banning officials from entering the country on

a mission to inspect west bank settlements. the deadline set by the u.k.'s highest called for extradition to sweden expires very soon 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 the south american countries made has more now from outside a place of refuge. it's been nearly two and a half weeks now that you innocence has been holed up inside the ecuadorian embassy here in london after presenting himself on the nineteenth of june seeking asylum now today is the deadline for his extradition to sweden all of his appeal to the supreme court in the against

a sexual assault allegations failed so it would have been the day we could have seen julian assange 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 the poor for about seventeen days on a daily vigil we're here in solitary with a saunters of war resister an o.c.r. standing with the ecuadorian people in the heart that i might write decision which is draw for the guards 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 this 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 gave all the syria 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 to the innocent is

fierce fight continues. not data of our top story the more than one hundred thirty people are now thought to have died in massive flooding that's hit the southern russian cross into the region and the death toll is expected to rise thousands of homes were devastated when five months of rain fell within just twenty four hours rescue efforts are underway but water was swept away roads and communications make it difficult to evacuate survivors here is a popular seaside resort that attracts thousands of russian holiday makers throughout the year we bring you the latest developments on the disaster as they happen here on r.t. . well coming up very shortly the kaiser report questions why america's often over sensitive markets are ignoring right britain's growing banking scandal that's coming your way after a brief recap of the day's top stories here on. wealthy

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