the brits pro-government forces continue the siege of bani walid the last bastion of colonel gadhafi supporters on the country marks one years and his regime. drawn the attempted to call trial see charges foreign policy platform in that final head to head clash but both ended up making a stand with a zero if attacks by iran and calling for syria without outside aussies in-depth analysis and live coverage of the u.s. presidential debate is coming your way next hour. at least three people were killed in overnight clashes in lebanon as the nation's security forces try to force gunmen

on the streets than restaurants started by the death of a top intelligence tree. international news live for moscow this is all she with me thanks for joining us missing a humanitarian crisis caused by a standoff in the country's opposition stronghold of bani walid the people under siege say the blockade at six is being plummeted with gas filled bombs a water warning you might find these scenes we are about to show you disturbing the only remains can top the city remains cut off from vital supplies the violence has sparked mass protests leaderless people demanding an end to the siege all this comes exactly again this is the regime on the. achieving of the scope as. it was a coup. numerous human rights violations and crimes against humanity he was painted

as a ruthless and bloody dictator who would stop nothing even at the cost of human life of his own people here on after his demise let's have a look at how today's libya is different from the libya of moammar gadhafi because it was accused of mass executions of his opponents of using chemical weapons against of those who disagreed with his regime during the time of houston doff with the rebels in libya he was accused of purposefully cutting off food and humanitarian aid and water supply from citizens from residents of towns and villages which were in the midst of intense fighting now add to the democratically elected government as the western media likes to portray it to mean rights watch has said that they have followed conclusive proof of the associates being massively executed by the rebels or by the militias affiliated with the new government but it

was also the alleged use of toxic gas against people holed up in the town of bani walid where we're staying with body while we do have to remember that this is the town which has been under siege from pro-government forces for more than two and a half weeks now people are talking about the shortage of whatever food and medical supplies the footage fed by the really shows just what kind of carnage we're dealing with children young people old people women in. their arms their limbs torn off half of their faces blown off with a lot of these images had to be edited out of the gruesome nature now a year on after gadhafi it does seem like none of the stability or freedom or justice or peace that was talked about or actually in place in libya and that the country remains an abode of chaos. and joel resupply tical accidents from the

stop the war coalition says it's the western backed intervention lever that's to blame for the lack of any kind of stability we're beginning to see the fall fruits of the western intervention in libya for over a year ago no when the tide recedes when the west's arms are no longer being used you can see that there's a continuation of a civil war that was. before. we know that the situation is enormously unstable we know they were able to get weapons out of the militias hands we know that the government is in control of the capital very quiet about the whole country so i think this shows that the worst interventions to come more arms into the country made it ungovernable after they left. so having syria and iran while maintaining the u.s. military dominance there are car bomber and matronly locked heads in their final

production debate the incumbent president pitted his foreign policy record against the republican candidates like a one has the challenger tried hard to stay on the offensive let's now get the latest from our correspondent again at washington and i guess so paul's gave a bomb or a phone victory in the debate how different did the two men's positions appear. well you had this debate showed that the candidates agree on a lot of things on some issues they were almost in sync with one another even using the same words it seemed the occasional big ring that happened between them was more for the sake of the debate rather than about real differences in the policies that they propose on iran for example they couldn't agree more with each other and they were absolutely on the same page with regards to sanctions on iran with regards to backing israel they were saying exactly the same things but president obama did say something interesting he said he's against the premature military action against iran governor romney's

a vase of response to the same question suggested that he doesn't want to go there either and he said i don't want to get into hypotheticals so then on of get is that governor romney showed himself as an adamant could of the president's policies there he said that he thinks the surge was successful and that as the president of the united states he too would bring troops home in twenty fourteen something that president obama says he's going to do on syria though they both agree that the u.s. should get rid of all side and make sure that the next government in syria is friendly to the united states they both agreed although they did disagree on whether or not the u.s. should give heavy weapons to the rebels in syria that's what governor romney suggested whereas president obama least seems to recognize the complexity of the situation on the ground take a listen go after the. picture for us to get more intense militarily in syria is a serious stuff and we have to do so making absolutely certain that we know who we

are helping the we're not putting arms in the hands of folks who eventually could turn them against us or our allies in the region. to a more general point governor romney kept using the word opportunity when talking about the revolutions in the middle east and north africa when talking about syria it's very telling of the foreign policy that he is suggesting is that it's very opportunistic with regards to syria he basically said that the u.s. should take advantage of the crisis there to deliver a defeat to iran's take a listen to this. we recognize that there was a serious an opportunity for us because syria plays an important role the middle east particular right now syria is iran's only ally in the arab world it's their route to the sea it's the route for them to arm hezbollah in lebanon which threatens of course our ally israel and so seeing syria remove assad is a very high priority for us. if we

take a more general look at the debate on foreign policy for the most part it seems what candidate romney has been suggesting is not so different from what the president has already been doing the only is this is where you could see some real tension between the two was when they were talking about the economy and this debate was supposed to be all about foreign policy but the candidates did end up talking a lot about the economy of about an auto industry they were the moderator that did not stop them and of course obama and romney also township on relations with russia did they agree over that. giulio the candidates did mention russia on a few occasions although there was no specific question about russia of course that hot mike moment came up you know the one between president obama and russia's admitted image of this spring when the u.s. president suggested that he would be more flexible to discuss america's missile defense plans in europe after the election and for the remark the president has

come under an avalanche of criticism in washington criticism that came down to this came down to this basically how dare you be flexible with the russians how do you know or want to talk to them about security issues governor romney during this debate. has made a similar point take a listen. russia does continue to battle us in the u.n. time and time again i have clear eyes on this i'm not going to wear rose colored glasses when it comes to russia or mr putin and i'm certainly not going to say to him i'll give you more flexibility you have to election after the election you'll get more backbone. actually the uproar their reaction to that hot mike moment reaction over nothing really has shown how politicized the issue is here and why the president would not want to touch touch it in this election year the missile defense shield in europe is a longstanding sore point in the relations between the two countries moscow suggested

many times were resolving the issue by building the shield together to no avail the only response russia has been getting from the administration was don't worry it's not against you but then when they listen to candidate romney who calls russia an enemy in virtually every statement on russia that candidate romney has made so far has actually played into the concerns that moscow has with regards to this shell because russia then says ok president obama we believe you but what if maybe not this year not two but but four years from now someone with a mindset does that governor romney is elected the president of the united states how is he or she going to use those military bases so close to the russian borders because that shield is not and it's not a four year project it's a long running thing so despite this of ministrations more forthcoming of social attitude the issue still stands. around he's going to live from washington guyon many thanks indeed and of course we are continuing discussing the debate reaction

from professor paul sheldon food from california state university professor third welcome to the show so did mitt romney really stand the chance against obama in the debate given that vastly different foreign policy experience. looks like we've lost professor but we promise to bring him back as soon as we can and two holes debates stealing the show leaving friends policy presidential sidelined and bond from taking part on equal terms but altie is helping turn the tables by offering the alternative names on the ballot a platform for discussion and you can watch that debate live in america or new website late on tuesday. this presidential election is not just about obama and romney there are also third

party candidates on the ticket and they will influence its outcome see a debate about this nation's major third party candidates right here at our two yard over twenty third. and the come in the program separatist tendencies as calls for independence grow in different parts of europe look at what could be driving people to seek sovereignty . all sorts and ready to go the next international space station crew prepares for blast off and the problem down take five will pull from the side of pressure. in lebanon at least two people have been killed in the overnight clashes between pro and anti government demonstrators security forces in full combat gear and almost vehicles have been patrolling the competent beirut to force gunmen off the streets and arrest or spawned by last weekend's clashes between police and

protesters over the killing of a top lebanese security treat a staunch critics of critic of syria general house and die in their car bombing last friday and a mate and many cities in the country saw the hand of damascus behind his the opposition is also highlighting the government's ties with their assigned regime in syria and was the prime minister to step down on trees want to see a report from. the day on monday they were sporadic clashes in the northern lebanese city of tripoli this between two neighborhoods one that supports these syrian president bashar assad and another that supports the opposition and the other day and continuing until now we have seen armed gunmen from both sides patrolling the streets and this has stoked fears of an increase in sectarian tensions even incidence. syria have brought to the fore the very deep sectarian lines that suffer from it's brought to the fore both their allegiances and tensions

you have essentially the march eighth bloc that is led by hizbullah that supports the syrian president bashar assad backing it out with the march the fourteenth movement that is seen as western backed it's also a movement that supports the syrian opposition ever since the assassination in two thousand and five of the former prime minister rafik hariri these two forces have been coming to the fore and we see that happening again now over the assassination back on finding of this high ranking lebanese intelligence officer but what people tend to forget is that it is not in syria's interest to have been involved in this attack on friday you also need to remember that on sunday there was a suicide bombing in damascus itself that lift some thirteen people killed so what we're hearing is more more voices saying that this attempted blaming syria is merely a detraction from who the real culprits are and it is an attempt and essentially just provoking the situation people saying that not since we're figuring he was

assassinated more than seven years ago has there been such real concern on the ground here in lebanon that there could be a mother civil war so certainly the mood here is incredibly tense. and let's go back to our top story right now i'm talking about the last presidential debate in the u.s. and now reaction from professor paul sheldon food promise from california state university professor hello again so did mitt romney really stand a chance against obama in the debate given that vastly different foreign policy experience. rather was a good. you would understand what. mitt romney was going to do. when mitt romney's father ran for president he was doing very well in the polls and telly made a statement to the media that. he had been brainwashed by the american military. his presidency campaign at that spot mitt romney has learned never oppose the

military industrial complex no matter what obama said tonight and obama is a warmonger i'm so but no matter what obama said that night mitt romney was going to warmonger him on every issue. and that's what do you ever single every single chance they had during obama's failed to keep his promise to close gone tahn i'm a bay awning he has stepped up u.s. drone strikes and targeted killings across the globe but didn't romney try hard enough to capitalize on the president's foreign policy issue incomings though he praised you totally supported those. and if anything he had always go one step beyond and neither one of them would talk about what they meant by crippling sanctions they didn't mention that obama has blood on his hands from boeing airline america crashed in iran because obama will not let boeing some parts to he runs

nader one of them. romney could have condemned obama for not letting your iranians dying of cancer and other diseases get medicines because of limitations on trade in banking transactions every ten seconds every single chance that he had where he quoted nailed the president he didn't and he only worked for chances where he could be even worse warmonger than the president is they both have bought in their hands romney continues to view russia as america's number one rival but is obama any different considering how the recent of relations with moscow has stalled. no there are no different romney huffs and puffs more about it's a geopolitical foe or as obama said hey the cold war is over your your blustering too much to reject but both of them will. continue to say we will make examples or russia or china or anyone else who where showing what we can do to

the biggest iran just as it is really is are showing what they can do to palestine and the rest of the world remain silent it is just an iran is just an example of what can be done to the rest of the world they call this american leadership. brahmi even claim that if we put democracies in place in the middle east then there will never be any wars because democracies never vote for wars well we have to probe or candidates as president and states is a liar we recognize we go on is that who wins the election it will cool is can we expect washington's now aggressive foreign policy to take and becoming yes you know we come extremely aggressive because the american leaders realize that with their gigantic. deficit and trade problems i want to mention the edge of good educational problems and all kinds of other problems opposition that they are losing their ability to control the world right now they're desperately

turning to things like the world trade organization and the swift burning bank transfers everything they have done to iran they threaten to do what anyone else in the world and of the people the world have any intelligence that we're going to break away from these organizations and form their own organizations instead line from the us battles profess that post sheldon fade from california state university many thanks indeed. in spain his policies want to georgia in of regional elections with the country's autonomy seeking catalonia preparing to hold its vote next month their reading policy which is ahead in the polls that is gaining strong support with a promise of a referendum for south terminations and sociologist condo's del close says its economic hardship and reluctance to shed debts with the driving which driving separatist sentiment it's really the result of spain being a country that is basically the proper project united under

a crown that imposed one spanish national identity on several other communities we who have their own languages in their own histories what's going on now is the economic situation is weakening the central government so much that independence now seems quite plausible and in and even favorable to the people in these regions for years there has been work being done on the ground to kind of set up the material conditions for independence that is the basque region and had a more independent i guess tax system where there are taxpayer uro's would go towards the basque region in the basque autonomous region what we're seeing now is a shift in large part due to a rejection of the previous government the incumbent government which was composed of basically of the socialists and and to be able to a lot so what we're seeing really is a major shift where the independent this radical left has become the second power

in the region. and in our website right now punks in exile because of norse the please go to true christian life and begin them sentences in runeword correctional facility. and introducing tyler the house of its collective norman was said to launch the answer to be can be examined giving it a human name so find out more about a project at all to go on. it's time for a new crew to be sent to the international space station final preparations are underway at the bike in cosmo drawn with just a few hours before the launch of a shiny new soyuz craft. had a chance to meet strapping in for it. they arrived in baikonur like the rest of us an ordinary airplane landing on the tarmac but their departure is the kind that many only dream about. blasting off into the heavens for mission control it's now

a routine trip but for these men it's their first mission to the international space station and their debut journey aboard a soyuz rocket. a day before liftoff russian cosmonauts levinsky if any to real again and u.s. astronaut kevin ford met the press. each of us has piloted an airplane we've only send rockets down now will have to fly up into space inside i'm not feeling i think is one we simply won't forget to be at the top of this giant missile construction and beneath you is so much power that even thinking about it is a bit terrifying. it's a fear their families know all too well at this is not. of course it's worrying we're nervous after all this is their first flight is. there's no question i think that every man must have a purpose for which is child's and when he choose this goal he finds happiness but in reality i think amounts to happen as they explain when he chooses goal and has

close ones waiting for him at home. but for now in space three colleagues already on the i assess await their arrival now says decommissioning of its space shuttles leave russia soviet designed so use craft as the only means for international astronauts to reach the space station and for the countries involved it's a world away from the bitter space rivalry of old we work together we're starting to learn the best of both ways so again by cooperation were achieving something that's better than any one of us could do individually it will take about two days for the soyuz rocket to reach the station where the team will live and work for the next six months their first week will be a busy one i don't think it's. every week. we will tasks include a space walk to repair station equipment as well as returning the world's first commercial cargo space ship back to earth but intense training has prepared them for the tasks ahead getting that rocket off into space may be an act of precise

science but here and baikonur tradition and faith play a role to a tree planting ceremony is one of the many soyuz crew traditions each crew member also signs a wall here in baikonur space museum meanwhile in accordance with local custom a russian orthodox priest has blessed the rocket and the media. sure both up in the heavens and here on earth the space program is one of the few things that brings countries together at a time of global and rest for backup crew astronaut chris cassidy that's exactly how it should be when you're up in the space station on the plane and you see the beautiful. browning clouds but no borders there and i think that's the most indicative of the space program was. lucy catherine of r.t. baikonur. and some other world news in brief the police arrested a fifth to stop the clashes with the club for the panama sports alone the

government open the life and special troops to the caribbean starting to disperse the crowd with tear gas and rubber bullets violence erupted on the station which allows the sale of london a gene for free zones of private companies that demonstrators believe in decisions jobs and revenues of. the u.k. is set to double the size of its own drone strings in afghanistan by purchasing five new growth for coal but ounce of aliens operations the government hasn't announced yet whether they will mean that the twenty fourteen what. rachel's on due to be terminated because trees ministry of defense and it's only going to civilians have been killed in. it's priceless to thousand days although admittedly it's difficult to verify exactly who has been had. you what is considering the deployment of peacekeepers in syria but only proposed cease fire takes hold in the conflict torn middle east country the truth being pushed by

a locked up brain in the us our bleak envoy to syria has yet to be fully accepted by either side as. state a war for nineteen months or an estimated twenty two thousand. right now dimitri's here with the business news good morning and russia's ruble so with shoppers for in two weeks on monday so why is that well that's because russian banks basically realize that they're in desperate need for the greenback in order to fund one of the biggest deals in the you will industry have actually referred large as the circular what was happening they basically lost the ruble lost around this point seven five percent of value against both the dollar and the euro and that's because rosneft is buying up the entirety of b.p. or around sixty billion dollars now russia's first largest oil company gave he has been co owned by b.p. and his russian partners they are at the end of the day b.p.

will get twelve billion dollars in cash and twenty percent in gross never stalk half of the u.k. b.p. the other half of the company will buy from the russian shareholders for twenty eight billion dollars. now basically this deal was two years in the making and there were many different scenarios the way it could go right after signing this deal after it was approved in london the head of search and explained why the firm decided to buy the whole company. but usually. you counsel you both rosneft and b.p. supports the idea of buying the whole of tea and t.v. it's crucially important for us to have the acid totally integrated into rosneft strategy only in this case we have a synergy effect that will boost efficiency in a wide range of oil fields and refineries and currently now as i said after spending around sixty billion dollars fourteen k v p while its market value is four

times less around fifteen billion aleksandr nose out of from gas from bank explains this math there is no real or market estimate of what. because the market capitalization of holding the least at and t. is just above forty billion dollars there the same time you should forget that actually holding doesn't include for example fifty percent stake in slav may have to also include international as its large international essence so i don't think really rosneft is overpaying for the. right let's take a look at what's happening on the market zenda rosneft was out performing the market massively up more than three percent at the close on the news well as you can see my six was up around one percent actually outperforming other global markets to what we're seeing right now in asia is a bit of a. well boring picture actually the nikkei down point three percent and this is on

the back of a weak yen and also on the focus on asia in the obama romney debates well i'm saying today is closed for a public. all right we will be back in around fifty five minutes time with an update coming up next on r.t. we talked to eric anderson leading a u.s. space entrepreneur about the future of space tourism.