anti-government forces in levy are reportedly attempting to take control of the capital following colonel gadhafi his new offensive against the rebels as a five for the country graders on. unrest in the oil rich arab world sales shock waves through the us economy of the protests and fuel prices soaring also. we are in an information war and we are losing that war hillary clinton throws down the gauntlet to be u.s. media to op its game against other countries international media outlets including our teeth. and many britons preparing to boycott the approaching nationwide sense

outsourced to a controversial u.s. firm over fears all their personal info and up old scenes. welcome to r.c. the sunday morning they would take a look at the top stories of the week and libya where haven't gone far has been heard in tripoli as an take it off the forces reportedly tried to seize control however around two thousand pro with obvious supporters have gathered in the capital square to show their movements to the ruling leader outside tripoli clashes between pro and anti-government groups reached the strategic city of so where around fifty kilometers from the capital at least seventy people were killed and around three hundred wounded in a government attempt to regain the rebel stronghold artie's posed earlier filed this report. on saturday the libyan leader moammar gadhafi to. launched

a fresh military offensive he's trying to retake some of the towns he's lost in the past eighteen days of fighting there were some seventy people killed those are the latest reports we're receiving and more than three hundred people injured with reports of strikes and live ammunition and growing fears that libya is descending into civil war most of the fighting is in the key towns of libya such as zawiya which is some fifty kilometers from the capital tripoli and the oil rich port of the north. latest reports there suggest that rebel leaders are in control slowly making their way towards the capital city of tripoli in zawiya itself at drawn the gadhafi forces launched an attack they fired mortar shells they used machine guns and throughout most of saturday heavy fighting happened there the latest word we have from the rebel leaders themselves is that they remain in control inside of the town and we're hearing from government forces that they're in control around the perimeter now this is an important town because it is so close to the capital and

if the rebels are able to maintain a presence there they will have a better chance of attacking tripoli it is interesting though that some of the pictures we're showing you here on our t.v. have actually been distributed by the gadhafi regime it's really trying hard to present its version of events it's using these pictures as proof that its forces are in control in most of these towns in the east it's very difficult to tell from these pictures inside who is in control on the ground but it certainly is indicative that in addition to the fighting on the ground it certainly is a fight in the media and information war in terms of who is in control of what many of the media in europe and in the united states has been supporting the rebels there have been editorials in major american and european newspapers actually calling on the west to support the rebels and attack gadhafi the latest word we hearing is that the western media is trying to portray gadhafi forces as a losing and the opposition forces as winning. but as you can see from these

pictures it certainly is not clear who has the upper hand there are also analysts who are pushing forward the opinion that the western media is so empty gadhafi because he has taken such a strong stand in the past against western interference in developing countries the latest word from the british government is that it is confirming that it is considering and is on standby to deploy its forces within twenty four hours it says that these forces will be used for humanitarian and evacuation purposes and not for any kind of military intervention the latest word we have from the u.s. is that it's to. have a lift crease and according to a statement they issued they are part of the military buildup around libya and we also know that two american planes have landed in tunis they are reportedly here for humanitarian efforts we also know that france to the united kingdom are putting pressure on the united nations security council to make a decision on a no fly zone falsely reporting there and countries who might intervene in the

situation really a want to show themselves in a battle while according to john law and director of the institute for democracy and cooperation in paris i certainly think military intervention is on the cards we know it's on the cards because the government leaders have said they're not ruling it out is an important story and the west does want to try to establish some sort of control over the situation its because it wants to recuperate the situation it wants to. appropriate to itself developments which people which it did not initiate it's always a repeat of the west muscling in the sixty's and trying to present itself in a virtuous light by bringing in crimes or other prosecutions against the libyan leadership a british opposition labor m.p. jeremy corbin says the repercussions of military intervention in libya could see a repeat of what happened in iraq. it's looking very dangerous looking quite possible that they will launch such an attack with or without un approval and so

we're looking almost a repeat of what happened in iraq and the results i suspect may largely the same i think the important points are that there is a great deal of war begins to move here the western interest in libya have always been about oil and the idea that suddenly the west is concerned about human rights in libya is slightly a very very close relationship with gadhafi you know no fly zone was ever proposed over israeli attacks on gaza any more than the support of the opposition in bahrain i get the feeling this is more about geopolitics playing itself out rather than any genuine concern for the people that escobar who is a roving correspondent for the times says that khadafi is former allies are walking scared that he will eventually speak out in the international criminal court advance down. to the measure and it's got so. many for said to

be the collaboration of libya with the glare of the streets real that you know brought back to the international community all the shady deals superballs older shading financial deals repeatedly specially aid which has invested at least fifty billion dollars in the oil industry leader and that the larger relationship certainly every european governments a nation of us and arms dealers from britain will be a fantastic sure. and that's how to ask are there of interest on for the asia times they're going to have more on the developing situation and maybe on our website that's actually dot com the latest news developments and analysis from our experts .

well the arab uprising sending oil prices to new highs this week it's thought this could be just the start of a very bumpy ride surging fuel costs in the u.s. are threatening to derail the country's economic recovery and as artie's lauren lyster reports the political price may also be too high for the obama administration. tunisia. egypt. the hurricane. algeria. and libya protest in countries seeming to skew one another unrest spreading like wildfire through the middle east and north africa only raging in only here rich countries that helped fuel the world's use of more than eighty four million barrels of crude a day. uncertainty over production has set prices soaring nina shock waves from the middle east turmoil are being felt worldwide now the mideast

crisis is hitting home for our bridge americans as oil prices have skyrocketed so too have the prices for gasoline and now the price americans pay at the pump is threatening to derail the u.s. economic recovery a surge in oil. prices will be the end of the u.s. economy not just an end to the recovery there's no more bailouts like a reality peak oil expert michael c. rupert sees happening it will hit one hundred fifty dollars a barrel which he believes is inevitable this year others predicted going to two hundred twenty dollars it's so devastating because oil. fuels more than just cars. it fuels the entire global economy. though there's no doubt that if gas goes to five dollars a gallon for americans asked some predict there would be a high political price to pay for the obama administration's yeah yeah sareen

prices go up much and for a very long period. of your or. your political impact there is no denying the u.s. has played a role in the events that have transpired in the middle east every time u.s. president barack obama went to the podium calling for this that there must be reform political social. and economic reforms that meet the aspirations of the egyptian people and calling for egyptian president hosni mubarak's resignation he was calling for an end to the status quo which means a rise in uncertainty in the rich region so did leaders weigh the toll it could take on their own economy some argue they don't have the power to kind of winning back up try to push their back against an avalanche and i don't think we're going to have a lot of success that may not stop the u.s. from trying to take control some observers believe the u.s.

may intervene militarily in libya when the reserves are massive under false pretenses and hoping protesting people has nothing to do with interest. it has everything to do with the interest of the u.s. corporate oil corporations. profit either way analysts say the price of fuel going up will simply fuel public rage and the government is largely helpless the american people are going through a very nasty right and there's no way out of it now but i can tell you the government understands that it's time for him mr r.t. new york. i'm going to president hamid karzai says washington isn't doing enough to prevent mounting civilian casualties caused by american and nato military actions in his country he voiced his criticism in a video conference with president barack obama thursday in falls nato's apology a day earlier for killing nine children in afghanistan

a preliminary alliance before shows the boys all under age well were gathering firewood when they were targeted in an airstrike overall estimates suggest nato campaign of a country has caused over nine thousand civilian deaths since two thousand and one political activist daoud sultanzoy says innocent afghans are becoming clearer statistics in america's so-called war on terror. it's very difficult to translate these. ologies into into really meaningful. things to victims' families these are casualties that have been happening for too many years and there are too many civilian casualties the people of afghanistan civilians are the victims of both nato civilian casualties and the terrorists who come with suicide bombings and with indiscriminate targeting of civilian areas and the people of afghanistan are tired of both the hearts of the people of afghanistan or at the hands of two incompetent players players they need for national community and one

player as the afghan government and both players are incompetent and ignorant about the true meaning of hearts and minds the intention of this war was to fight terror but the people of afghanistan have become that victim of terror the united states and coalition forces have to do much better and they have to also hold the afghan side also at a higher standard in this case the afghan government and the international community are held responsible in the eyes and the eyes of the people of afghanistan and you know over a fifteen minutes here on our special report we'll look at the history of the twentieth century wrapping up terror around the world and claims countless lives every year. climate for you for.

hillary clinton has had the u.s. is losing out information of war to foreign media outlets including our team this week and secretary of state ask congress for more cash to step up america's afterwards to get its message across are his government should count reports from washington d.c. war declared the u.s. is now officially in an information battle with foreign media which provide alternative views on world news views which often running contrast of the coverage of events by the us news stream media we are in an information war and we are losing that war i'll be very blunt in my assessment al-jazeera is winning. the

chinese have opened up a global english language and multi language television network the russians have opened up an english language network i've seen it in a few countries and it's quite instructive we are cutting back the b.b.c. is cutting back some five years ago western media outlets including the v.c. and c.n.n. had a near monopoly in the coverage of world news things have changed since then more and more viewers across the world tuning in to various foreign media to get a fresh take on events clearly the united states feels on the defensive in part because it can no longer monopolize not only the terms of you know the soroti in these countries but also the terms of the day there's other information out there there are other points of view and those points of view are profoundly damaging to a country that believes that its point of view is the only point of view or should

be the only point of view r.t. presence on you tube is one example almost three hundred million views as opposed to c.n.n. that has around three million artie's constantly growing audience is already an indication to many that the days of media monopoly are over and people demand a movie polar approach to news there's no real commitment to the kind of freedom of the universe speech that we really need if we're going to be a democracy at home and in a you know a community of nations overseas to maybe hillary clinton speech a few weeks ago on freedom of internet seemed contradictory to the treatment that sources like we are getting us legislators are not crafting a law that would give the administration increased flexibility to go after weiqi leaks and the likes and now the administration is seeking more funding to step up u.s. propaganda efforts of broad during the cold war we did a great job in getting america's message out after the berlin wall fell we said ok

fine enough about you know we've. we're done and unfortunately we are paying a big price for it last year the head of the agency that manages the u.s. government run international broadcasting asked for more money for his department we can't allow ourselves to be out communicated by our enemies the list of enemies include russia china iran and venezuela walter isaacson the head of the agency which runs weeks of america among other media outlets later backtracked on this statement isaacson speech for more funding seemed even more unconvincing considering his agency has a budget of seven hundred fifty million dollars and it's way more than the budget of our t.v. iran's press t.v. and danish well as tell us your combined probably money alone can't close by global media clout walter isaacson's speech last year so it's quite a hostile message to foreign media exposing shortcomings in the us mainstream but secretary clinton's statement made it will push all the us is fighting a global information war and it's cool so i'm going to shut our reporting from

washington r.t. and as the war of ideas hits off observers say it's washington's own fault for being on the losing end chris to retain professor of media studies at georgetown university says real news is on its way alex and the us due to press and t.v. channel ownership by big corporations. the corporatization don't mess to clean up america new has basically thrown out the whole need for news gathering and real reporting in exchange for punditry and entertainment and sensationalism because that's going to deliver the demographics to the guys who pay for the commercials what's happening is we've opened up these huge gaps because we're more concerned with reality t.v. and people arguing and people attacking the president than we are with having people on the ground finding out what the problem the problems are and when you do that you can produce a product that people here and around the world are going to expect the amount of money we're talking about she could literally set up an entire. voice for america

on steroids a real state run news network she's not that's not what's going to happen they're going to try to go into these countries and probably try to bind is basically a true propaganda arm rather than a news gathering and reporting which is what our t.v. al-jazeera and the chinese network are going to be yes they're going to have their messages but they're real news networks they're pretty much aware c.b.s. a.b.c. n.b.c. were thirty years ago before things fell apart and require pretty. well they're always interested in your opinion so why not leave us your thoughts on a media war as our web site that's our dot com.

freedom as the basis of russia's future development a massive claim this week from president dmitry medvedev the seventy forms are inevitable for the country. a law that would say we can't postpone our freedom should we fear that the free man might use his freedom inadequately yet that some believe that our country's tragic history in the twentieth century was a result of a failed injection of freedom they believe the skeptics who say grand scale reform is unsuitable for the russian people i think differently a country should not be held together with tightened screws it is all of us that in order that is excessively strict excessive number of controllers does not usually leads to the triumph of good and not steve victory over corruption that you degree day should have management therefore it's extremely important to give the society a chance to see itself. the president's message came as russia marks one hundred fifty years since the abolition of circa that in korea was signed by sorrow xander

the second after a long struggle for reform in society the country's modernization to liberal traitors out of it out of for fraud of president of the policy since he came to power that's probably the u.k.'s preparing for a nationwide census which is start at the end of the month the government says it will help provide the services and resources people need but i can action to a controversial u.s. defense corporation means many fear of their privacy will be violated with their personal data falling into the wrong hands parties or at reports. it's census time in the u.k. when every household in the country is asked to provide detailed information about their lives to the government so they can keep track of what's going on and who will be in charge of this sensitive data. yes it's controversial u.s. arms manufacturer a lot martin and campaigners ranging from religious groups to peace activists to

data protection lobbyists are really against it on ethical grounds play on a number of oppressive regimes. the u.s. has a fortress in iraq and afghanistan opposed by the majority of people in britain even if supporting the british government hill vows to boycott the census despite the risk of prosecution he says he won't be alone look he'd makes land mines and nuclear weapons and contracts out interrogation at guantanamo bay although it will be the u.k. arm that carries out the survey there's still a worry that the information could fall under the auspices of the us patriot act which compels personal data held by any company on systems in the us to be made available to government intelligence the office but national statistics which gauged lockheed martin maintains its taken measures to make sure u.s. authorities can't access the data. all dance process and would be carried out in

the u.k. leave or be held at any point outside the u.k. and the lockheed martin staff will have access to any data or data is the property of you and only u.k.e. you owned companies will have any access to personal sense. but it's that last point that's raise red flags for data protection lobbyists who say that all the private information collected during the census will be available to practically any organization that requests it any use under any statute. but only use by the security or intelligence services for national security purposes any use for the pursuit of croy any use in pursuit of an e.u. community obligation so any e.u. rules pass information can be passed over so it's essentially any government use whatsoever of confidentiality is being abolished and u.k.

government agencies don't exactly have a great track record when it comes to safeguarding information three years ago a file containing secrets terror related documents was left on a train more recently the national health service lost their medical records of tens of thousands of people thanks to lockheed martin's involvement in the census it would be hard for the u.s. authorities to lay their hands on that information if they wanted data from the census is used by the government grants to local councils and recognize new groups in society as census run by lockheed martin raises grave concerns investing about ethics and international security if a lot of people boycott this that says it will make it ineffective and a waste of money with a two hundred forty million dollar contracts amounts will go into looking at martins pockets any way your estimates r.t. . it's time now for our other news making headlines around the world or at least

one. killed and twenty injured when a passenger bus collided with a lumber truck in the southern brazilian state of santa caterina police reported the truck driver lost control of his vehicle and crashed into the bus which had forty seven passengers on board in two thousand and seventeen a similar accidents on the same road claimed twenty seven lives. a fire which tore through a bar in central taiwan has left nine dead and injured preliminary investigation suggests the blaze was caused by sparks from a lead torch being used in a performance several of the victims were found on a staircase between the first and second floors. a for nato has ripped through a town in southwest louisiana leaving one person there and injuring eleven others the severe weather system destroyed many homes and caused over fifteen hundred people evacuated over fears of gas leaks. the soviet union's last leader

mikhail gorbachev has been celebrating his eightieth birthday this week on the day itself he was awarded one of russia's highest orders the order of st andrew matter recognizing his achievements as president for many people his name is synonymous with the out of the cold war there were unification of germany and liberalism well these economic and political reforms to pave the way for democracy in russia is best known policy perestroika aim to revamp the country without destroying the basis of socialism his initiatives also led to the cancellation of state censorship and the creation of free speech gorbachev receive the nobel peace prize in ninety nine i hear way or however a cool started a chain of events which led to the collapse of the soviet union and gorbachev the departure of his critics say the country into destructive and chaotic reforms effects of which are still being felt today despite the criticism though former leaders still says russia was in desperate need of change. with

a bust and we realized from experience that it was dangerous to wait much longer that we had to take a risk because we couldn't we needed changes i don't agree with people see the pedestal like you failed it didn't fail it was disrupted derailed stocks but still perestroika achieved a lot inside russia we had democracy free elections freedom of conscience. freedom to travel abroad everything. there was so much openness leaves our country was affected people realized they had finally got some freedom an opportunity to act in foreign affairs we put an end to the cold war we. normalize our relationship with the u.s. we reunited germany we didn't send our tanks or troops there all our units in eastern europe states where they were it wasn't always easy and many things did not work out the way we planned at the beginning when we made our first mistakes but we didn't really explain to people what was going on and didn't get them involved in

all those processes we were self-confidence but in public politics i don't think we have ever lost a major battle nuclear arsenals were significantly reduced thanks to our efforts during perestroika today when the world is so divided we need to find things that bring us together for instance the g twenty is a step which brings us closer it's an instrument and a mechanism for humbling the hardest and most challenging issues what we need more than that it's a matter of learning to live in a global world. and in final interview with how go to talk. just a few minutes stay with us for an update at the top stories of the week and a special report our history on the preferred weapon of terrorists worldwide.

more news today violence is once again flared up. these are the images the world has been seeing from the streets of canada. operations to rule the day.