while finding continues around media reports of heavy gunfire in the count at all are dismissed by the government as simply broken off the celebrations. unrest in the oil rich arab world sans shock waves through the u.s. economy and the protests and fuel prices soaring also. we are in an information war and we are losing that war miller and clinton throws down the gauntlet for the us media to offer its games against other countries national media outlets including ours. and many britons preparing to boycott the approaching nationwide census outsourced to controversial us her and her fears all

their first ones own life and out overseas. it is one pm in the russian capital you're watching r t with me arena josh they will take a look at the top stories of the week to leave you now where there are reports of warplanes launching an air strike on rebel forces or earlier have gunfire was heard in the capital tripoli it is unclear whether it came from rebels trying to gain power or a celebratory shots from supporters of the regime around two thousand pro golfers supporters have gathered in the capital square to show their commitment to the ruling leader fifty kilometers outside tripoli clashes between pro and anti-government groups reached the strategic city of zawiya and it is still unclear who's now in control of what territories would. claims coward claims on both sides

of the air filed this report. on saturday the libyan leader moammar gadhafi 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 ras north now in rosslyn off the latest reports there suggest that rebel leaders are in control so you making their way towards the capital city of tripoli in zawiya itself at drawn the gadhafi forces launched an attack they fired a mortar shells they used machine guns and throughout most of saturday heavy fighting happened to their villages where we have from the rebel leaders themselves

is that they remain in control inside of the town and we're hearing from government forces are there 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 in fact who is in control on the ground but it certainly is indicative that in addition to the fighting on the ground there certainly is a fight in the media and information war in terms of who is in control of what now many of the media in europe and in the united states has been supporting the rebels they have been editorials in major american and european newspapers actually calling on the waste to support the. abel's and attack gadhafi the latest word we

hearing is that the western media is trying to portray who duffy's forces as losing and the opposition forces is winning but as you can see from these pictures it certainly is not clear who has the upper hand and also analysts who are pushing forward on the opinion that the western media is so and she could i think because she has taken such a strong stand in the past against western interference in developing countries relations with them the bush government is there is confirming that it is considering and is on standby to deploy its forces within twenty four hours and 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 its chukwu ships have been lifted chris and according to state of the issues they are part of the military buildup around libya and we also know that two american planes have landed here they are reportedly here for humanitarian efforts we also know that france and the united kingdom are putting pressure on the united

nations security council to make a decision on a no fly zone obviously you're reporting there and the u.k. has admitted its diplomatic team is really near to establish contact with rebel groups there are reports military personnel are part of the british contingent although that's not been confirmed by the country's government and i wore activist carol turner told r.t. there while the audience may want regime change it should be achieved within the country alone and are by foreign intervention. i'm extremely worried the could be a foreign intervention and i think united states and britain i think it's very difficult for them but on the other hand if they feel that there's any opportunity of toppling it's a failure and installing a pro western regime or a family of how they think feel that oil interests and offered me is the interests are in some way threatened then i think ultimately they won't i will back i'm particularly concerned about the no fly policy that's been itself the

comparison would be what's happened in iraq in the ninety ninth his at the end of the gulf or of ninety nine he won the united states and britain and so on a stump of a no fly zone the net result was that hundreds of thousands of iraqis were killed the infrastructure of the country was blown sea nets the results of a no fly zone walls not to prevent a cause the humanitarian crisis and it doesn't take a great leap of imagination to see the sort of situation unfolding here population across the region has made pretty clear in my opinion that although it wants to change regimes it doesn't want foreign intervention you don't need to a degree in politics and were brought out some to understand what's being said of

course it doesn't want america or britain back in however a political ax marty darrius nasm roya says foreign intervention has already been on and will only aggravate the situation in libya. foreign intervention can only exasperate the problem in libya it cannot help in any way and as a matter of fact foreign intervention has already begun the french the united states and the british have already said so cold too many experienced aid to benghazi but they've also sent military advisors and special forces this means that your operations have already begun we are seeing a similar scenario of what happened to iraq we're seeing talks about sanctions false reports that have been used to justify the no fly zones about aerial strikes on protesters and civilians this is the same scenario as iraq in fact been starting to talk about chemical weapons in libya it was in two thousand and three that the united states and britain want to fight gadhafi as someone who gave up his weapons

of mass destruction now they're doing that out face and claiming that colonel gadhafi has chemical weapons no this is another book the man they're creating to justify their foreign policy in regards to libya in fact it's very ironic that the united states called on protesters in egypt and the regime to talk things out but in libya you have a whole different story because of oil interests or black gold some may call it hanging out more on the developing situation. calm the latest news developments and analysis from our experts as well. 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 our lauren lyster reports the political price may also be too high for the obama administration. tunisia. egypt. balmain. algeria. libya protest in countries seeming to a few one another unrest spreading like wildfire through the middle east and north africa only raging in all year 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 meaning a shock waves from the middle east turmoil are being felt worldwide now the mideast crisis is hitting home for the average americans as oil prices have skyrocketed so too have the prices people pay 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 you know gasoline prices go up and much i for a very long period it could be severe. your political

impact if 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 group rich region so did leaders weigh the told it could take on their own economy some argue they don't have the power to kind of winning back up trying to push their back against an avalanche and i don't think we're going to hear 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 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 ride and there's no way out of it now but i can tell you the government understands that it's not boring mr r.t. new york afghan 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 wants his criticism in a video conference with president barack obama on thursday it falls nato's apology a day earlier for killing nine children again a state a preliminary alliance report shows the boys all under age twelve more gathering firewood when they were targeted in an airstrike overall estimates suggest nato

campaign in the country has caused over nine thousand civilian deaths since two thousand one little activist daoud sultanzoy says anas and afghans are becoming mirror statistics in america's so-called war on terror. it's very difficult to translate. these apologies 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 a problem 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 in the hands of two incompetent players one player as they need financial 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 both the afghan government and the international community are held responsible in the eyes and the eyes of the people of help on this front. hillary clinton has said the u.s. is losing an information war to foreign media outlets including our t.v. this week the secretary of state ask congress for more cash to step up america's efforts to get its message across art is going to 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 to the coverage of events by the us needs 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 c.b.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 we can no longer monopolize not only the terms of you know the soroti in these countries but also the terms of the debate 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 move people are approach to news the real commitment to the kind of freedom of diverse speech that we really need if we're going to be in a democracy at home and in a you know a community of nations overseas is to many hillary clinton speech a few weeks ago on freedom of internet seemed contradictory to the treatment that sources like we can leaks 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 have brought 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 of that you know we've. we're done and unfortunately we are paying a big price for it so last year the head of the agency that manages the us government one 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. american mungo the 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 r t iran's press t.v. and venezuela's tell us we're combining probably money alone can't close by global media clout walter isaacson's speech last year says quite a hostile message to foreign media exposing shortcomings in the us mainstream but

secretary clinton's statement made it official the u.s. is fighting a global information war and exclusive i'm going to take our reporting from washington r.t. . and as a war of ideas heats up observers say it's washington's own fault for being on the losing end christopher chambers a professor of media studies at georgetown university says real news is on its way out in the us due to press and t.v. channel ownership by big corporations. the corporatization don't mess to clean up american news has basically thrown out the whole need for news gathering and real reporting in exchange for punditry and entertainment and sensationalism because that spin to deliver the demographics to the guys who pay for the commercials what the sampling 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 respect 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 where c.b.s. a.b.c. n.b.c. were thirty years ago before things fell apart and require pretty. well we're always interested in your opinion here in our teens so you can always let us know what you think on this or our another in the share on our website our team.

fran is the basis of russia's future development the message came this week from president mitterrand we have this every forms are inevitable for the country. merely bloodwood so we can postpone our freedom should we fear that the free man might use his freedom inadequately yupik 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 obvious that in order that it is excessively strict excessive number of controllers does not usually leads to the transfer of goods and notes to victory over corruption that to the degree they should have management therefore it's extremely important to give the society a chance to a good ice itself the president's message came as russia marks one hundred fifty

years since the whole issue of served at the decree was signed by tsar alexander the second after a long struggle for reform in society the country's modernisation going to win the world again his house had at the forefront of trying to get its policies since he came into power it's really the u.k. is preparing for a nationwide census which is the start of the end of the month the government says it will help provide the services and resources people need but a connection to a car a virtual us the fans corporation means many fear their privacy will be violated or their personal data falling into the wrong hands are his or at reports. it's senses 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 they also. the us heavily in the wars they fought in iraq and afghanistan opposed by the majority of people ember and even if supported by the british government hill vowed to boycott the census despite the risk of prosecution he says he won't be alone look he'd makes land mines on 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 for national statistics which ng

gauge lockheed martin maintains its taken measures to make sure u.s. authorities can't access the data. all dancer processing will be carried out in the u.k. leave will be held at any point outside the u.k. no lockheed martin staff will have access to any data or data is the property of you and only u.k. e.u. and companies will have any access to personal census data 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 only use under any statute. but only use by the security or intelligence services for national security purposes any use for the pursuit of crime any use in pursuit of an e.u. community obligation solely e.u. rules pass information can be passed over so it's essentially any government use

whatsoever of competition houses 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 the 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 the census run by lockheed martin raises grave concerns in britain about ethics and international security if a lot of people boycott this that says it will make it ineffective and a waste of money but the two hundred forty million dollar contracts amounts will go into martin's pocket anyway you're an authority. but some take

a look at some other stories from around the world. tards to break up. in the capital of bangladesh angry crowds mass the gold witnesses reported several people injured protester was called after a twenty five year old student died in a road accident in the early hours of sunday. at least twenty six people have been killed and twenty injured one of passenger bus collided with a lawnmower truck in the southern brazilian state of santa catarina police reported the truck driver lost control of his vehicle and crashed into the bus which had forty seven passengers aboard it two thousand and seven two accidents on the same road claimed twenty seven lives. by error which tore through our bar in central to one has left nine dead and injured preliminary investigation suggests the blaze was caused by sparks from an alley the torch being used in

a performance several of the victims were found on the staircase between the first and second floors. of the soviet union's last leader has been celebrating his eightieth birthday this week on the day itself he was awarded one of russia's highest honors the order of st andrew medal recognizing his achievements as president for many people his name is synonymous with and of the cold war there reunification of germany and liberalism of his economic and political reforms pave the way for democracy in russia and he's best known policy perestroika aim to revamp the country without destroying the basis of socialism is initiatives also led to the cancellation of state's outer ship and the creation of free speech received a nobel peace prize in ninety nine a year later however a coup started a chain of events which led to the collapse of the soviet union and gorbachev departure its critics say he plunged the country into destructive and chaotic

reforms the facts of which are still being felt today. by the criticism though of the form of the. it wasn't just. us if we realized from experience that it was dangerous to wait much longer but we had to take a risk because we couldn't postpone as we needed changes i don't agree with people see the telestrator failed it didn't fail it was disrupted the really railed stocks still perestroika achieved a lot inside russia we had democracy free elections and freedom of conscience but of property freedom to travel abroad everything also glassful still and there was so much openness the entire country was affected the people realized they had finally got some freedom and an opportunity to act in foreign affairs we put an end to the cold war we normalized our relationship with the u.s. we reunited germany we didn't send our tanks or troops there all our units in

eastern europe stayed where they were wasn't always easy but many things did not work out the way we planned after the beginning and when we made our first mistakes much 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 in or 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 in the mechanism for handling the hardest and most challenging issues move but we need more than that sort of the it's a matter of learning to live in a global world where. i can find a full interview with how gorbachev in our economy if you met stay with us for a special report on the so-called global food crisis and why millions are starving despite a planet having an abundance of surprise. come

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