the latest headlines of the week in review here on r.t. the libyan government blames foreign forces for the latest setbacks which they say are giving the opposition a significant lead. for the rebels as they patrol he boiled down. a not government stronghold. washington tries to distance itself from the libyan crisis but the country has a long history of international interference and leaves a war weary public. lengthy conflict.

painful economic cuts. a million a march through london and protests. question expensive in libya campaign while spending is being slashed. in japan radiation rises in the sea near fukushima despite efforts to bring the plant to under control following the earthquake tragedy over ten thousand are now listed as dead with many more missing or homeless. with the top stories of today this week you without. libyan rebels claim they've recaptured a key eastern cities from the forces the news comes as nato ambassadors meet to decide on whether to take full command of the mission in libya from the coalition that's not. yes he's got his policy who was there. what do you think these recent

gains are mean by the rebels we understand that could be hard days ahead but what is the general course of action in the short term future looking like. well the latest news we have the rebel fighters have just taken over the chant of ras lanuf that's a strategic oil fort city it is an oil refinery there and there are oil pipelines that more important than that this is the final destination in terms of the rebels being able to retake land that they lost in the last few weeks fighting if the rebels continue to advanced towards tripoli which is what we're hearing from them if they plan to do they will from now on the on the offensive and this raises a whole host of new questions to the coalition partners in terms of where or not they will continue to support eight only which some part of the city in the misrata the two hundred kilometers from tripoli they're a very different story is unfolding and we are hearing that the government brought

in reinforcements and shelling the town now just once again the french say that they took hours five of libyan planes and. since we have a smarter we're also hearing from the american administration that some one hundred . missiles would fly it over the weekend that some of those also fired from an american warship in the mediterranean sea. or not. looks like at this point i know it sort of could be in charge of the whole operation in just a few hours now you're on the ground. you've been speaking to libyans and what do they expect in this forthcoming change of command. i think by and large most that means don't really expect anything on the ground to change anything you don't have opposition by just a little bit concerned when you have a twenty eight member nature coalition this might need to see more countries agreeing on the possibility of more countries being able to reach any kind of action and so the risk is that the action on the ground will not be as well as it has been until now. because i need both the opposition find chance as well as the

coalition partners do admit that. for the past week they simply wouldn't have been around enough find on the ground and that is what we're witnessing an almost one hundred eighty degree turn around just a week ago a little string stronghold of benghazi was under threat of what we were being told was a massacre now we see this very quick and months and are reports of over the country now from this evening we do understand that nato will be taking command of enforcing this no fly zone for a period of about three months now since speaking there is an issue now underway in brussels where they are discussing whether or not they will extend the control of the entire operation the united states says that there are some sticking points and the sticking points are over the question of civilians just try and hold mating is going to be in their strikes when it comes to chicks and civilians and this returns us to the first question in terms of as these coalition airstrikes continue and as your opposition fighters and further and further west which they are calling from

what is strikes they are calling for more weight and supply and certainly these are going to be questions that nato is going to have to answer in the coming days apollo it is interesting that you as nato is poised to take over you mentioned a possible duration of three months of action and yet this week this past week we had american military officials meeting with the russian president saying we'll be scaling back operations in the next few days his policy i live in tripoli thank you . well a former british intelligence officer i mean russia told us that despite the coalition's claim the capacity is not a target very tempted to get rid of them just to make their job a bit easier. i think there are a tangle as soon as the whole uprising began in libya because they really didn't know which side to back in which way to jump of course there colonel gadhafi had been a historic enemy of the west for many many decades and suddenly he'd been brought back into the international fold and there were lots of nice juicy oil contracts and business contracts flowing out of libya towards places like the u.s. the u.k. and france and italy so i think they were very torn for

a long time and it's only really over the last weekend that they did a bit of a rush job to take the violence to the next stage and protect the rebels that they had been backing secretly for a couple of decades in the east of libya so i think different aims from different countries different vested interests within libya of the different countries and also different histories are all playing a part in this in this model and it is interesting as we're looking at the sort of conflicting reports coming out of the u.k. particularly about the endgame where the military chief of defense is saying absolutely not we're not going to get up decapitation of the libyan state we're not going to try to assassinate gadhafi and yet the government is trying to sort of hedge its bets on that front i think the temptation is going to get stronger and stronger certainly for the west the u.k. and france to try and get rid of gadhafi in an accident a bomb that goes off in the wrong place or something because of course they've made such a problem for themselves now even if they end up with a stalemate a war of attrition and particularly a partition situation between the east in the west of libya then we have a situation where gadhafi still has power now gadhafi is going to feel very

betrayed by his ex best allies in the west of course he closes up in over the last decade and gadhafi has experience and a track record and also his stated intentions of carrying out terrorist attacks in the future if he stays in power so i think the west really is in a position where it has to go for the end game of getting rid of gadhafi for regime change but of course that is highly illegal under all sorts of international laws and is specifically excluded from the u.n. resolution. now while american bombs pound libya barack obama says the u.s. quote should not and cannot intervene every time there's a crisis somewhere in the world even so every american president since one old reagan who also bombed khadafi has a way to end on at least one military conflict he's christine purcell lines up this controversial trend. it's become an unspoken identity the job description. become president of the united states. declare war my fellow americans my fellow citizens for president ronald reagan in

one thousand nine hundred eighty six a familiar attack on a familiar enemy despite our repeated warnings gadhafi continued his reckless policy of intimidation is relentless pursuit of terror he counted on america to be passes he counted wrong turns out so did saddam hussein just two hours ago allied air forces began an attack on military targets in iraq in kuwait for his successor president clinton the target was slobodan milosevic today our armed forces joined our nato allies in airstrikes against serbian forces responsible for the brutality in kosovo president george w. bush said it was weapons of mass destruction that threaten the world and invaded iraq in what was supposed to be a quick and limited campaign on my orders coalition forces have begun striking selective targets some military importance to undermine saddam hussein's ability to

wage war most thought it would end there with president obama running on an anti-war platform he has spent most of his presidency trying to end the wars started by his predecessor until now the u.n. security council passed a strong resolution that demands an end to the violence against its. it authorize the use of force in the timeline of recent history there have been some glaring similarities when it comes to the use of force by u.s. presidents none have been in response to a military attack or even threat of an attack on u.s. soil and none have ever been formally declared wars we had to protect thousands of innocent people in kosovo from a mounting military offensive we are determined to knock out sat on hussein's nuclear bomb potential we will also destroy his chemical weapons facilities self defense is not only our right it is our duty the definition of duty often changing the result eerily parallel thank you god bless you. god.

thank you very much christine r t. president after says that the u.n. back to military intervention is a direct consequence of the violence carried out by libya's leader moammar gadhafi against his own people but he did criticize the strikes saying the no fly zone should be used only to protect civilians and to restore peace. just that everything that's happening in libya is a result of the shameful behavior of its government and the crimes against their own people we shouldn't forget that everything else is just a consequence of that we supported one of the un security council resolutions and allowed the other resolution to go through this was done consciously to prevent the escalation of violence but still the events that followed show that any decisions of this kind should be accompanied by thorough consultation as well as remembering that the use of force should be proportionate to what is happening the fact that as

a result of these actions of indian targets were damaged and according to unconfirmed reports that innocent people have died shows that states taking part in the military strikes have achieved that i hope that as a result of coordinated actions by the international community there will be peace on libyan soil and full measures will be taken to prevent the conflict from spreading into africa and other states. now russia is ruling out getting involved in the coalition operation in libya saying it is not producing the expected results prime minister putin agreed that the protection of libyan civilians is paramount but shouldn't be achieved at a cost to innocent lives. there's a civil war going on in libya the proposal of a no fly zone was aimed at preventing gadhafi from firing at his opponents and so protect civilians such a decision applied to a sovereign state is a difficult one but the aim was well intentioned but what are we seeing now that it

is strikes on the entire territory of the country and how can it be you know well aiming to protect severely such means or chose the civilian death toll actually rises each year usually unions and the u.s. defense secretary was here in moscow this week to try and muster kremlin support for intervention in libya moscow abstained from voting on the u.n. resolution which led to the no fly zone enforcement robert gates assured president medvedev that major operations in libya would scale back within just a few days so it wasn't the only military issue which came up missile defense in europe was also discussed but little progress was made moscow wants a joint system to protect the continent but washington insists on a shield of its own words russia says it's a threat to its own security. well our correspondents in libya and around the globe are updating artie's twitter stream you can stand touch with what they're witnessing on the ground as also more on our facebook page and of course artie's

very own you tube channel. london's streets were filled with more than a quarter million angry voices on saturday public sector workers staged britain's biggest political demonstration in years over the deep spending cuts which are being rolled out the hundreds of arrests as part of the violent the windows of shops banks were smashed doused with paint the demonstrators opposed the government's eighty billion pound. they say will destroy essential services are

jobs being lost as necessary to reduce britain's deficit the u.k.'s outpouring of anger follows a week which saw intense protests in brussels as the e.u. contemplated bailing out portugal daniel bushell reports. no more layoffs to pay cuts no retirement the message from angry demonstrators pushed back with water cannon and pepper sprayed by riot police the protesters tried to get through to e.u. leaders meeting in brussels to slash spending this war there was made. to be used for social security. not the bank so when you heard. that the world's first move to take because of the prisoners there goes across europe voters are saying no. measures portugal's prime minister has

quit of the poll but voted down afresh. round of cuts because he has three months left to repay almost ten billion euros at a time when its sovereign credit rating has been carved and received the only option left is national default tolin does the country called pay back its loans or accept an e.u. bailout similar to greece and ireland hasn't happened in the west since the second world war but the longer you postpone this necessary evil. the more costly it is there's going to be at the same time military intervention in libya is costing hundreds of millions of euros many a furious so what they see is an unnecessary and expensive campaign somebody asked the chancellor of the finance minister about the financing of this and i think the overwhelming sense that you got from it among the public in britain with skepticism with millions unemployed across europe people losing patience with politicians who

seem out of touch with reality increasingly familiar sights on the streets of the e.u. was government built timing leaves growing numbers well to work the big question is now the right time to spend the money available on wars abroad don't you go otty brussels. meantime british m.p. nigel farage says the people across the continent have every right to feel angry over cuts while their governments squander money abroad. we've had british troops on the ground in afghanistan now for over ten years i don't think there's any appetite for us getting involved in foreign wars where we cannot directly see our own national interest being threatened where frankly if we go in to support the rebels we don't even know who they are or what they stand for or what they want i don't think anybody has thought this through and if they are going to put ground troops in that i think they're going to find in all the member states involved in this real strong level of opposition when people say. this is for whatever

reasons when people see that retirement age is going up when people see the taxes both direct and indirect they're paying going up they were right to question what on earth are we doing getting involved in an open ended commitment in terms of. goodness knows what else i do think to a very close but i also think as portugal is about to topple over as the next eurozone country requiring a bailout that is actually going to cost each british taxpayer about four hundred pounds that actually the biggest effect on our pockets this week was the chance of this budget but it was the fact that the portuguese government fell and they're about to be bailed out so i think people have every reason to be pretty angry that they see their own costs at home going up their services being up money being thrown overseas in all sorts of projects that they wouldn't necessarily support it without the lie from moscow and turning our attention to the developments in japan

now where the spread of radiation from the fukushima nuclear facility is a raising concern among those in the region high levels have been found in the sea nearby and they are increasing the government is warning people to get out of the area workers trying to restore the cooling passage of the plant have been evacuated from reactor number two where the radiation level is ten million times more than normal three workers have already been exposed to dangerous materials in the continuing battle to avert a catastrophe in the wake of the earthquake tragedy which destroyed large parts of the country as well as what happened with the tsunami the official number of those killed by the quake and tsunami stands at over ten thousand with the many more homeless or missing fukushima remains of the biggest concern but the ongoing possibility of a nuclear meltdown. bennett spoke to a man who knows firsthand what the consequences could be. leese man has borne the scars of nuclear disaster for most of his life as

a resident of nagasaki you're shiria milwaukee has had liver and kidney problems since he was thirty five and he's already beaten cancer twice every time he falls ill now he feels it could be his last battle you sure are watches events unfold at fukushima fearing the true nature of the disaster is yet to show itself so you are saying that the result of the contamination won't just end of the event it will be handed down from generation to generation and i have four daughters the first to have leukemia another has breast cancer but the results of a disaster will be shown in generations to come. you should know was just eleven when the bomb was dropped he survived the blast but was exposed to lethal levels of radiation on his two trips to the hypocenter first to find his father then to bury him despite everything he's pro nuclear power but still thinks fleeing from

fukushima is the wise thing to do so then the i don't think the public or the government are overreacting in this situation i think people must take all precautionary measures they can to avoid the worst for the rest of the nygard psyche the stands today had to be built from scratch eleven square kilometers were jews to dust the cloud of its tragic past still hangs over the city its residents though know what it means to suffer and are willing to help those in need members of the international volunteer organization the lions club here collecting for the victims of the earthquake and tsunami everyone's desperate to give with donations already ten times higher than normal. we have a custom something happens in our nation will collect donations and would help each other especially the people and i guess i can very very sensitive to atomic power

so we are very worried about what happened. and we want to help more than money every way it sounded like a sack it is a memorial to the seventy five thousand died when the atomic bomb was dropped here this one marks that exact moment now the city will forever serve as a reminder of the destructive potential of nuclear power and there is here now praying that focus well wherever in the same way nagasaki transformation has been remarkable ground zero is unrecognizable the city would escape any radiation from a meltdown at fukushima but there is a nuclear plant close by and the incident has left residents living in fear of the but. people for nuggets of hiroshima are very sensitive to the incident in fukushima we've never experienced such a devastating nuclear accident before and i think everyone is never free this could happen again i wasn't afraid of nuclear accidents before but now i am because i can see it's not under control. this no more real represents the water crave by so many

after the explosion the basins tranquility a far cry from the destruction wrought by the tsunami once that has done its damage this place reminds us the ripples from a radioactive disaster extend for generations after bennett's r.t. and the sucking now the japanese government is being accused of withholding information on its nuclear crisis at the same time the international atomic energy agency has been criticized for not being more involved independent nuclear power consultant sean bernie says the i.a.e.a. is only looking out for its own interests. it's not u.n. nuclear watchdog the nuclear industry pujol the i.a.e.a. its principal objective is to promote the expansion of nuclear power since the start of designs in one myself and colleagues in the anti-nuclear community and the nuclear research community we knew that this was

a potentially catastrophic accident and what you saw of the i.a.e.a. was a rather relaxed so of media management approach to say we have confidence that everything is under control well actually after a model of this it it took you you saw that the i.a.e.a. is almost trying to distance itself from any responsibility for this accident by sea we only have an advisory role in nuclear safety this is the same agency that is ambitiously promoting nuclear power not just in the in advanced industrialized world but in the developing world promoting the idea that nuclear power is a solution for climate change the idea is not fit for purpose and cannot basically get away with the fact that it hasn't got any responsibility for this and it's relying on information from the japanese they do not have a crisis management approach they have a news management approach. now the japanese government claims that radiation levels are not harmful but companies are still taking precautions when it comes to that manufactured goods contamination has already been found in some food products

spreading radiation worries far beyond japan's shows and it's lower enlisted explains it's leading people to think twice before buying. as japan works overtime to avert a nuclear meltdown is another crisis in the making maybe maybe think twice second thoughts born of paranoia that radioactive remnants may reach far beyond japan's borders how worried about the seafood may be that those seafood is safe from the radiation in the water out what i'm going to be very wary of that for quite a while it's the fear of japanese imports going all the way to the top u.s. regulators have said they will increase screenings of food coming in from the embattled asian nation the european union has warned members to do the same and italy was the first e.u. nation to ban food imports from japan all together in the wake of the nuclear scare it's fueling suspicion that besides the quake the tsunami and the nuclear crisis

japan will soon have to deal with another problem becoming a trade pariah. for reasons that may not be entirely radioactive countries all over the world in tough economic times and they still are looking for ways to subsidize their own producers their own workers and so an incident like the one unfolding in japan gives them quite a good reason to do something that they may have been looking to do anyway this is bad for trade made worse for the country itself if made in japan comes to mean made a nuclear wasteland to consumers in countries like the u.s. we're here in times square and i wanted to come down here because it is where the rubber meets the road as far as advertising in this country and you can really see the brands that play a major role in the united states i wanted to see how many of them were. happening now take a look at this center post of advertising from top to bottom you can see sony c.d.k. toshiba all japanese corporations playing a major role in the u.s.

i noticed even our camera and my my clip from my microphone are manufactured by sony and with the nuclear disaster there is no telling what the toll will be on both the manufacturing of companies like this but also their brand presence in countries like the u.s. and the status of the made in japan label i would be concerned about like televisions components that might carry the radio active materials. and japan's economy will feel it for a long time to if trade suffers a major blow does this drag down an already near zero growth rate in japan if it does then it's going to have bigger effects internal to japan globally and we don't know exactly what those are but they're potentially quite significant significant because in a global economy which made in japan matters for everyone many of the world's cell phones laptops and cars rely on a poxy computer chips are auto parts from the country stoppages in manufacturing

and trade consent shock waves through the system likely farther reaching than the radiation itself lauren mr r.t. new york. all right let's get to some of today's latest news here on with all eyes on that libya an israeli air strike has killed two palestinians and wounded another in northern gaza it comes off to hamas said it would agree to a cease fire with israel if the attacks on the territory would stop last week's or some of the most serious violence in the palestinian territory of which the group controls at least ten people including civilians and children were killed in the attacks. a week of government protests in a syrian border city has developed into a nationwide on rest with tens of thousands marching across the country in the restive city of a. school for president bashar assad to step down faces the crisis over his eleven years in power off the security forces fired on protesters on friday killing at

least twenty three the government blames gangs for the bloodshed and civilian deaths. yemen's embattled president is in talks with the opposition for a handover of power after weeks of protests. to quit later this year but protesters insist they want to go right now their result around fifty people were shot dead in antigovernment protests last week senior political figures of also abandoned the leader. well do stay with us for a look at the latest and greatest from the world all high tech technology updated always a lot of fun is coming away just a few minutes that will be right after a recap of our top stories.

man. would be so much brighter if you knew about someone from funds to impressions. for instance on t.v. dot com. wealthy british style but it's a testament to the books by the front. yard.