the week's top stories on our nato launches its heaviest and most entertaining airstrikes on the libyan capital killing dozens as the rebels complain of the alliance ignoring the real frontline meanwhile the chorus of international condemnation over syria gets ever louder. anger comes to a boil in greece as the government moves to make deeper cuts in public spending in exchange for another you and germany those footing the bill say they're getting tired of paying mother's death. and it's the day that marks the birth of modern russia celebrating the country's declaration of sovereignty its first free elections which led to the historic fall of the soviet union.

were welcome to the weekly here in our sunday i'm a nice and now way would begin in libya where rebel fighters on the mediterranean frontline are reportedly trying to retake the major oil quarter of the we are just fifty kilometers west of the capital tripoli the offensive marks a breakthrough for the opposition which was swept out on the court by artillery fire and intensive shelling the pro-government troops about three months ago the advances prompted the closure of a key supply route from tunisia rebel leaders have complained that nato airstrikes aimed at supporting their military efforts have focused too heavily on tripoli rather than on frontlines and misrata and so we are and this is leading to even more civilian casualties as are. now reports. solomon has been

within a hair's breath of death the doctors have performed any a miracle and the young girl is back home with her family she took her mother's pills to kill herself. if someone wants to kill me and going to do myself. but who wants to cuba teenager summers native city tripoli has been under constant bombardment by nato forces for three months day and night forms have been falling on a city with a population of around a million no one can ever say when or where the next one would land. this week in the most intensive a radio there have been sixty eight slides in just ten hours attacks against civilians must stop gadhafi must go and the libyan people deserve to determine their own future make as frequently claim success and the military operation is supposed to protect civilians but the libyan government has repeatedly protested

that innocent civilians have been among. the claims have not been independently verified at birth in this clear since march nineteenth the life would normally be and has changed forever son was mother will never forget the day when her daughter preferred death for this new life my girl told me before that she thought death is a good thing and i entered her room that day she was lying on the floor there was smoke everywhere could hardly see what happened i realized immediately he was something terrible this is not fair they told us they want a no fly zone and have a set they were going to bomb us he promised to protect his butt and step they scare us talking about who they are i will block your son of his father is more precise and middle of the world no longer needs nato the second world war ended long ago and we try to live our lives will be no storage wars and always intervenes in other countries problems we're tired of war our patience is running out let us just live our life has just prolonged its operation and leave it as september that

means people here face months more terror from the skies one of nature's supposed to targets gadhafi his military arsenal actually landed here in this district it didn't destroy the colonel's compound but it's almost damaged the lives of one family as you can see the building has quickly been repaired now the question is whether the people will ever recover original. tripoli. at least thirty people were killed in waiting string of nato airstrikes on the libyan capital according to a government spokesman and the men were claims of civilian casualties many now question but humanitarian goals the alliance in an interview with the nato secretary general anders fogh rasmussen i asked him to clarify how the coalition to find a legitimate target actually the u.n. security council resolution goes beyond a no fly zone according to the u.n. security council resolution we are mandated to protect the civilian population in

libya taking all necessary measures and that's exactly what we're doing right now i just want to clarify for some of our viewers who have seen holmes bombs are they've seen civilian buildings blown to pieces those. in a car on a phone or in a hospital on the phone constitute a command center for your purposes when you say any means. i would like to stress that we are not targeting individuals we believe to intimate military. targets. and of course common control centers can be used to try and organize attacks against civilians show amount of control centers are legitimate military targets. you can find out how the nato handled other challenging questions over libya in the full interview on our later this hour or you can watch it any time by logging on to our website artsy dot com.

tensions are also peaking in syria where government troops are attempting to storm the rebel northern border town of just. with tanks and military helicopters the army has entered the city in order to quote cleanse it from rebellious armed groups which killed at least one hundred twenty police officers danced week meanwhile britain and france are pushing for a un resolution things entering the brutal crackdown against anti-government activists in syria russia which opposes any attempts to intervene in the conflict said it won't back and move arab world observers and says serious troubles are an internal problem and its people must find their own way. i think we have to remember that a revolution in the revolutionary process that is taking place in the middle east is one in which ordinary people are taking time to take control of their societies and what i think is happening in syria and what has to happen in syria is the syrian movement for change has to win over just sections of society has to win over

aleppo it has to win over sections of the army and i think this is an internal struggle if you like for the future direction of syria the problem is when foreign powers stop interfering then then you can have a regime that then can strengthen its position by saying this out you know. what happened to her is going to happen to us if you care and with this movement and so on so i think it's very very dangerous move by britain and france should fear in the syrian revolution because both countries have a very long history in this region palestine lebanon and syria itself and i think it will be seen very much as western interference in. syria. in addition syria's been accused by the international atomic watchdog of building a covert nuclear reactor and failing to supply necessary information about it syria insists it's a non-nuclear military site but the agency is demanding more evidence and

threatening sanctions some critics believe washington and its allies are using the allegations as a tool for regime change in the country. now that the syrian regime is under fire this. fire lies to be opened so that the international community the u.s. gets the un and the way to accuse syria of violating international law so they can take the matter to the security council so that we can apply more pressure as yet again and the use of the international institutions for political culture where there is a guy over there is this curative counsel this is what the u.s. is doing this is a building which has been inspected by the. time and number of times but they're not they want to have the plans look this it is out doing they told them a number of times that this is a military installation and this is nothing to do with a nuclear energy or power or a reactor the i.a.e.a. saying since you are not telling us what else you're going to use it therefore it

must be a nuclear facility and that's why we're going to take them out that there's going to council. coming up in a few minutes here on our team when killing becomes a video game america ratchets up unmanned drone program that i think growth appears on the fight for ancient mentality replacing moral compass for more there. than three months on from the onset of pushing the nuclear crisis in japan out government efforts to downplay radioactive contamination promenade in the display apartment. but first russia will restart the import of european bats to poles if the union guarantees the safety of its products there free from the deadly e. coli bacteria statement was among the outcomes of this week's unique. surely she would know we had vegetables today and yesterday i don't know where they came from

i suppose we'll have to wait and see and we were discussing ways to restore shipments of vegetables from europe to russia we already have to find in european vegetables also we are provided we have sufficient going she's like the. president medvedev has also urged the e.u. just beat up the distance and the russians enter into the world trade organization but you can essentially killed their manual so saying exhaustion is possible by the end of this year two sides have also discussed the easing of these a regime and agreement on the topics could be made next month and next russia e.u. summit how to solve this winter so that you. as european officials ready the next slice of greece's bailout the european central bank and the german government are arguing over how to get private investors to contribute just one year after the first payment the next stage comes with conditions calling on athens to implement even stripped their all star team measures tens of thousands have taken to the streets of athens in protest against yet another round of seeking cuts there on

hold weekly video podcast german chancellor angela merkel stated it's important not to take steps which could in danger the korbel i can on the upswing in europe battles the tech crisis in greece and beyond but many germans are angry at their government for paying for others' mistakes reports. the euros did germany says top lawyer marcus curve he's german government still. labors you cannot say so you're the guy saving greece or the country you have to get rid of greece greece is no longer worth a candidate gold i'll go with the number of the european union the nations labeled in the region boys as the peaks of europe portugal ireland greece and spain was. drop the currency now before they drag down other members wards kerber although athens last year raised the pension age to sixty five and could early retirement

other countries believe that greek workers work less. we'll bail you out a second time says chancellor merkel but if you want cash in future you must work longer the statements caused greece but they're not happy in the e.u. capital frankfurt either believing the greeks have had it too easy because if we are going to chill sixty seven it's not possible to declare why should we sixty fifty nine which are certainly not responsible for the debts and deficits running portugal greece in the pit states raise the age when when the greek people retire. sorry all the people what we have to work along as well germans or wrote boiling point anger which could spill out onto the streets the powerful dreams and l. suing merkel's government claiming it could facts about bailouts from the public

people in germany i ask you do we have to pay of his so we have to give answers and the answers we don't get from our government even the ruling party's revolting close pizza will she's fighting all rescues since he argues leaving bureau's own is in the interests of the struggling countries should take the chance to say ok we get out we. solve our problems we have our dept restructures. money for high interest rate we lose some of their money and then they can qualify again for the euro maybe after ten fifteen years greece protests the euro's a straight jacket which blocks traditional ways to boost your economy like devaluing the currency or adjusting interest rates even greece's european commissioner says that the country's membership of a common currency is

a risk unless athens takes the painful cost cutting medicine destroyed by the e.u. and the i.m.f. greeks now agree with germans who save a bit out of control the question is will weak states quit the euro and reorganize or stay and bring the single currency down with a new bushel artsy. europe has become feeble i'm creating a row was on the state of the french far right and our marine compound i have been into rework heard later today here is a preview. and we also gave a year it was just waiting to be signed this means that they have built is a currency reward they have told us of a year old link growth employment raising. us to counterbalance the power of the dollar. is the weakest of the world. bank well that the year is going to die mark.

this week the u.s. made a number of airstrikes including unmanned drone attacks in pakistan and yemen american says the targets were militants but i'm not through so reports and just there were many more civilian casualties than admit it and started going to each camp found around the morality behind robotic attacks is being increasingly call to question this when u.s. drone hit the house of this young man in pakistan he lost an eye both legs and three family members. these people are demanding the cia be held responsible for the deaths of their loved ones but to no avail with the use of drones comes a lack of accountability those are being operated by somebody at a command center in langley virginia they're watching it on video on a video screen they're pressing a button they're deciding who lives and who dies and then they go off for a weekend where they have barbecues in their suburban virginia in suburban maryland

homes and who pays the price the people who are the victims of the attack is there accountability none whatsoever drones have become the symbol of america's wars wars that seem to have no state all legal boundaries we've opened up a new realm of warfare a new room of breaking international and domestic law. used in pakistan yemen and elsewhere they have killed scores of civilians the former chief counterinsurgency strategist for the u.s. state department has estimated the drone attacks killed fifty non targeted persons for each intended target one of the things the united states kind of pretends is that we are morally superior we are a better judge able to judge what is good for other people and therefore we are entitled to inflict our judgment on them and that we presume they will be grateful to us for it but that is not what happens ever and it's not what's happening in

yemen it's not what's happening in pakistan they are furiously enraged. with us washington is looking to increase the funding for droom development by seven times over the next ten years a large part of that will go towards on our surveillance drones the u.s. has for years been using them in another of its undeclared wars against drug traffickers in mexico the mexican government allows us biplanes despite public discontent there's a lot of concern that the use of these drones by the u.s. government has more to do with u.s. control over mexican territory actually going out to the drug lords and winning the throat while issues of international law and sovereignty trigger little interest among americans the prospect of having surveillance drones spying all across the u.s. itself surely does us police agencies are asking for drones for domestic surveillance raising the alarm among those who think that could be the end of american freedoms

and specially when you look at constitutional activities like free speech activities that are going to be hovering over crowds that are merely maybe protesting the war or protesting some are governmental action they'll be chilling free speech should roll be equipped with some sort of weapon so some people are saying lasers will be able to punish who are advocating against the government they've already been used in some instances in the united states and two thousand and seven protesters in washington d.c. noticed small objects falling over here to look like dragonflies turned out they were robo flies developed by the village on surveillance devices as america continues developing this play station mentality killing an intelligence gathering in pakistan people leave in fear that it may be time they could become a target in someone's deadly video game and maybe here in the last year that with the rapid expansion of supply growth of their own territory they could one day wake up you know into a police state i'm going to check our reporting from washington our team. the u.s.

drone strikes in yemen come into people's uprising against the country's government which has long been an ally of the u.s. and the war activists are flounders as americans just stick the label of militants pose opposing the regime. this is just another criminal illegal absolutely it's lawlessness on such a scale hypocrisy the very time that the u.s. is using the un security council the international criminal court to bring charges against other countries for terrorism and it is clearly exposed in international terrorism itself in yemen and of course in sabotage teams in syria and in bombing of libya not to mention the devastating wars in iraq and afghanistan in yemen it is to protect a complete thirty three year dictatorship of salo who is now for. health

reasons in saudi arabia an effort to protect his regime potentially bring him back and it's been used against a people's movement anyone that the u.s. fears is a threat to them is now being labeled as al qaeda and it's open season in terms of attacks and and bombs and drone attacks on any number of different resistance organizations. check out our website or to dot com for more opinions on the matter including one voice by us radio host alex jones and the abuse of drone technology could be the beginning of a terminator style world room for our computers also online for you a veiled countering of the world's movers and shakers we've got the activists who make a stand against the impenetrable media blackout from annual builder birth maybe find out some of the theories and just being decided behind with all the silence and whether it's worth taxpayers having to find it. in also crowded space the io says

it's three new residents doubling the number of humans currently in orbit the combined international group will perform unique research including attempts to find cancer cures and also be expecting a farewell visit from nasa was a climb to the last over flight of the current u.s. space shuttle program. to japan now where the stricken fukushima nuclear power plant continues to leak radiation while a different kind of public anger spills onto the streets huge crowds turned out across japan saturday to demand and to the country's use of nuclear power the project came on the heels of revelations that the government could cover about the true extent of the radioactive contamination following the fukushima disaster tens of thousands of people evacuated from the area surrounding the plant still in temporary shelters and instead of receiving the sympathy they deserve many of them are suffering discrimination even from their own government that's according to dr

robert jacobs from the hiroshima peace institute. there are still people living in areas where there's high radiation and there's children going to school in areas where there's high radiation and so there's been a reluctance to move as quickly as possible and a lot of people from the machine may area who even people who were born there but live in tokyo are experiencing discrimination in japan by people who consider them taso be contaminated even the radiation is not transferable to other people but there are a lot of problems ahead if i could give one quick example in august there's a very important holiday in japan called in which everyone returns to their hometown because the spirits of ancestors come to their burial places where the ashes are in turn and the family welcomes them these people exclusion zone will not be able to observe this one they just holiday and welcome there the spirits of their ancestors who return and when people find that they're unable to carry out their familial obligations for decades because they can't return to these areas

people tend to blame themselves even if there are structural reasons so there needs to be some work done to help people through not just the radiation exposure but the social breakdowns that followed radiation exposures in communities. in the wake of the fukushima disaster in japan and other is holding a referendum on whether the country should revive its atomic energy and sense plans to restart the country's nuclear program by twenty fourteen or sal due to safety concerns on the way up through seem a crisis germany recently took the decision to phase out nuclear power completely by twenty twenty two and switzerland has opted for a similar route but i mean we. believe pulling the plug i'm europe's reactors is not the way out nobody in new york is immune no matter what it's within the european union or whether we talk about you know bailout rose you cry in russia i would suggest instead of closing down the nuclear power plants that we all come

together concentrate on the questions of nuclear safety. because we don't want any nuclear disaster. countries nordin nor do you know for instance in turkey which is also looking and planning to build nuclear power plants so instead of closing down the good power plants i think we should jointly focus on the questions of safety and security. but there's a festive atmosphere here in moscow and across russia today as the country marks twenty one years since a declared sovereignty by the collapse of the soviet union just one year later it held its first free elections which resulted in the victory of the reformist president very nice young sense. of reports even today memories of that bumpy road to democracy are still fresh in many people's minds. june twelve nineteen ninety one millions voted to make boris yeltsin russia's first president

a watershed moment in the country's history but this was the first free election ever in russia and say after we left behind a totalitarian state and had a new job of building a democratic society that respected the rights of its people by the time the election took place the soviet union had less than a year to live but no one knew how it would disintegrate its fifteen republics began to declare sovereignty one by one while staying a part of the u.s.s.r. provoking unrest and even armed conflict and moscow two leaders also competed against each other we held our butcher was the head of the soviet union was chosen by communists functionary boris yeltsin was in charge of a new sovereign russia and promised reform but calling for an open election yeltsin challenged the authority of the communist party over russia. with this victory in the election yeltsin through the you can stand up to the communist system in an

open and public are did not cut back room deals or try our protest with this victory ensure that the soviet union can break out without armed conflict. unlike former soviet leaders yeltsin campaign like a democratic politician meeting their electorate and delivering stump speeches at factories and town squares. his rallies attracted hundreds of thousands when the election night came we were hopeful with when but we still weren't sure after all it was the communist party that counted the votes but soon enough the results became clear boris yeltsin defeated a communist candidate handily with more than half of the votes. when he led the resistance their father in a coup later that summer his popularity peak but over the next decade. among russians dwindled as the country went through difficult reforms surveys show that as the anniversary of the election approached if you remember and even fewer care

things are going to get i don't have any emotions about it but the vote for yeltsin and by i'm far less political now. i voted but i can tell you these are all just politicians games they have nothing to do with me. it's not surprising that those who lived through the difficult times did not want to celebrate this occasion but hopefully the next generation will truly appreciate the historic significance of this moment and of yeltsin as of now russia's first president himself remains unappreciated with only one in five saying to have a positive attitude towards him many outside of russia so don't even today its democracy is not perfect and some inside the country said it may still yearn for the soviet union but one thing is very hard to argue against as a result of these changes twenty years ago russians are wealthier of more personal and political freedoms eager and see moscow. granting

a short break here on r.t. and i'll be back with a recap of our top stories. one stream cascading from the slopes the view is missed much.

of this newly brings deaths at a speed of more than two hundred kilometers. stepping along on a large. wealthy british scientists i'm told some time to. markets why not. find out what's really happening to the global economy in these kinds of reports. twenty years ago its first president's.