the week's top stories on our nato launches its heaviest and most punishing air strikes on the libyan capital killing dozens as the rebels complained the alliance is 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. germany those footing the bill say they're getting tired of paying others debt. and it's the day that marks the birth of modern celebrating the country's declaration of sovereignty and its first free elections which led to the historic fall of the soviet union.

or welcome to the weekly here in our sunday i'm a nice and now way we begin in libya where rebel fighters on the mediterranean frontline are reportedly trying to retake the major oil port of the with just fifty kilometers west of the capital tripoli the offensive marks a breakthrough for the opposition which was swept out on the port by artillery fire an 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 to have a tripoli rather than on the front lines in misrata and so we and this is leading to even more civilian casualties are. now reports. sodomite has been within a hair's breadth 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 bill to do it myself. but who wants to kill the teenager. summer's native city tripoli has been under constant bombardment by nato forces for three months day and night forms have been falling on the 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 air idea that there have been sixteen nato air strikes in just ten hours attacks against civilians must stop gadhafi must go and the libyan people deserve to determine their own future nato has frequently claimed success and the military operation is supposed to protect civilians but the neighboring government has repeatedly protested that innocent civilians have been among the dead the claims have not been independently very high and with one thing this clear since march nineteenth the live ordinarily paeans has changed forever

saddam was mother will never forget the day when her daughter preferred death to this new life my girl told me before that she felt death as a good thing when i entered her room that day she was lying on the floor there was smoke everywhere could see what happened but i realized immediately was something terrible this is not fair they told us they want a no fly zone they never said they were going to bomb us he promised to protect us but instead they scare us talking about who they are of obamacare said of his father is more precise and the world no longer needs nato the second world war ended long ago and we try to live our lives we'll need starts 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 till september that means people here face months more terror from the skies one of nato is supposed to target khadafi his military arsenal actually landed here in this

district it didn't destroy the colonel's compound but it's almost damaged the life of one family as you can see the building has quickly been repaired now the question is whether the people will ever recover. tripoli. at least thirty people were killed in the latest string of nato airstrikes on the libyan capital according to a government spokesman and that many more claims of civilian casualties many now question the humanitarian goals of 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 cording 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 homes bombed they've seen civilian buildings blown to pieces does daffy in a car on a phone or in a hospital on a 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 military. targets. and of course common control centers can be used to plan and organize attacks against civilians show amount of control centers are legitimate military targets. you can find out how the nato chief handled other challenging questions over libya in the full interview on our team later this hour or you can watch it anytime by logging on to our web site r.t. 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 last week meanwhile britain and france are pushing for a un resolution condemning the brutal crackdown against anti-government activists in syria which opposes any attempts to intervene in the conflict said it won't back and move arab world observers insist serious troubles are an internal problem and its people must find their own way. i think we have to remember the revolution 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. it has to win to 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 start interfering then

then you can have a regime that then can strengthen its position by saying this out you know. what happened today going to happen to you karen with this movement and so on so i think it's a very very dangerous move by britain and france interfere 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 watch talk 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 allies are using the allegations as a tool for regime change in the country now that the syrian regime is under fire

this. file has to be opened so that the international community the u.s. gets the u.n. and the way to accuse syria of violating international law so they can take the matter to this community council so that we can apply more pressure just yet again . on the international institutions for political objectives whether it's a guy or whether it's this cutie council 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. this it is outdoing 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 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 the matter to the security council. coming up in a few minutes here on our t.v.

when killing becomes a video game america ratchets up the unmanned of time drone program and with a growth appears on the playstation mentality replacing moreover when it comes to more fair. three months on from the onset of the fukushima nuclear crisis in japan look at how government efforts to downplay radioactive contamination that culminated in a massive display of public. but first russia will restart the import of european vegetables if the union guarantees the safety of its products meaning they're free from the deadly e. coli bacteria this 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 done in european vegetables after we have provided sufficient going cheese by the. president

medvedev has also urged the e.u. just beat up the distintion on russia's entry to the world trade organization with . their manual barroso saying accession is possible by the end of this year decide to have also discussed easing a visa regime and agreement on the topics could be made next month the next russia e.u. summit will be held this winter. 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 stricter austerity measures tens of thousands have taken to the streets of athens in protest against yet another round of sweeping cuts to our whole weekly video podcast german chancellor angela merkel stated it's important not to take steps which could endangered the global economic way europe battles the debt crisis in

greece and beyond but many germans are angry at their government for paying for others' mistakes reports. the euro's did long leave germany says because he's the german government still. bankrupt neighbors you cannot save so you are by saving greece on the contrary you have to get rid of greece greece is no longer worth the candidate gold i'll go with the number of the european union the nations labeled in the region as the peaks of europe portugal ireland greece spain. drop the currency now before they drag down all the members wants cobra although athens last year raised the pension age to sixty five and could early retirement of the countries believe that greek workers work less will bail you out

a second time says chancellor merkel but if you want cash in future you must work longer the statements caused up through ring greece but they're not happy in the e.u.'s cash capital frankfurt either believing the greeks have had it too easy because if we are going to kill sixty seven it's not possible to declare why other people should go with six to fifteen which are certainly not responsible for the debts and the deficits run in portugal greece in the pic states raise the age when when the greek people retire. sorry all three people what we have to work along as well germans or wrote boiling point anger which could spill out onto the streets the powerful greens are now suing merkel's government claiming it to keep facts about bailouts from the public people in germany i ask you do we have to pay these so we have to give answers and the answers we don't get from our government

even the ruling party is revolting pizza will she is fighting all rescues since he argues leaving the eurozone is in the interests of the struggling countries they should take the chance to say ok we get out we. solve our problems we would have our dept restructured those who gave money for a high interest rate with 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 car. see or just think interest rates even greece's european commissioner says that the country's membership of the common currency is that risk on this takes the painful cost cutting medicine prescribed by the e.u. and the oil baron greeks now agree with germans who say that bit's out of control

the question is will weak states quit the euro and reorganize or stay and bring the single currency dealt with the. europe has become feeble and creating their own was a mistake that's the view of the french far right. well have an interview with her later today here is a preview. i make the most game a year. just waiting to be signed this means that i used to build a car and see wrongs they have told us of a year old lingering employment raising our loving us to counterbalance the power of the dollar or so eventually you say and 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 report suggests there were many more civilian casualties than admit it as art is going to have found out the morality behind robotic attacks is being increasingly called to question this was about when a 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 there. passing the baton they're deciding who lives and who dies and then they go off for a weekend where they have barbecues in their suburban virginia and 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

undeclared wars wars that seem to have no state all legal boundaries we've opened up a new realm of warfare a new realm of breaking breaching international and domestic law. using pakistan yemen and elsewhere they have killed scores of civilians the former chief counterinsurgency strategist for the u.s. state department has estimated that drone attacks killed fifty non-target persons for each intended target one of the things the united states kind of pretends is that we are morally superior we are better judge able to judge what is good for other people and therefore we are entitled to inflict our judgement 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 drone development by seven times over the next ten years

a large part of that will go towards an armed 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 than actually going out to the drug lords and winning the drug war 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 you as police agencies are asking. 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 are going to be hovering over crowds that are merely maybe protesting the war or protesting some are governmental act and they'll be chilling

free speech should your old will be equipped with some sort of weapon so can and some people are saying lasers will be able to punish the students who are advocating against the government they've already been used in some instances in the united states and in two thousand and seven protesters in washington d.c. noticed small objects floating overhead it looked like dragon turned out they were robo flies developed by the pentagon surveillance devices as america continues developing this play station mentality to telling an intelligence gathering in practice that people leave in fear that it may be time they could become a target in someone's deadly video game and maybe hearing big deal last year that with the rapid expansion of spy drones over their own territory they could one day wake up you know to my police state i'm going to check our reporting from washington. 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 us antiwar activists are flounders says

americans just sticking the label of militants on those opposing the regime. this is just another criminal illegal absolutely it's lawlessness on such a scale of hypocrisy at 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's now for. health reasons and saudi arabia an effort to protect his regime potentially bring him back and it's being 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. took out our website dot com for more opinions on the matter including one voice like us radio host alex jones of the abuse of drone technology could be the beginning of a terminator style world groomed by computers also online for you a veiled gathering of the world's movers and shakers it's up to activists to make a stand against the impenetrable media blackout on the annual builded bird meeting find out some of the theories and just one being decided behind the wall of silence whether it's worth taxpayers having to fund it. and also crowded space the i.r.s. has gets three new residents doubling the number of humans currently in the combined international crude will perform a unique research including attempts to find a cancer cure will be expecting

a farewell visit from an ounce of the plant is the last ever flight of the current us space shuttle program. to japan now where the stricken fukushima nuclear power plant continues to leak radiation while a different kind of fallout public anger spills onto the streets huge crowds turned out across japan saturday to demand an end to the country's use of nuclear power projects came on the heels of revelations that the government would cover about to turn the 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. they're 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 fukushima area who even people who were born there but live in tokyo are experiencing discrimination in japan by people who consider them . possibly contaminated even the radiation is not transferable to other people but there are a lot of problems ahead if i can give one quick example in august there's a very important holiday in japan called obama on in which everyone returns to their hometown because the spirits of ancestors come to their burial places where their ashes are interned and the family welcomes them these people exclusion zone will not be able to observe this will they just holiday and welcome there the spirits of their ancestors who return no bones when people find that there are 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 follow radiation exposure is in

communities. in the wake of the fukushima disaster in japan italy is holding a referendum on whether the country should revive its atomic energy ambitions plans to restart the country's nuclear program by twenty fourteen were shelved due to safety concerns in the wake of the fukushima 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 m.e.p. libre believes pulling the plug on europe's reactors is not the way out nobody in europe is immune no matter what it is we didn't the european union or whether we talk about you know barrows ukraine or russia i would suggest instead of closing down to nuclear power planes that we all together concentrate on the questions of nuclear safety because we don't want any nuclear disaster neither in the e.u. countries nor in northern do you cry in nor for instance in turkey which is also

looking and planning to build nuclear power plants so instead of closing down leave the power plants i think we should jointly focus on the questions of safety and security. but there is a festive atmosphere here in moscow and across wasser 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. 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 the day 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 lection 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 us a saw provoking unrest and even armed conflict in moscow two leaders also competed against each other mikhail gorbachev was the head of the soviet union chosen by communist functionaries boris yeltsin was in charge of new southern 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 communists establishment in an open and public manner he did not cut back room deals or try and protest with this victory ensured 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 in town squares what at his rallies attracted hundreds of thousands when the election night. we were hopeful would win 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 the communist candidate handily with more than half of the votes of the one he led the resistance to follow in a coup like that out some of his popularity peaked but over the next decade the support fields and among russians dwindled as the country went through difficult reforms surveys showed that as the anniversary of the election approached if you remember and even fewer care but it's been good i don't have any emotions about it but i did vote for yeltsin man but i am far less political now absolutely untrue 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 set up even today its democracy is not perfect and some inside the country sided they 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 you go over and see moscow. going to take a short break here and r.t. and i'll be back with a recap of our top stories. one

stream cascading from modern slopes the view is mesmerizing. on this beauty brings death at a speed of more than two.