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the week's top stories here on our team dozens killed in libya's capital as nato embarks on its most intense bombing raids yet well there's been heavy fighting as rebels renew attacks i mean while port city of zawiyah in syria tension is rising as the government continues its severe crackdown on the opposition. a u.s. naval vessel in the black sea sparked outrage from moscow and claims it's a prelude to the planned nato missile defense shield for europe. forgiving others their debts proves too much for one german attorney said to suit his government for handing out cash to failing euro zone economies while in the states well in states that have received a cash bellow the prospect of further austerity measures has drawn protesters to the streets. and to reach including. we as even just.

an exchange to continue and money. and russia's been celebrating the country's declaration of sovereignty and its first free elections that marked the definitive end to the soviet union. two am in moscow i'm at treasure bring you today's top stories in a look back at the week's news here on r t a fierce fighting is continuing in libya's port city of misrata where rebels using heavy artillery have ramped up on bartman to could offer. troops pro-government forces responded with heavy shelling killing at least six and wounding sixteen others the fighting comes amid insurgents fresh attempts to retake zawiya another major oil port and earlier battles at the port left thirty five dead and shut down

a key supply route to meanwhile in tripoli colonel gadhafi over a chess game with the president of the world chess federation declared he has no intention of stepping down artie's marie if you notion of reports that it's the ordinary people who are bearing the brunt of the war. saddam has been we know has growth of death but 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 to do it myself. but who wants to kill the teenager. son was made to c.t. tripoli has been under constant bombardment by nato forces for three months day and night forms have been fooling around 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 error 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 libyan government has repeatedly protested that innocent civilians have been among the dead the claims have not been independently very hard but one thing is clear since march nineteenth the law of warden early peons has changed forever saddam was mother will never forget the day when her daughter preferred death to this new life i met my girl told me before that she saw 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 it 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 and we try to live our lives 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 all 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. tripoli. i mean the ever increasing claims of civilian casualties in libya many are now questioning the humanitarian goals of the alliance in an interview with the nato secretary general anders fogh rasmussen on thursday my colleague and he said now i asked him to clarify how the coalition defines what's

a legitimate target. surely 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 it does in a car on a phone or in a hospital on a phone constitute a command center for your purposes when you say any. i would like to stress that we are not targeting individuals we believed it to military. targets. and of course command and control centers can be used to plan and organize attacks against civilians show amount of control centers on military targets you can find out how responded to other challenging questions over libya in

its full interview on our t.v. just more than twenty minutes and you can watch it anytime by logging on to our team dot com. turning now to syria where forces loyal to president bashar assad stormed the rebel held town of jurors are all who are using tanks and helicopters the attack was meant to poke cleanse the town of armed rebel groups which killed at least one hundred twenty police officers last week meanwhile britain and france are still pushing for a un resolution condemning a brutal crackdown against anti-government activists in syria russia which openly which opposes any attempts to intervene in the conflict says it won't back the move arab world observers believe that some western nations main manipulate the un to attempt to benefit from the country's civil conflict. the united nations. is is merely an international organization who are working to promote the interests of its most powerful members notably the united states britain and sort of the

western world is concerned also from so in other countries in the european union because just as they are considering cracking down on the syrian government they have most considerate cracking down on the governments of battery or other or each of the point in time when there was also in. what is happening in syria and simultaneously in almost all countries in the middle east and north africa. we flexed internal problems all countries have internal problems no doubt about it and there is a genuine desire on the part of many people in syria no doubt to get rid of its very fossilized government but there is also external interference notably from the united states and from britain and from france to take advantage of these internal problems. a u.s. warship has sailed to ukraine for a joint military exercise in the black sea arrival of the u.s.s. monterey has already raised concerns in moscow artie's alexei airships he has the details from kiev. this american warship the u.s.s.

monterey carries a high tech and sophisticated and to marseille system called ages and indeed according to the plan of the pentagon worked out several years ago that ships of the u.s.s. monterey's class could be moved to the black sea coast in case of an escalating conflict we understand that the u.s.s. monterey was moved from the american coast to the mediterranean as part of the new missile defense shield in europe worked out by the obama administration in two thousand and nine but the question which raises eyebrows in the russian foreign ministry and that was published in the statement earlier on sunday that there is as long as there is no violent conflict in the black sea region why is the ship the u.s.s. monterey docks at the desa harbor to take part in the nato war games it is especially bewildering given the fact that all the previous seabreeze war games in order have seen only small u.s. u.s.

ships take part in these war games of the russian foreign ministry says that this. the fact that the u.s.s. monterey is now in the black sea region is in fact a threat to the russian national security and in some way a violation of the agreements reached between washington in moscow and moscow over the new missile defense plan in europe the initial plan of the george w. bush administration of missile defense shield in europe was scrapped by the obama administration in two thousand and nine and you plan was proposed and agreed between russia and nato but what we've seen so far what we've been seeing recently described by the russian foreign ministry and many experts as a situation when words do not match actions now first we've had american patriot missiles dispatched in the polish town off more wrong now we've heard furthermore plans of building radar locations stations in romania and turkey and in poland so

all this. according to the russian foreign ministry is not something discussed between presidents beautify and obama between russia and nato so clearly the war of words continues and it is interesting to see whether there will be any reaction on the latest statement by the russian foreign ministry published on sunday that the concerns raised by the statement and the direct accusation of washington of not keeping its promise and trying to build a collective security system in europe together and doing it only in one way or. stay with us here on our t.v. coming your way in a few minutes a woman's fight for her dead son's family follow the controversy surrounding a grandmother's attempts to become the legal guardian of her dead sons the children were born from surrogate mothers after he died that's all coming your way in a couple of minutes. but first 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 over how to get private investors to contribute just

a year after the first payment the next stage comes with conditions calling on athens to implement even stricter austerity measures or he sarraf earth is in greece where protests against the cuts have not relented. place to spain the face the child of the day by day we seem to hang a building and the last year they deal with these tough conditions for that bailout money and the struggle really making sense of planning this week that it's very likely the measures will have to be implemented if police is going to be able to continue existing international bailout money now all of this on the back of it is the belief club that this sixteen percent of the week what pulls a company out of the job way ahead cutlass by you can see the main plant around me this is what people have been gathering back in late at surprise has again the state of states imagine that we're joined at the moment by the negates this. election being a fancy heading way now these people states measures being. are they going to have

any effect close the only effect there are going to have this is they're going to make matters worse for the past year greece is facing a social disaster it's on a stereotype program and seen before in greece which has only resulted in the south that the ration of living standards are under an extreme rise in unemployment. and . they're on a very deep recession and the new program and the new commitment the program they're proposing now are just going to it's going just to make things worse it is a privatization program which is not just privatization is complete it's complete losing of public companies utilities and assets and the only thing we're going to see is even more employment and even more to ration of living standards it's very christian of course leaving us able to get i think that greece being part of the euro zone these are contributing factors to the problems that the euro zone is like

a financial monetary straight jacket it's completely rational when you put countries with different activity levels different context competitiveness levels in the same money michael. in finding out about the feeling in germany and that there are some people who think they would be better out of the usa together. the euros did long live germany says top lawyer marcus kerber he's suing the german government to stop its bailing out bankrupt neighbors you cannot save so you by saving greece on the country you have to get rid of greece greece is no longer worth a candidate no longer we're number of the european union the nations labeled in delusion by some as the pigs of europe portugal ireland greece and spain must drop the currency now before they drag down other members warms kerber. things last year

raise the pension age to sixty five and could early retirement of the 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 rule 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 chill sixty seven it's not possible to declare why other people should go with six fifteen which are certainly not responsible for the debts and deficits running portugal greece in the pic states raise the age when when the greek people retire. sorry all three people well we have to work along as well german zero boiling point anger which could spill out onto the streets the powerful greens are now suing merkel's government claiming it hid 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's revolting klaus pizza will she's 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 will have our debt restructured those who gave money for high interest rate will 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 the common currency is that risk

unless athens takes the painful cost cutting medicine prescribed by the e.u. and the i.m.f. 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 down with a bushel r.t. in. you know the story of a russian grandmother whose attempts to keep the memory of her late son alive had landed her in a legal and moral controversy artie's oksana boyko has more. it was only at fifty seven that lamar understood the true meaning of having her hands full an accomplished scientists a wife of three decades and also a devoted mother none of these roles kept her as busy as she is now her tragedy she became a grandmother only after she'd lost everything else what you just you know the

death of my son created a hole in my life that will never close but the birth of my grandchildren certainly provides some solace is god's gift to me the mars son died of cancer three years ago but before his first chemotherapy a session doctors conserved his sperm with the help of surrogate mothers two sets of twins were brought into the world. the mars has been left her her scientific career was put on hold yet lamar's says they're all trifles compared to bereavement brought about by her son's death. it's love which is fed by grief but it's love nonetheless three years ago i couldn't imagine myself even smiling let alone laughing or singing songs but the little ones pulled me out of this abyss of despair. with her large family support lamar's says she has no financial parental concerns about raising her grandchildren her main problem now is the reluctance of

the russian state to recognize her as the mother of these children and her deceased son as their father. he lowered believes the law is in their side. according to russian law there are no limits on who can become appearing through the use of surrogate mother who of course cases like this one are still very unusual in russia that's why some registration offices or court officials may be confused and refuse to register children but the law is definitely in our favor. that maher is this. third woman in russia who used the sperm of her deceased son to continue the family's lineage yet whether it is due to her age or the share number of children involved her story a good many russians questioning the aphex of this kind of parenting to work that you would. exercise is employing mechanics ultimately lead to this very ambiguous situation we can really tell the difference between a son and

a grandson there are so many orphans in russia so she wanted to be a mother she could have easily realized her maternal instincts i think ultimately it's a very selfish drive to pass through genes no matter what but lamar couldn't care less about societal attitudes too much suffering for the loss of your only son persuaded her that there is no such thing as too many grandchildren russian law has no age cap for people who are willing to adopt children the only cabinet is that a potential parent should be at least sixteen years older than the child and i must keys this age difference is almost sixty years this doesn't sit easily in a country where most people become parents before they turn thirty and about raising even two kids is often seen more than a handful for the boy artsy moscow this week the united states made a number of airstrikes including unmanned drone attacks in pakistan in yemen america and says the targets were militants but unofficial reports suggest there

were many more civilian casualties than first admitted or he's getting shaky on found out the morality behind the robotic attacks is being increasingly called into question. this surveillance 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 they're pressing the 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 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 kill 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 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 you. u.s. spy planes 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 a 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 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

sound cannon some people are saying lasers they'll be able to punish the students who are advocating against the government they've already been used in some instances in the united states when in two thousand and seven protesters in washington d.c. noticed small objects floating overhead it looked like dragon flop turned out they were robo flies developed by the pentagon surveillance devices as america continues developing this play station mentality telling any intelligence gathering in practice that people leave in fear that it may be time they could become a target in someone's deadly didio game and maybe here in the last year that with their rapid expansion of supply drone some of their own territory they could one day wake up you know to my police state i'm going to check on reporting from washington our team. you can always check out our website r t dot com for more perspectives including one in this case by u.s. radio host alex jones who believes that the abuse of drone technology could be the beginning of what he calls a terminator style world ruled ruled by robots check that line if you dare also

this unbreakable spirit check out one man's epic journey across russia in a motorized wheelchair plus. top brass and top secret we follow the clandestine gathering of the world's power brokers and try to uncover was actually being cooked up at the annual builder burg meeting yes and plenty more just a click away. as a fat festive atmosphere here in moscow and across russia as the country marks twenty one years since it declared its sovereignty and impressive fireworks display lit up the night sky of the capital the day also marks the country's first free elections that resulted in victory for reformist president boris yeltsin back in one thousand nine hundred one truly after the soviet union officially collapsed or never ports and even today memories of the bumpy road to democracy are still fresh in many minds. june twelve nineteen ninety one

millions voted to make boris yeltsin russia's first president a watershed moment in the country's history with 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 the saw provoking unrest and even conflict and moscow two leaders also competed against each other michelle gorbachev was the head of the soviet union chosen by communist functionaries 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 communists establishment in an open and public manner he did not cut back room deals or try on protest with this victory ensured that the soviet union could 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 came 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 communists candidate handily with more than half of the votes was when he led the resistance to the coup late 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 emotions about it i did vote for you all to man but i'm far less political now absolutely 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 said at the even today it's the mall kristie 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 eager of all to see moscow. still ahead interview and

sports but first i mean back with a recap of our top stories stay with us here on r.t. . one stream cascading from on the slopes the view is mesmerizing.