the rating agencies themselves the top stories this. back at the past week's top stories and the latest developments this is all t.v. live in moscow reports of tracer bullets and explosions over the libyan capital of calls many to believe it is the beginning of the gadhafi stronghold rebel commanders rushed to declare zero has begun and their forces inside tripoli have started the final uprising. witnesses claim the bangs being a breakthrough follow works off to government forces repelled the offensive and audiotape and on state t.v. he congratulated his supporters independent journalist lucy phelan says that the reports all of the rebel success could be later one of creating panic. that gunfire and fire what's happening and it's gunfire by way it's celebrates three gunfire as

a result of. rebels in the. gangs that the libyan government are calling. that have now been cleared out of the city and they've now been captured and arrested and essentially dealt with. gunfire that we're hearing it's integrates become finding any explosions that we're hearing a nato air strike on a sound designed to create a sense of panic in the capital city of tripoli now what we're hearing that happens idea today is that. rebel. channels they creates its own sake. of themselves inside claiming that they were inside and create and of course the media then mainstream media and the western media into these reports which. the sense of panic among the libyan people so they

went inside. in fear and then a number of armed gangs and much which are essentially sleeper cells of rebels inside inside this ac and began firing randomly and setting things on by and threatening ordinary people that if they did not join them that they would be assassinated they then took up the streets which were empty as i said because people were scared side their homes which created the sense that they were. in the process of capturing the city then what happens is that of course many people in tripoli have been on by the government and so these people came out to defend the capital and then the government spokesman came out and insisted that the situation had. had been brought under control and so as a result now in green square. compounds the masses have come out. because they feel safe again and as i said they're letting us celebrate to be gunfire. and political analyst who's in tripoli says some sporadic attacks may

actually be happening but in his opinion part of psychological wolf. the main point of the attacks in trip we were just for right it is to break down the moral your and cause and in fact the media at the right. now has been part of this information campaign they're talking about parallel the mainstream media would happen to be involved i can tell you right now reuters put out a release that was widely quoted one foreign national was killed here few days ago when nato with. an infrastructure and it didn't mention the infrastructure i want to they quoted for national security card this was misinformation this was not correct. they have. feeding this psychological war against this country. well later in the program we'll be looking at another country where the arab spring

has dragged its bloody heels almost into the autumn syria the west has been mounting pressure on president. against protesters but correspondent there many are happy to see the government stop the demonstrators also. the crowds on the ground this is an exciting spectacle but that's not quite the emotion that's going through my mind at the moment because i'm about to see what happens from inside the cockpit . some spectacular on the final day of the next international air show. still to come for you but first violence has flared up again in the middle east with israel and gaza exchanging fire since thursday as it's called with the jewish state due to the continuing occupation of palestinian learns more than ten people have been killed after three days of attacks on each side and israeli government is reported to be considering a possible ground offensive in gaza as israel's been gripped by massive social protest for months now and as. many protesters believe the escalation of violence

with gaza could be used to silence public discontent. thousands of people. locked in here instead of a potent handle in memory of the victims of mind then the demonstrations are happening not only here in tel aviv but also in jerusalem and a number of abba major cities around israel in stark contrast to the protests we've seen happening of the past month the mood here is very somber people are very serious and affective in terms of what the latest wave of violence is because now talking to protesters they say that they are not surprised by this recent spate of violence many telling me that they've been expecting it will sometime they believe that the israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu and his government will use the latest conflict what's gone to as an excuse to bring people to see people to give up around here people are young many of them are immigrants are and what's to happen they would be would have to go to the front and fight people who have very strong in the same thing they are still going to be demanding issues of social

justice they really are protesting for a living they're talking about education they're talking about health services they talking about. people here saying that not only do they want these demands great but they also want the israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu to step down the on scene. and of course we value your opinion on the events in the middle east you can go to a website where you can cost you'll vote on the reasons behind this latest escalation in violence and as you can see there on screen at the moment the responses so far forty one percent of you believe that israel could use this as a way to sabotage next month's u.n. vote on the palestinian statehood you can see that twenty six percent say that sort of it's sees it as an opportunity to provoke a response from the palestinians and the remainder of the violent and think israel is trying to divert attention from its domestic problems all that the attacks are an act of things that israel simply wants to protect its own people to be good to

hear from you cast your vote. four years in jail for a riot status on facebook british courts are coming down hard on the relatives who spread mayhem last week human rights groups are choosing judges of overreacting something ignored by prime minister david cameron who's determined to mend the country's broken society all of a bennett now reports from london. four years behind bars for the riot that didn't even happen jordan black sure and perry sutcliffe kenan were banged up for inciting disorder on facebook no one turned up after their invitation to riot which they later said was a drunken joke but now they face sentences even tougher than most looters and i worry is that it is an imbalance a four year sentence for example would normally be given to somebody for a previous bodily harm for holding someone up with a knife or even for. some form of sexual assault so it seems to me that that

there is a danger that the courts are moving into disproportionate territory and that actually devalues our response to more serious crimes that governments encourage courts to dish out harsh sentences by using the public disturbance as an aggravating factor it's meant this man anderson fernandez could even be sent to jail for theft of just two scoops of ice cream because like this one denying bail to most offenders and ignoring any claims of previous good character of the one thousand two hundred seventy seven people charged so far two thirds have been remanded in custody that's way up on last year's rate for serious crimes which is just ten percent some offenders even being made homeless is their punishment with local governments taking away their houses but many say this will simply cause more harm than good i think this is a very unwise the move to remove people from housing interim move benefits because actually if we are saying that some of the crime that we saw on the streets was an

expression of people not feeling part of society not feeling part of our communities then these measures are actually going to push it further away from society further away from our communities and far more likely to commit crime the facebook case is the first sign of the government's desire to crack down on social media sites like twitter were applauded by the west to mobilize. the masses in the arab world but they were also instrumental in the u.k. riots so now the prime minister wants it to stop we are working with the police the intelligence services and industry to look at whether it would be right to stop people communicating via these websites and services when we know they are plotting violence disorder and criminality when social media fueled revolutions in egypt and she person called it democracy but now the shoe's on the other foot when troubles closer to home i'm very conscious i've been used you know the. poor or.

movement we would be the force that could lead. countries trying to walk. the prime minister says this is way britain fights back but it speeds these fighting fire with fire could only fan the flames of civil disorder i've been it's artsy london. and you're right video has been released showing masked men reportedly shooting at unarmed policeman you can log onto r.t. dot com a website to watch that video police said the incident took place during the august ninth that's in the city of birmingham with more than ten shots fired. this week saw another attempt in europe to try to stop the deepening debt crisis as the leaders of the strongest economies met in paris and the merkel and nicolas

sarkozy called for the creation of a central economic body which would ensure euro zone members take more responsibility they've also pledged to harmonize corporate taxes will change again this is an author. believes that the proposed measures just create an illusion of stability. he said mournfully i think the collective economic government that merkel and sarkozy are talking about is really a desperate political ploy to try to create the illusion of stability where the underlined stability doesn't yet exist there is no political will not in germany nor in the rest of the eurozone countries for as surrendering national sovereignty to a collective entity that has any decision power so it's simply a shimmer that's been thrown out there to try to calm the markets the alternative really is is to get steve will export market relations i think above all with the russia of the central asian republics china and the rest of asia in the middle east

and if that is created then you can have a growth vector that leads you out of this debt impasse that the eurozone countries are in without that and so long as as the dollar system dominates international financial relations that moody's standard and poor's do the rating on sovereign debt for european union countries and that there is no independent european credit rating agency and there isn't is no. growth perspective only austerity there is no up to this crisis the ratings agency standard and poor's is facing increasing scrutiny in the u.s. the justice department is looking into allegations dozens of mortgage bonds were improperly rated in the lead up to the crisis of two thousand and eight s. and p. is being questioned off to stripping the u.s. of its treasured aaa credit score two weeks ago well it is lower list now reports on growing doubts over just how credible the credit rating agencies can be.

breaking news the united states has just lost its top notch triple a credit rating from it was the downgrade heard round the world in a strong reaction to the rating downgrade of u.s. well it's that standard and poor's took the u.s. from straight aaa student to one notch below for the first time ever bad marks were handed down for the nation's debt and politicians inability to agree on reigning it in a tea party downgrade a lot of it has to do with the failure of the present united states i think this is a tea party problem the greater in chief says the u.s. is becoming a bit more unpredictable in terms of the. proposed to. go a stoic response from the downgrade or that helped ratchet up that the yeah tricks of the debt ceiling debate with the help of the other ratings agencies of course stealing the show from bickering politicians with their eyes on the debt deal they may be missing really a larger concern because there is growing evidence today that the u.s.

credit score is going to get hit now that the u.s. has gotten hit just how much does s. and p's mark actually count well not much according to some like investor jim rogers but it's not because the country isn't broke america is going down the tubes where the largest debtor nation in the history of the world it's because of the source these late rating agencies have been wrong about nearly everything for the past ten or fifteen years don't pay any attention to them so just how does the report card stack up for the major ratings agencies themselves they are s.n.p. moody's and fitch let's assess test one the mortgage crisis of two thousand and eight these are the same agencies that rated the toxic sub prime debt aaa so i mean how do we take them with any level of credibility after that. well let's see if they get any from tess to the too big to fail banks and insurers during the financial crisis they missed many of the big bankruptcies they gave high investment

grade. gratings to lehman to bear stearns right to the very end they gave a aaa rating to almost the day of collapse good grades for firms that collapsed or were bailed out because of bad debt in fact the financial crisis inquiry commission said the three credit ratings agencies were key enablers of the financial meltdown and this brings us to test three ethics ratings agencies are paid by the investment firms they grade and moody's and s. and p. are publicly traded which means they may be more driven to increase profits for shareholders raising this debate right now you have the companies that are being judged paying the bill and they could live around in a big berkshire the mr buffett also pointed out the market requires it because these ratings agencies has been around forever so they're in shrine by government regulations which oh yeah they have a stake in test for objectivity frank legislation the financial reform has restrictions on rating agencies and the rules that are yet to be written and they

carry huge deal about what those rules and up looking like saw it wouldn't surprise me if they were trying to curry favor with certain politicians in fact they've spent a combined total of one point seven six million dollars this year lobbying washington over the regulations which brings us full circle to the downgrade of u.s. credit the u.s. was downgraded by s. and p. because of government debt or the government ran up that debt in part because they bailed out the big banks and a.i.g. back in two thousand and eight remember the one saddled with all of those bad mortgage bonds which the ratings agencies graded triple a when in reality they were a d or an f which makes you wonder if the ratings agencies themselves deserve a downgrade lauren lyster r.t. washington d.c. and you can go to all two don't come for the news you want to watch when you want to watch it posture kind of thing you've missed on there it's all online as well for you now here's a quick look at a couple of stories that are of the moment should you not on close to. astronomers

warning a comet will hit later this year. or whether it's worth preparing for doomsday. and look back on how the course of the soviet union took a major turn twenty years ago after an attempt to overthrow the reforming government was staged on the streets of moscow. the morning when the t.v. news was followed by a. wild at the streets of the capital. on turning point in russia's history. it was a justified move forward. moving when you sense the battle for democracy on our t.v. . this week pressure is being mounting again on the syrian leader bashar assad the u.s. and european leaders called for him to step down but russia refused to support the motion saying assad should be given time to implement promised reforms and this

comes in the wake of the crackdown on regime protesters but as. an ocean of reports from the front line while the west sees a government's action as oppression some in syria see it as liberation. job is done the city liberated there is or in lease of the country has become gotten lost during city left after clearing off extremists struck have been terrorizing his citizens for weeks the military claim that he's bandits blocked their rights put up barricades it became a case in the hiding just like hostages. soldiers of the syrian army out live in the city of there as so many of the iraqi border. officials are saying operation is now over that the city has been freed from armed groups as you can see people are welcome in the soldiers as the waiters patois tanks have been trying to make their way through jubilant crowds thousands of kilometers away in the white house

a decision has already matured president bashar assad is the one who's terrorizing the syrian people and that should and the transition to democracy in syria has begun and it's time for assad to get out of the way not everybody has agreed that moscow has insisted that assad should be given time to implement promised changes his recent decisions to release political prisoners repeal emergency law and allow peaceful demonstrations have indicated the right direction but external pressure could still bury a fragile transitional. reforms will give sister syria it will make the country stronger but syria's enemies don't want syria to be strong america for instance are sick and tired of a strong syria and they want to weaken as they don't want they need instability in the country. and there is pressure works. with contradictory reports about

policemen and security officers killed across the country and the army is continuing crackdown on protesters despite president assad's pledges to the un and his top military operations the syrian people no know longer. who to trust and what to believe. with a country at the crossroad again the arm themselves with patience an ocean r.t. syria. and journalist neil clark says the west is not really interested in peace in syria he thinks all it wants is to gain influence in the region. syria and the north. the terrible situation. between both sides and that's the reason it's happening today because we present said he was going to do some multi-party system in syria. and what do we get out of the usa good. for him to step down i'm

a great. friend with iran and russia and the aim of the game is to try to remove. from some of the country quite a different scenario is developing in egypt and. being treated in a post. spectacular death defying aerobatics performed by some of the world's funniest pundits well that's what's for the fun of the international. analyses. and what we're seeing spectacular performance over the. things. i mean i still see

a lot of people pouring into the. displays of course everyone is looking forward to the. rain is actually quite symbolic. thing for the last day of two thousand and eleven but you know what i will be weeping if i don't see an arab never seen one in my life believe it or not so we are expecting to see the. performing in the skies again today for the public let me run you through some of the highlights of the past five. days now we've seen the debut of the a t fifty that's the a fifth generation a stealth fighter russian made now this really quick created quite a stir and one of the only other planes out there in service that is that is its closest rival is the f. twenty two raptor which will also be u.s. air force want to be a test pilot who tried the t. fifty actually told r.t. that this plane has a very good maneuverability it can do crazy stunts of the jets definitely cannot do

and he also said that it's a very safe so safe that it's safe even when it flies tail first out that would be interesting to see we also saw. that is the medium range of russian aircraft that will go head to head with the likes of be a three twenty and of course we saw a super. had one hundred we saw it in the sky is a jumbo go head to head with the dreamliner of boeing as well as the airbus a three eighty now when i look at these big shots all i could think of is i hope this is the beginning of the end of those eleven hour flights i think a lot of us have been through though so hopefully when you see these flying in the skies will be more comfortable if we schedule is to have now today have the weather does cooperate it's should we should be hearing engines roaring all throughout the day coupled with of course the heavy rain and the strong winds well you know i'll turn you over to my colleague tom he had one heck of a ride with one of those military just let's take

a look. engine. instruments. runway. and then it's take off with a russian to display team. the nine first pilots have performed two hundred times in the past nineteen use. hot dogs somewhere. andre is training to join the team he thinks he's nearly good enough now but still remembers his first flight as a solo pilot to get a good result without any warning they told me i was going to do the next flight on my own trip i had no time to be scared there was no longer any not trying to be right it was unforgettable and of a takeoff you on your own controlling the plane then when you land you've done it. yes moves are always trying to hold them i knew this they practiced most weekends thinking of new tricks and practicing old ones not the form of

a stanford or whatever don't let me come up with stone and then research them but it often turns are you peepin done before nested over a russian came up with the loop and all the other stunts are based on the loo. however it always comes down to time in the air that even with years of flying and training experience between them it never becomes easy rikard typical most smokers when you leave the cockpit you can squeeze a gallon of sweat from your suit look at your knees are shaking because it's extremely different than the stress and any will it will go through. so with that gut wrenching fair ringing in the mine is i was told it was mine for the crowds on the ground this is an exciting spectacle but that's not quite the emotion that's going through my mind at the moment because i'm about to see what happens from inside the cockpit. we did the loop the loop all the planes just meet us apart.

but when it came to the fountain i nearly blacked out. white faced but not defeated i returned to. the. ok. face it. it. but i could also see some of the strains that go through. though there's no ticket but you know he might speak for the crowds but serial acrobatics aren't social to the pilots it's always a difficult job that attests. so next time you look up at those speeding planes spare a thought for the pilots and some. from bottom take. a bit more from the next show

throughout the day here on. i'll be back with a recap of the week's top stories in just a few minutes from now stay with us live here in moscow.

closer. to the approach. because the future flights tom our team takes to the max air show. from the. top. are. the local governments giving back to the people.

very. heavy explosions. but some reports of. protesting against. the. attention. to those who. simply.