monetary fund chief dominique strauss kahn who had been accused of sexually assaulting a hotel maid. and welcome you are watching r t a in moscow where it is six o'clock am four o'clock am in tripoli which is where we have breaking news this hour dubai based. t.v. says that the libyan capital is being pounded by missiles and mortars but reuters news agency also says a program offered forces are shelling the town of. west of the capital this comes after the regimes a spokesman. threatened the battle for libya will turn the country into volcanoes lava and fire rebel forces are now occupying colonel gadhafi tripoli compound following a day of fierce fighting and claimed to be in control of most of the city the whereabouts of the leader and his family are still unknown in the recent national

radio address though the market off the plane is that withdrawal from. stronghold was a tactical move several rebel groups have gathered in the tripoli's central square to celebrate their advance. and for some insight into the libya conflict don de bar an anti-war activist and journalist who joins us live from the u.s. now thank you for being with us and very interesting times as we've heard khadafi claims that leaving his compound compound was part of a bigger plan is this really the case or is he just trying to save face. well first of all let's look at the claims from both sides running friday last in the afternoon and the sea started broadcasting the claim that gadhafi and his family had left the ads were going to be this was picked up by the media across the board

on saturday and for a good part of sunday and then suddenly on sunday afternoon the thought was triple and then sunday to monday they said that they had captured three of kazakhstan as they said they were at the troll of the eighty fifth ip five percent i think on those before if you will of triple with as it turns out these three because obvious sons have all appear two of them have basically appeared on the media and cite the fall of islam he says that all of his brothers was a spot and last night on c.n.n. so the claims that have been put forth and by the way he also wanted to drive a c.n.n. reporter around and the actually being that he was driving around tripoli and while the rebels were supposedly in control of eighty to ninety five percent of the trouble that was interesting is that these same reporters at the box down for several days now in their hotel a good number of them spend all their time in the hotel unfortunately in tripoli

they don't get to spend their time at the bar which is the preoccupation of many of them but some of the reporters like for example they haven't spent a good part of this year two or three months in tripoli and have spent much time with what the prior to that have contacts on the ground and have been able to find out by calling people from neighborhood to neighborhood what's going on there and rather than finding ninety percent eighty percent ninety five percent of tripoli under the control of the brussels who in fact are good sorry your regular is being run by could park their party offices in uniform she found that. the government was in control of both the city and she said she heard from several farms that the city's if there are dead could harvest on the streets of tripoli so you know whatever colonel gadhafi is claiming you know it's difficult to verify it or not it's on self but certainly what's been coming from the western media has been

thrown fifty lies what we're finding out is that the information is always changing it is very fluid situation on the ground in fact we're hearing that right now khadafy is apparently using grad rockets to attack rebel positions do you think that it is possible that there could be a large scale counter offensive from forces loyal to gadhafi still in the works well one thing to keep in mind is that you know it's been a while now that the donkey opened up the armories the people of libya and there were tripoli where more than a million rifles and also arms were handed out the paperwork tripper were out first of all the claim that has been called wall to wall from the so-called progressive media in united states such as the ba'ath party now the radio with all the way through the box that is obviously a big day there is that this is an indigenous rebellion for instance that said it doesn't hand the people guns and say please. so what's interesting is that this has

more of the appearance of a large scale back to where the invaders are being priced to come in and engage the people on the ground than it does for some sort of a people's republic and backed by the united states which by itself would be a remarkable look back to if that were true kind of a double question combining two questions if you will bear with me if at the end of all of this that the rebels do come out on top is there anyone in place that can actually be capable of running this new state and also is it possible even of installing a new dream democracy at the barrel of a gun. well i mean obviously it's but at the microscope at the barrel of a gun particularly at the barrel of an impure with a gun would be quite a remarkable feat if it were possible or. the interesting thing to keep in mind about all that would be that first of all the rebels themselves have been urging

that themselves i mean joe will essentially has taken charge of the entire operation he fired the minister of information he fired the head of the military or killed the head of military you you can read the reports that people have been circulating that you know the entire house will essentially was per extension where was god so which makes this look more by the way like a clue than to repel you know a revolution but given the history of their own problems and the fact that the united states and the your former colonial sympathy recall the real powers of north africa in the absolute way are the ones that are calling the shots you know i don't know that you will suppose it is for that matter but you can remember they were already spent sitting down and trying to parse contracts and such where there's even been as a settlement the west now you mentioned the colonial powers and there has been a lot of criticism on the ground about western intervention in the situation in

your opinion how likely is nato to continue its involvement in the country once this is all over. well just at the head of that i would like to back the russian foreign minister a lot wrong for not jumping on the bandwagon to recognize this group or good baiters basically legitimate government of libya which you know right at the moment is a somewhat remarkable position given how to do that unless that's changed last power of all but in terms of what's happened what's happening there i'm psychic and people plus and i've watched the well know just on whether you believe that nato is going to try and keep their hands in the endgame once this the actual revolution has finished and subsided while the game is nato's without nato be so full bellies it would have been put to bed back in february early march and by the way people should understand that that's how long this has been going on the pakistan observer reported on february twenty fifth that u.s. u.k.

had french troops had landed in st ghazi in the twenty third twenty fourth of february which itself was the whole month before you went resolutions nine hundred seventy to seventy three were asked so this has been a military exercise by nato or really by the united states and its allies and by the way on that point but keep in mind that when called or was france has already started to carry the president a program fly out of his palace at gunpoint that right he started trying to reestablish their will and he went once more after that so it seems to me that coupled with the establishment of africa in october of two thousand and eight part germany and the active role that africa has played in this particular adventure it's pretty clear that this is a colonial project and it's going to control the resources and it will battle all right thank you very much that was journalist and activist don de bar joining us

live from new york and of course we appreciate you taking some time to be with us tonight. thank you exactly. and the question now of khadafi whereabouts is yet to be answered but he could be hiding in the tunnels of the tripoli that's according to dr gupta the director of the german orient institute based in berlin apparently the rebels were in a situation to advance small. to the big compound in which duffy might still be i mean he would be there in the bunkers in the underground bunkers and not not on the surface so during the last hours sleep in the rebels have advanced somewhat to that part of the city that the socialist and part of tripoli. is very erratic in his behavior into very difficult to say what will he do i mean his son in the television yesterday said no no my father still here and we are

fighting and he is not. the man to run away like the other dictators did but on the other hand side i'm quite sure that he must have an emergency exit from his bunker system and can escape i don't think that would take him to tunisia and definitely not maybe he might go to the south to tunisia and the other countries so bordering and take a plane from there to zimbabwe or to to very few countries north korea where he would be still accepted as a host so it's very difficult to say and it might take some time to discover him even if he stays in his own countries if we remember said that hussein how long it took to discover him in iraq. shapiro professor of political science at yale university thinks the situation in libya mirrors afghanistan with various competing tribes hungry for power. the comparison that comes to mind with me is to none of

the countries that you mention but rather to afghanistan because first of all we have china believe based civil war going on not and us invasion war a democracy ah price and secondly we have no history of democratic politics in the region and i think that it's a sobering forward because i think the challenge facing then whoever comes to power in libya in creating the rule of rule is going to be much more similar to the challenges that have based the karzai government in afghanistan and what's going on in egypt well what has gone on in iraq we know very little about the agenda of the forces that are coming to power. which is a justice minister in could offer. djibril was the head of the economic development council in the middle east timor. libya's ambassador to the gadhafi regime is easy to relate is of the national transitional council

they're certainly known have any history as democrats you know they've been associated with the gadhafi regime for a very long time. foreign forces may have played a bigger role in the rebels assault on tripoli than just support from the air u.k. intelligence agency and security services were reportedly secretly inserted into libya to coordinate rebel action during the push more u.k. military personnel are said to be on standby in the mediterranean. has more on this it seems the british did have a bigger hand in all of this than it originally let on the press here today reporting that a whole team of intelligence officials have been operating in the country for some time now. ever since it became clear that the rebels would need some help if they really were going to topple gadhafi so people like spies m i six officials former s.a.'s offices to giving military advice and also non-lethal

aid now it's important to note here that the u.n. mandate that nato is operating under in the country does not include a provision for ground troops and so the u.k. foreign secretary william hague has been quick to stress that. they've been supplying rebels with has been non-lethal and therefore not in breach of this u.n. resolution however these missions have been very covert clandestine and off the grid so as not to cause any diplomatic issues and also in these reports that. intelligence officials have been planning for some time now this assault on tripoli so as to catch gadhafi on the back they've been smuggling weapons fighters even fighting and also telecommunications equipment secret weapons around the capital and then on the weekend following the bombing campaign from the air of strategic communications posts they got the go ahead for the final march on tripoli itself so

the british government actually knew this was all on the cards for some time now however it did concede that it does already have two hundred troops ready to be deployed from some. chris as peacekeepers should the situation the post transition they want to send into anarchy so they're prepared for that and also six hundred more marines actually also stationed in the mediterranean to be deployed in what the government has a role of support for the humanitarian cause so clearly downing street at the moment refusing to rule out the use of what could be almost one thousand ground troops should the situation call for it clearly there is some contradiction there to this idea of handing over control to the libyan people so they're in chicago their own future and clearly the british and also other european states are not that confident just yet that this transition will be as peaceful as they all want it to be. better reporting for us are there from london now there may still be fighting in tripoli but the new government is wasting little time in setting up its

future cash flow european oil giants given the go ahead by rebel officials have already begun moving in with a talian company any close ties to gadhafi spearheading the return of those are two reports this time its services won't be quite as cheap. delivered as a promise but seen by many as more of a threat david cameron says nato will stay while libya makes the transition to democracy as allied forces lend support to the rebels to take tripoli to stop the war coalition warns libyans not to expect they're getting something for nothing but western powers don't do this without asking for a paper why is it that the head of the t.n.c. is running off to paris to meet with the french president will of course start his one very very important issue that's why the western powers tony blair and others struck a deal with gadhafi in the first place it will be exactly what they're seeking to

continue with with the t.n.c. to further explore those oil riches the british government makes no secret of the fact that it's motives in supporting the rebels aren't entirely altruistic last year alone the u.k. export it around forty billion dollars of goods and services to north africa and the middle east but it's black gold that's the key libya has the largest oil reserves in africa western powers look at the region and they talk about humanitarianism all democracy but they sink about oil great motta it says it's impossible not to draw a comparison with iraq he's written a book about the aftermath of the iraq invasion in which he maintains western powers imposed a democracy which played on sectarian divisions that ensured years of tribal struggle but also meant the allies retained control of the oil supply while the u.k. government insists lessons have been learned from iraq to move into libya even

before the fate of tripoli is sealed great oil grab is already beginning b.p. has a contentious oil and gas exploration contract in libya which the u.k. government will be anxious for it to resume italian oil giant e n i. back to libya. knees. but it was price to the libyan people the great fear is that just. creates a democracy which the. oil companies into and just not think about the people. and just to remind you we have extensive coverage of the situation in tripoli on our web site. to our dot com for the latest video analysis and opinion and you can

also get up to the minute news from the country on our twitter page follow us underscore. creasing pressure on syria where deadly fighting between government forces and protesters has been raging for almost six months now the human rights council has ordered an investigation into alleged violations the u.n. says over two thousand protesters have been killed during the uprising political analyst was speaking to us earlier from beirut says the west will use this

development to its advantage. been using all their resources to have been the syrian regime. in america and sanctioned followed by other european sanctions and they are using now the international court or the international human rights to find. my my ass they will use. more pressure on syria. obviously it's been very difficult for the syria because various international interference by western power and there is some element from our from the arab regimes they want they want to change in syria and when they come for that change in order there is. coordination between between some country in the west and some arab country too probably pushing

for regime change in syria we heard that from the obama administration were heard that from. france and britain and germany and we seen some calls from the saudis and the qatari and other country in the region and obviously. haven't been away from hosting the opposition in turkey. but i think the situation in syria despite the effort by the regime is going through a very difficult time. on to other news now a man suspected of organizing the killing of a renowned a russian journalist anna politkovskaya has been arrested by russian police who was gunned down in her moscow apartment building five years ago you got a piece going off that's the latest the arrested man is a former lieutenant colonel of the police he was actually one of the witnesses

during the course of the investigation but investigators say that they suspected he could be directly linked to journalists. from almost the very start of the investigation but it's only now that they've managed to gather enough evidence to detain him his name is. and it's suspected that he received an order from somebody to organize the police as murder he found all logically the people who would do it cleanse of the entire thing and supplied them with weapons but according to the deputy editor in chief of the newspaper were on the political scale used to work and today be an old holding their own separate investigation as well he says that even if the people who is the man who organized the police were it doesn't necessarily mean the afterwards will be able to quickly find the people who ordered it. just not with. the arrested man was

a prosecution witness in the case as far as i understand he had been misleading investigators in a very clever way for a long time pretending to be an important source of information about the murder and the prosecutors have doubts that he was sincere but there was not enough evidence prosecutors have enough evidence to buy nobody because it's a show this man was little too little a murder is difficult to say if this arrest will help to discover who ordered the murder because such crimes are based on very complicated schemes that may be a long chain of mediators so it will take time before investigators can answer all the questions it's really hard to say since the investigation. it has been continuing for quite some time and surely them on or off on the political scale is one of the most high profile cases probably off the last decade just to remind you a bit about her she used to work for a. newspaper in russia her porch mostly focused on the chechen republic and the

human rights situation in russia and she was murdered right as she was entering her apartment building in the very center of moscow back in two thousand and six this caused a huge reaction both here in russia and among the international community with people demanding that those who planned and organized her murder are brought to justice there were four suspects from the beginning two of them are still under investigation one of another person that was they detained a few months ago and now this man the former police officer who could afford going to rise to. the political squares motorboat of course that is still to be found by a court if indeed you meet the people who. planned it organized. the death. of his going off reporting from moscow on to america now where a judge has dropped all charges against former head of the i.m.f. freeing him to rebuild his shattered career and reputation dominique strauss kahn

had been previously accused of sexually assaulting a hotel maid something he denied. brings us the latest from new york. following three months of scandalous coverage and slandering headlines sexual assault charges against dominique strauss kahn have been dropped a manhattan supreme court judge delivered that ruling on tuesday after prosecutors in the case say that the accuser nafissatou diallo has been not has not been truthful on all matters great and small the new york district attorney's office says misty alos tarnished credibility has made it impossible for investigators to resolve the question of what exactly happened between the thirty three year old hotel maid and the former head of the international monetary fund now however this ruling delivered by the judge is on hold pending an appeal by mr

gallo the accuser her lawyer has petitioned the court to appoint a special prosecutor to proceed with the case now that is a request that the judge dismissed and now mr yellow and her lawyer are appealing that decision now in his first public statement since being arrested on may fourteenth dominique strauss kahn says that the past months have been a nightmare for him and his family and they are looking forward to returning home to france but in the meantime mr strauss kahn's attorneys and the attorney for misty alo of both left the courthouse on tuesday and addressed the media were regarding the verdict that was delivered here's a little bit of what was said today is an extraordinary day and it's an extraordinary event to have a district attorney stand up in a public courtroom and dismiss an indictment concluding that the complaining

witness is not worthy of belief we are disappointed. that district attorney grants . apparently does not believe. in justice under the law. and has. an innocent woman by day in court dominic strauss kahn was arrested on may fourteenth shortly after paraded in front of news cameras by the new york city police department at that point he was essentially vilified by most mainstream media outlets and found guilty in the court of public opinion now the new york media turned this criminal investigation into somewhat of a circus because many of the new york new york city newspaper headlines refer to dominique strauss kahn as a frog one refer to him as pepe le pew and they also refer to him as a womanizer now this of course ruin the reputation for this french politician he

was considered a contender for the next presidential race in france but his basically his reputation was ruined before he was convicted at all he lost his job as head of the international monetary fund and there was a lot of of a lot of vote comments and negative press that proceed after his arrest of course now he may feel vindicated now that a new york manhattan supreme court judge dismissed all sexual of assault charges but now he has he is in a position where he needs to possibly get his career back on track and start from scratch because as we've already mentioned he lost that high profile position as head of the i.m.f. . reporting for us from new york now i will be coming back with a recap of our top stories just a few moments thanks for staying with us with r.t. .

the little bit over. twenty years ago the largest country in the. disintegrated of. what had been trying. to teach began a journey. where did it take to. bring

you the top news headlines of from around the world this is r.t. certainly glad to have you with you have you with us six thirty in the morning here in the us go now let's get right to breaking news of from libya rebel forces have stormed moammar gadhafi is tripoli compound the opposition claims to be in control of most of the capital however the whereabouts of the libyan leader remain unknown meanwhile gadhafi addressed the nation of the old radio and says leaving his compound was a tactical move. the u.n. steps up pressure on syria ordering an investigation into possible rights violations during a crackdown on anti-government protests. police arrest a man suspected of masterminding the murder of renowned a russian journalist and a political sky.