international news and comment live from our headquarters here in moscow this is r.t. good to have you with us this hour and i'm and russian cargo spacecraft has crashed in eastern russia progress launch from baikonur cosmodrome in kazakhstan on wednesday morning it was due to dock at the international space station on friday but the engines on board the soyuz rocket taking it into orbit appear to have failed. explains. it was a three hundred twenty fifth second of the rockets ascent into orbit when there was this engine failure which certainly hit the ground with a bomb path towards having come down to earth very rapidly there are you as yet unconfirmed reports that also that day rocket broke into three parts which fell in three different areas in the altai region in russia's east we heard from an eyewitness earlier who saw the rockets coming down in that region yet we're not

showing our you know what i looked at it and it seemed like a white stripe i thought it was a train a first time but then i realized cleans never fly that low or quietly then it turned into some white object and i saw that it was sparkling on he went behind a cloud and i thought you were come out in a minute but it disappeared i didn't see it again but i heard a loud noise it was like three bangs one really loud and two quieter. so obviously that evidence there from that eyewitness also perhaps supporting the idea that there are three separate sites of impact those three bangs however on the ground having fallen in such a wide area it's not known whether anyone was around at the time and may have as a result become a casualty from this massive falling debris there were no crew on board and the search in the area will begin shortly sail for a teaser we heard recently from the local ministration and there is no good people

go there to collect pine nuts they grow everywhere so they may well be people mounting the tiger although we don't know how many in that area back in december when the three glow now satellites responsible for navigation used by the space program run by russia's military they plunged into the sea in february a ministry of defense satellite stopped working properly and just a few days ago on the eighteenth of august another freshly launch satellite went off its. bits and disappeared off the radars all together so this is the fourth in that line of rather worrying pick ups it's also made a little bit more worrying by the fact that the u.s. has now stopped its space shuttle flights to the international space station those astronauts up there can survive about two months on the supplies that they have but it's thought to have to be another emergency mission up there and they're totally reliant on flights of these soyuz rockets from baikonur. tom bought reporting their

will for more insight on the story i'm joined live by dr robert williams he's an astronomer and professor at the space telescope science institute based in baltimore in the usa thanks very much indeed for being with us i don't want to put you on the spot here but do you have any sort of speculation any idea of what could have caused this incident. no i don't do well i can tell us what i've read and that is it appears that the third stage did not separate from the rest of the rocket therefore i suppose that the system was trying to launch the entire meaning extended first and second stage and didn't have the energy to get in there but no. one with over forty missions in the past with plenty of success does it come as a surprise to you that something like this could happen. absolutely not space is a risky business as anyone who's been in grad but that will tell you firsthand space as a hostile environment secondly of affairs lots of energy to put something in orbit

those two factors are a recipe for danger no matter how good her we are there will be accidents. could it perhaps be damaging to the soyuz his reputation and maybe encourage so. much foster competition i know that lots of projects are in line at the moment could it speed up the competition from other rocket developments i suspect it will have a positive effect i turn it to. your first question will it affect the reputation of so i do so yes of course on the other hand it's they have an excellent record. and i think there are more than three hundred lances and there are men really through accident it's simply highlights the fact that like getting into your driving or. there are risks involved and it's hard to quantify it. the fact is though that i'm sure that there are people out there who would like to be responsible for a person in alternatives and this will give them some importance to do so despite

the risks involved in the hostile environment you're talking about in space just what are your predictions of space travel in a lifetime in the next twenty thirty years. with brad to do it you know anse i living species expand the fewer all our environment whether it's fish in the sea birds in the air it with on land the fact is it's part of evolution which is genetically driven and that we try to accommodate to environments that are somewhat different than the one that we're currently comfortable with in the case of humans with space obviously we haven't of all people point where we can accommodate to space but i believe that we were genetically wired to explore it's part of our makeup and hasbro. wards and so we're going to continue to do it. you can't stop people from doing it you know whether you look back a century ago on our exploration. of the world people are driven to do these

things in the case of space it has great rewards we discover lots of things out there it's the best place to. study the universe and the universe of us what we have all from sather i think if we want to understand ourselves and we obviously have a basic drive to do that the human species of the universe is where we came from in the universal sense it's best to discover the rest of the universe from space and so i think it's inevitable that will continue trying to do that in fact i think . it's or it just was it just very briefly and maybe ambitions not just for space tourism but to spend more time in space and people actually spending their lives there i mean is that likely. this man unlikely i think and time it's inevitable and fact i congratulate the authorities and russia continue to give space exploration high priority their forward thinking you know you know i don't think you can stop

people from wanting to do risky things and just one thing though risky what about for those a spin on this rocket crashed on to earth with more and more space travel just briefly one of the risks of that happening in a densely populated area cities being at risk very briefly in the future i think that it is inevitable in a certain point where one can obviously minimize the risk and so the best thing to do is put launch sites in isolated areas which is where most countries have done so hopefully. serious risks to populated areas is a long way off in the future really interesting to hear we have to say thanks. and conversation live with us here on our to talk to robert williams astronomer professor at space telescope science institute in baltimore. thanks for your time show no my boy your. other news now the president francis met with the head of libya's national transitional council in paris after a meeting behind closed doors nicolas sarkozy promised military assistance to the

new libyan government for as long as they need it while for more details on what was said let's now have two parties daniel bushell in paris daniel what came out of this meeting there yes. yes france becomes the first e.u. power to host the head of libya's transitional national council nicolas sarkozy said that he and nato will continue to supply military equipment to the rebels as long as they need it though he didn't mention the un resolution authorizing intervention in libya which many think actually expressly rules out military supplies to libya rebel leader. said that he sees france as a driving force in the nato campaign against gadhafi troops now the french and british have invited libya's government to a meeting on september the first with e.u. leaders adding that they will meet quote not as military allies but friends the

british prime minister's office has also released a statement saying that the meeting will help to build a free and democratic libya during wednesday's meeting sarkozy also cut france's economic growth forecast and announced eleven billion dollars in. measures the french president being accused of trying to bury this very bad news in the euphoria of war victory but they're all signs that the war isn't producing the results because they wanted more in this report. france feels like a winner as the first power to recognize libya's rebels the first to bomb the country and now the first in talks with rebel leaders for mr allan she paces victory gives him great satisfaction opposition m.p. jack lang everyone to be thankful that france inspired action at the united nations corporations in states that voted for you in the intervention of rubbing their

hands one of the first members of a french to. march. as a representative of the different or company. is not from this of course french all join the toll has been named as this was big enough rubble all for a go to brazil russia and china for quote political issues there are three states who refuse strong sanctions against gadhafi those nations had voles to contracts with the former regime of russian official says quote we've lost libya completely it is well known that it is a wall for all that these so-called position government has promised to give the old two from france officially claims its war mission is over but analysts tippit to secretly stay on in libya to make sure it profits france only maintaining

forces. presence in libya even the. resolution. yes but keeping troops in the country means heavy cost strike on latest polls say most french people now oppose the military intervention this in p.c.'s further bloodshed and the hefty price tag to deal with it now is opposed by that to take us with him in much the war is far from over and this invasion is already costing much more than we get back fears are growing that libya's new leaders are too divided to win the peace. points to the rebels murder last month of the military chief general yunis experts warn widespread rebel looting and executions beat france's problems they have only just begun their new bushell r.t. paris. a spokesman for kind of would have his regime as promised libya will become

a volcano of fire lawless forces are continually valid to keep fighting pointing to a prolonged civil war and according to author and journalist afshin rattansi he told me earlier that the evidence points to more conflict. i think should expect to see the national of seven. is a humanitarian crisis i've seen pictures of the dead children killed by nato airstrikes what we have ahead of us is an insurgency campaign the bombing is going on in tripoli from the forces and then of course when the. regime finally crumbles we have the onset of the rivalry between this. transitional council. standing next to the leader of it was of taking away the french people's minds from the austerity cuts media loves to call libya. the transitional council now calling for him. to be captured dead or alive is not

a free this is exactly one of those idealistic liberal again without thinking again with reporters in the field morris embedded with the rebels cheering the rebels on the understanding saying what people said of the armed services committee in the senate the united states is. now in court we have here is the possibility of terror attacks around the world because to gain support for a ragtag band of different forces different types of people supposedly in an idea some kind of idea that liberation will fall. toward him unilaterally or will rebels now control colonel gadhafi fortress in central tripoli but violent clashes continue throughout the capital however the u.s. defense department says it has another concern the security of sites in libya known

to contain stockpiles of chemical weapons including you raining dust speaking to my colleague. earlier today james corbet from the center for research on globalization question why libya's new government is not being trusted to deal with. perhaps it presupposes the idea that the stockpiles are unsafe in the hands of the rebel forces and would be safer in the hands of the nato forces whereas the people who have so far been involved in siege in tripoli and killing trickle east civilians in tripoli have been the did you know side so i think the question is really who are the people to be concerned about having access to those weapons i would imagine that that if there was any danger to be had it would be obviously in the proliferation of those weapons as in early july it was quoted as saying that he would be willing to strike at europe if if tripoli was it was attacked so i guess that is a possibility it seems to be on the table but certainly it's unclear to me whether it's the weapons would be safer in the hands of the gadhafi forces or the terrorists i think ultimately perhaps getting rid of these types of weapons would

be the ultimate goal for in terms of peace and stability. or to get more analysis on the situation there in libya on our website it's all there while the conflict rages on just log on to r.t. dot com for the latest details and developments. to north korea now and north korea's confirmed it's ready to resume long stalled six party talks on its nuclear program without any preconditions pyongyang would also consider suspending the production and testing of nuclear weapons while talks are ongoing north korea's reclusive leader kim jong il met president dmitry medvedev in russia's republic of iraq there during a rare visit to the country. in the republic's capital following the talks. after a meeting with the russian president the north korea leader kim jong il has announced his country's willingness to return to the six party negotiations aimed at denuclearizing the korean peninsula but it will only reimpose its moratorium on

production and testing of nuclear weapons once those six party talks begin the rest of the six party talks members like south korea japan the united states they all want the north korean leader to implement the moratorium first and then have north korea return to the six party talks which have been stalled since two thousand and eight the north korean leader still wants to do it his way but still his announcement is a very big deal there were several signs pointing to the possibility of such a breakthrough even when kim jong il began his journey usually the very secretive north korean leader travels completely incognito in the international community finds out about his travels post factum or even not at all this time the entire world knew as soon as kim jong il crossed the russian border on his specially designed armored train and that of course led many to speculate that the meeting

also publicized with the russian president dmitri the video would bring about some definite breakthrough and we know that there have been further developments in the plans for a gas pipeline that will go from russia to south korea of course north korea we also know that a number of committees have been created and this c.e.o. of russia's gas giant gazprom has been tasked with overseeing the project so that definitely is still in the works and could be a very lucrative deal for north korea for south korea as well and definitely for russia which is looking to export more of its resources. will from this joy in life. of the national campaign to end the korean war joining us live there in oregon thank you very much indeed for being with us here on our team the north korea has confirmed it's ready to resume long stalled six party talks and will consider halting the production and testing of nuclear weapons does this mean that

all parties should go ahead with a dialogue and will they go ahead with i don't know. you are absolutely i mean there's nothing to stop any party from sitting down at the table now you have the opportunity to stop the production of nuclear material you have the ability to discuss such issues you have the ability to begin to develop a peace process that could lead to demilitarisation and lowered tensions in the region so will they do it will the south koreans and the united states sit down it remains to be seen at this point i think not without the international pressure on the united states and south korea i don't think that will necessarily see it they're talking about the precondition wait you must stop production on a certain date before the talks not on the day of the talks those types of arguments seem to imply that someone doesn't want to speak but you can understand

maybe that attitude from south korea but what why from the u.s. why would they be reluctant not to progress with these talks. you know the u.s. issue is a little tricky it's involved in several issues as you may know we have more than twenty eight thousand troops stationed in south korea and close to one hundred bases and posts in a tiny country. a lot of money is spent that way i'm js you island in the sea outside korea there is a massive naval base being built against you in opposition to the wishes of the local island community where they're pouring cement on coral reefs and beginning to build this huge naval installation is this really to defend against the north you know i would contend that it's relates to china and the desire by the united states to maintain its military presence in korea this has been

a desire on the part of the united states and if you take away the threat of the north koreans if we truly work toward a peace treaty and demilitarization or a denuclearization of the korean peninsula more then the reason for the u.s. troops there become less and less or at least we can deal more directly with the china the u.s. issues why is north korea making these positive signals being prepared to make concessions why now well what's forgotten is that they've been saying they would return to the talks throughout they have been saying to the united states that they would give up all nuclear weapons in exchange for peace and normalized relations such as russia has and one hundred fifty seven fifty eight countries have with north korea so there's not a big change there are what we're hopeful about is that there's a change in the attitudes a little in the south with an election coming up in two thousand and twelve and in

the united states a change because we're spending so much money and so many billions of dollars. right now perhaps the administration is beginning to understand that there could be peace dividend here so this visit to russia by kim jong il what way could russia play an important role obviously we know they've been talking about economy trade ties but in what way could russia play a mediator's role here and be effective in this between the dispute between the north korean south korea if russia is in the perfect position to play this role because of their closer relationship with the united states over the past years because of the fact they aren't seen as a lot i did with north korea as china is and because someone has to as a world leader stand up and say this war has gone on for sixty years there's been

a change the cold war has ended folks let's get on to the idea that you only build peace through engagement and relationship you know president vaclav havel once said that we must change our way of attention from what separates us to what unites us and russia plays a unique role right now to help lead the world in that direction eric thanks so much we're out of time eric joining us live there from oregon in the us a really interesting time we have to say thanks for joining us think. nato should be obliged to combat the drug industry in afghanistan if it wants to renew its mandate to stay in the country and that's according to russia's anti drug chief victor yvonne off during a visit to belgrade he said the majority of drugs smuggled into europe come from afghanistan with kosovo acting as the center for distribution insisted russia in serbia can't cope alone and needs full regional cooperation. iran has filed

a lawsuit against russia in the international court over its refusal to supply s three hundred missiles on to you got this going on brings us more in the story from outside the iranian embassy here in moscow. according to the iranian ambassador to iran is suing moscow over a shipment of a badge of russia's past three hundred air defense systems to tehran under a deal which was signed back in two thousand and eight but to this shipment never went through because in june two thousand and ten the un the security council slammed a set of sanctions on iran which in force is a wide range of limitations including those on the sales of various types of forms so russia froze the shipment last year officials said that they are ready to give iran back its down payment which is around two hundred million dollars or we could go all go through with a deal if and when the un security council to lift this set of sanctions turn around says that it has taken this case to the international court of justice but

what's interesting is that they see these steps are not aimed against russia but are actually aimed at giving moscow the so-called illegal trump as the ambassador said in order for this shipment to go through but actually talking about the s. three hundred air defense systems we've been in production strictly for export since one thousand nine hundred ninety four but just a few days ago their production was stopped altogether more advanced models taking their place. and the world of football where an unheralded russian team is breaking records and breaking the bank from russia's republic of dagestan a signed superstar striker from the italian side into the renowned football cost thirty six million dollars pocketing twenty nine million dollars a year himself putting in easily among the best paid players on the planet because the story all the details tomorrow in the meantime i'll be back to have

a very shortly next it's a business update with. hello and welcome to business here on our it's your russia wants to bring the normally hostile north and south korea's together in the name of business at their summit in siberia and with their medvedev and kim jong il have agreed to look at building a gas pipeline across north korea to supply the republican the south bought analysts warn that south korea will have a hard time coming to terms with being dependent on its northern counterparts. i think there will be a large amount of skepticism to overcome instead of korea which allowed themselves to become even partially dependent on supplies to. point across their northern neighbor you have to have an agreement between all three

countries russia north korea and south korea it's no good. building a pipeline i think simply leaves russia or north korea because the north koreans are not going to be able to pay a. price for gas imports rupture but would we ever pay about the cost of building new pipelines with the pipeline has to be extended into south korea the south korean market. and let's take a look at the markets will start with gold that's been and rather volatile period for the precious metal that has plunged the most since two thousand and eight after reaching an all time holiday earlier this week this could become one of the metals in forest status as ever in terms of percentage who also right now is losing more than three and a half percent and analysts say the sharp decline is a result of profit taking any hopes for new measures to help covering it in the u.s. let's move on to or oil crude is next the sourpuss following reports saying stockpiles the cline in the us right now the w c r i as losing fifty cents to say they had

close to one hundred ten dollars per barrel probably in the last stocks are ending up a lot and investors are weighing a larger than anticipated rise in orders for durable goods against war is a problem global economy the dow is up more than half a percent and that's that is gaining point three percent over in europe markets closed in the black part the thoughts here and that saturday around more than a half percent there on the direction sing for investors was a speech by a federal reserve chairman ben bernanke about still on friday. here are also markets end of the trade in session on the pulse it's of no it's both the arts yes and the my sex clothes more than the percent off investors were hesitant to make any big moves they were also looking forward to what will happen in the u.s. on friday. that's all the business is for now the headlines are next with bill by for that.

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is top stories at home. back to us with the engine failure causes russia's unmanned cargo spacecraft progress to crash in the remote east in france falls a hundred kilometers away. the head of libya's rebel government meets european leaders to for his country's oil riches meanwhile nato rushes to prevent stockpiles of gadhafi is chemical weapons falling into the wrong hands. of north korea is ready for the nuclear tests if six party talks resume so says the country's a new sibling on a trip to russia. and iran falls a little suit against russia over its refusal to supply essence three hundred missile saying they don't fall under a u.n. resolution preventing the weapon used in.