independence from georgia our top stories this hour. international news and comment live from our headquarters in moscow where it's now just past nine pm and seven pm in libya where british tornado jets of cruise missiles that colonel gadhafi has command and control bunker in his hometown of sirte it comes despite nato his previous denials that it would assist rebels in the hunt for the libyan leader and u.n. calls to arrest the leader. reports now from tripoli. gadhafi still remains the goal number one for the rebels and since the beginning of the peroration here in the libyan capital tripoli we've been hearing numerous reports and we've been here in numerous statements by the leaders of the rebels that they know could office whereabouts first as you remember they've announced that they catch captured say

fall islam cut off his son and then it turns out that he actually hasn't been captured then we've been receiving information that the rebels know where gadhafi is here in tripoli and they are even sad that they've cornered khadafi and the spin headline is on many international news channels for quite a while but it actually didn't and with any concrete detail and concrete a success and today as well we are receiving reports that the rebels have flooded the streets of tripoli trying to hunt down qaddafi what we saw while driving from the tunisian libyan border to the capital tripoli differs a lot from what we used to see here in june and july when the western part of the country had been controlled by cut off his forces new leaders flags. waving everywhere and all the buildings all the walls covered with profit is say in arabic english and french are welcome to new libya welcome to freely meanwhile remind us

of the recent battles everywhere we've seen many bands and tanks burned cars actually we've also got a feeling that the rebels are the only people left in legal recourse that the cities we've been driving through looked abandoned am to like ghost cities and the rebels are now facing many many problems. litter is now of the rebels have repeatedly been talking about elections and constitution changes but actually that's that's not easy because if there is a huge problem in libya structure this country is home to at least two thousand tribes and financial problems because the country's economy infrastructure. have been badly affected following six months of fighting but as far as we know un pledged to release one point five billion of dollars in aid to help the rebels to rebuild this. country meanwhile there are skeptics who are saying already that

it'll be difficult to control exactly where this money goes and whether this money goes to actually what they was supposed to go and actually this is not the only concern about the rebels. tripoli a city in chaos there's constant gunfire both aggressive and celebration and on the outskirts of the capital stockpiles of chemical weapons nato know very little about the people who might come to power. tripoli so now if you've got this cache of weapons of mass destruction then again people really don't know. and if this is falling into the hands of certain people i mean the situation is potentially disastrous despite the heavy presence of rebels in tripoli the chemical stockpile appears still to be in the hands of what's left of gadhafi government that's both good and bad news following a series of meetings in two thousand and three moammar gadhafi agreed to allow

weapons inspectors into libya the first step towards abandoning his w m d program in return for a normalizing of relations with the u.k. and u.s. they agree that he wouldn't use or move the material but now thanks in part to nato support of the rebels he's on the back foot and may feel he has nothing to lose by disregarding that agreement cry of victory or martyrdom will strike an ominous note to those who know of his weapons potential given the violations of the national territory of libya by nato led rebel forces i think that the idea that he would be beholden to these types of agreements would be off the table at this point and certainly he was quoted as saying in early july that he would be willing to strike out europe if tripoli was attacked so i think it's a fair assumption to say that if there is that capability that he would be looking at that option at this point it at any rate but the alternative rebel control of

chemical weapons is arguably worse according to many some of the rebel factions have links to al qaida or a commentator abdel bari atwan says the west got itself into. troubled now it has to decide how it will figure it out and the options aren't attractive we knew that the majority of the people who are fighting are muslim extremists so how the people is going to be with those people all of them and i believe there. will be more problematic than that. if you are there are some indications nato is considering putting peacekeeping troops on the ground in libya regional experts warned that could be seen by parts of the free libya movement as an act of aggression but having supported the rebel movement need to must now deal with the consequences even if that's w m d armed islamic extremists lore and it's all

a team which. will next week cross to joseph di he's a middle east expert talking to us live from geneva joseph thanks for being with us now as you just heard skeptics are raising concern over who will get access to libya's weapons of mass destruction washington has also admitted it cannot guarantee the arsenals will end up in the right hands just how dangerous could this be for libyans and indeed further afield i'm thinking here of revenge attacks against nato countries for example. well as that interview we are facing the situation need we're not clear what's happening on the field with the knowledge of the rules the regime is ended and they thought i was being conned by our lives she was doing in the in the streets of tripoli and other areas of the news but in the same blind. sided allusion it is all

nice nomics the moment we are in need it was ition the libyan opposition. is a multitude of different groups you have the muslim brotherhood you hire people that were good a. few months ago the fact is. they need english and the indians in this in our national council was this group your media were not sure yes it's the lead to this audience know that it's a victory because you could the. new you've done delusionary done so that national transitional council as its very definition transitional is many paving the way is it not for elections in the future i mean clearly that's a way where the libyan people themselves could question the m.t.c. isn't it. the this is the big question for the libyan what is going to be the role of the. following model. not going to. receive the

huge amount of money how the money is going to be handled who's going to go. is this money going to be in the personalities clue. we're going to be is that i mean that visual image of a real personality that we're the and has all the rebellion during the revolution the link with the within the country and we're the first one to who are who are an invention. now the opposition promised to hand over power to an elected body as we were just talking about within eight months after gadhafi as has actually gone but that's quite a long time i suppose it is a long time in terms of politics but how long do you think it will take for libya to return to some state of normalcy and stability. how do we do how do we define and disability definitely stability the degree the issue is going to be depending

on the hockey and need. to hear this condition that shared power or not because of the luck in this all alone there is pretty water and other personalities on the coast that we only know for a team of them as executive board has been dismissed what is this going to do i mean with the people they have to include people of you've got the nod you have to be inclusive from the wasn't part of the risk is not the d.n.c. is mostly concentrated on the. side of this and it's the need to decide. they have to go next and they have to brochures that leadership of the d.n.c. . lucian in their hands and not in the hands of the names or nato. countries or i just want to quickly ask you finally you talk about nato and western

countries now i understand we were just talking to eric a nice little earlier one of our analysts he's been involved in work over the draft of a new libyan constitution he told us that that would be based on shari'a law now how concerned would the west and those nato countries be over that element. i mean or negative never been an issue if a constitution under sharia i mean the big. ally of the nato and american arabia. regret a country in the world and. the constitution of the area i mean you have this man comes with. a lot of love an issue for the. issue of nature will that wasn't our allies is the interest it is to protect the oil is going to stay in west than any western. who do.

you need for. a movie in full who. cares if we have to leave it there thanks very much for your time joseph the middle east expert told us live there from switzerland on the web cam thank you very much. well leave course you can express your opinion on the situation the developing situation in libya by going to our website that's online at the moment and participating in our latest poll that's going to conscript and see what the results are so far well today we're asking what's coming up next for the libyan people something i've just been talking to joseph about what so far almost half believe they face a slow war for years to come the prediction power and on their hands time to line pockets is the second most popular response to something you say that diplomats will take it from here into the victory is near log on to our dot com to cast your vote. turning to syria now where thousands of people are once again taking to the streets in protest against president bashar al assad's regime the government has

responded with force allegedly killing a number of demonstrators. has the latest now from the syrian capital. the reason for the crackdown as the government says is because there have been armed groups infiltrating syria from a very southern countries including places like iraq or saudi arabia and they say those armed groups are behind are behind those who are protesting against the change of the regime and now we did speak to some people who would not talk to us from camera who did say that fortunately there is some grain of truth to that that the armed gangs which the government of stalking about sort of develop the strategy of when they come behind the protesters who are protesting the current regime and they start shooting and then the armed forces the police are starting to shoot back as a result of these protesters who are stuck in between a rock and a hard place and they're the ones dying and this is this is what's happening according to those people who have been to the protests and also pointing to the

policeman who did not want to talk on camera so in fact the situation in syria is very volatile and it's basically hanging by a thread because unfortunately amidst the cries for change of government and mit's the cries for reforms to be implemented unfortunately there is also violence which is starting to come up and is starting to shine through unfortunately there has been a lot of religious tension in the country as of late and this is a country which is not used to that so what we're facing right now at this point is is a pasta is the possibility of a good another a libyan scenario breaking out in this middle eastern country. well on the way here in r.t. picking the new president you can find out what voters in the republican guard are expecting from their new. late president caption. but first europe's spreading debt crisis is threatening to draw in france as the government announces new austerity measures amid concerns it could lose its aaa

credit rating and the deficit reducing package will see some twelve billion euros worth of cuts plus a three percent tax hike for the rich but artie's daniel bushell explains the move could be too little too late with fears social unrest is around the corner. france enjoys a triple a credit rating for now but with one of the hoist ratios among the world's top rated states many investors bet on it to follow the u.s. and be downgraded just repaying interest on its debt this year has overtaken education and defense as the government's biggest spend. mr circles is presided over the biggest jump in debt levels in our history books that carry too much water . france has gone above the tolerance limit admitted prime minister as he explained the new road of spending cuts this week but to call them is fear of things. those cuts go nowhere near enough you can compare it with people

saying we're going to buy a lumber genie and only buy a porsche and they call that austerity doctors warned france's huge did burden is bringing crudely under-investment in schools and hospitals. getting. into. computer. equipment fashion. out of the situations explosive say experts and frauds could be mixed. it's really it's like those in britain with deprived regions like the inner part of cities and the suburbs. are socially segregated to very high extent far more so than in the u.k. or in germany so yes unrest could come from the suburbs and spread through. because

these flowing of pull from france as he turned over to the pacific island of new caledonia with students climbing street protests over the cuts he's left the job of presenting his prime minister he'll let them take the flak for it and hopefully unions students. can march directly and protest against the ministers while he's behaving in a certain because these absence in this time of crisis writes leading newspaper le figaro may be clever politically but his failure to tackle the country's troubles now could be creating even greater problems for the future don't you see paris meanwhile the world markets took in stride the news u.s. federal reserve chairman ben bernanke said that no new steps will be introduced to boost the economy well let's cross live to our business desk now maureen is there a marina not exactly what the markets were hoping for there wasn't no it wasn't

bill investors were really looking forward to hear what ben bernanke you would have to say about how he would improve the u.s. economy and one of the measures that we're looking forward to more is more money printing and even though i think there are rule it out he did say that would consider in september but for now it's a no and investors were looking forward to the markets improving and although there were disappointed markets and did make a comeback u.s. stocks are now trading in the black the u.s. their european markets close on the negative note but russian forces also positive so they have made a bet of a comeback so this appoints a new spot the markets have definitely over. ok i'll have more of course in business for sure thanks a lot marina i will see you in about five or six minutes and thanks a lot for more on that marina there. well more world news in brief for you at this stage of the day it eighteen minutes past the hour first to nigeria in the world of things where at least sixteen people to be killed after a car bomb attack outside the united nations' main office in the capital of objects

and dozens were injured and witnesses say a car drove through the security gates as guards tried to stop the vehicle and smashed into the building which houses nearly four hundred employees the blast happened in the same area where the u.s. embassy and other diplomatic posts are located police say islamic militants could be behind. japan's prime minister has formally announced his resignation paving the way for the country's sixth leader in five years his move follows nationwide criticism of his response to the devastating earthquake and tsunami that took place in march and triggered a nuclear crisis at the fukushima plant between natural disasters claimed the lives of more than fifteen thousand survivors complaining about slow recovery efforts a new leader of the ruling democratic party who will most likely become japan's next prime minister will be chosen on monday. to mexico now and at least fifty three people have been killed in an arson attack at a casino in the city of monterrey government burst into the venue sprayed it with

fuel and set it on fire around one hundred staff and customers were present at the time many people were trapped inside and choked on smoke authorities suspect the attack which was one of the deadliest for several years was connected to organized crime. seven states along the east coast of the u.s. including new york declared an emergency in anticipation of the arrival of hurricane irene hundreds of thousands of both locals and tourists have been evacuated from its path president obama has urged americans to take precautions and to follow evacuation orders the storm traveling from the bahamas has already caused havoc in the caribbean as we can. likely on a friday but falls for winds of up to one hundred ten mph still forecast. a day of voting has come to a close in which is electing a new leader following the death of its president. he passed away in may have left his country for more than six years in

a struggle to retain hard won independence from georgia barton is in the capital for us. three candidates have stepped in to try and take his place the vice president the prime minister and the former vice president all of them at the moment strong contenders it's not known well whether there is a lead contender at the moment as far as russia is concerned russia plays a big role here in helping to maintain the stability of the region they say that none of those most of those candidates really are very anti russian all very particularly over pro russian they wouldn't really have a problem with any of those kind of it's having having one so it's yet to be seen what will happen tomorrow as to who will win this whole contest watched also by many international observers at the moment a cause is independence it's recognized by only five countries in the world but

there are representatives of twenty seven countries here to watch these elections some indication perhaps of the interest in the elections here and also of the fact that georgia's calls for people for observers not to cover what she's elections georgia still considers. to be part of its territory have fallen on on some deaf ears twenty seven countries worth of death is we talked to one of those foreign observers earlier a representative of the swiss couple. who was invited to. have a very quick reaction from the georgian always says oh no don't the girls are about my impression is good i can exactly support what you are doing here you know because you're fighting for your server into your turn to be independent democracy appreciates the context of this country and i was a people are fighting for the freedom georgia still claims of cause and south set it to the east to be part of georgia and so technically at least there is still

a threat a military threat to the entire. of this small caucasus republic there's also five thousand russian troops helping to protect. so in both the sense of its territorial integrity and in terms of its economic strength the country has a long way to go it's hope that the next president will go a long way towards fulfilling those dreams just a reminder for more news stories and videos in go to our website is dot com here's what's on right now the prosecution in the case of alleged russian. to suffer serious blows a judge rules that statements he made before his extradition to the u.s. . and also rocked to the core read all the details of the washington monument the world's tallest crack when a recent quite shook the eastern seaboard of america those stories and plenty of

others. all of his business but the highs and lows of this friday marina is next. here on the markets have been waiting with bated breath for the chairman of the federal reserve to outline how he would rescue the u.s. economy and by implication the world economy but ben bernanke speech from jackson hole proved to be an climax he signaled no new moves and that the fed would not be cranking up the princeton process for three nevertheless for all a national investment strategist vernal capital believes i think he did

a good job. he failed to disappoint both the pessimists and the optimists and given that the given that the the world's financial markets are really been focusing on this speech now for most of this week to get it just about right and not leave markets moving very rapidly in one direction and the other was probably the balance he wanted to get actually i think they're going to switch and look to where the problem really exists right now which is in europe so they'll be watching europe next week and to see whether markets in europe continue to react as badly as they have been in recent weeks if that happens then without bernanke standing behind to make some positive statements and i think you could see some further weakness of the markets what mr bernanke he was pointing out in his speech actually is that now you need to see something more from the government from fiscal policy you need to see help with mortgages in the u.s. you need to see structural reforms it's not enough just to print more dollars and

help the hope that by printing more dollars you're going to print your way out of the current the current mess the problem in the us is fiscal and structural and i think that's where this debate i think is hoping that the government will now focus . on a second look at the markets so oil prices are a mix this hour that's following fears hurricane irene could disrupt the final production on the east coast on thursday why us. and gold is again in slightly as the fact puts off talks of monetary easing so late september when we had earlier this high was eighteen hundred dollars an ounce and that was the expectations ben bernanke of what man said further economic stimulus in the u.s. economy. over in the u.s. stocks opened lower ahead of ben bernanke the speech box they have now made a comeback and masters have also been reacting to all this there on consumer sentiment which turned out to be slightly higher but it still shows a lack of faith in the u.s. economy. over in europe stocks closed end there. they managed to recover some of

the losses after the fed chairman said the central bank has tools if necessary to pull sort of the economy let's take a look at what's happening here in russia well both the my sex and the arts yes close in the black the artsy has added points eight percent of all the mindsets out of just over one percent let's take a look at some individual share moves on the my psych's fertiliser act again one percent after almost tripled for us half of that profit filmmaker m.k. was down and that's after the company post that thirteen million dollars net profit in the second quarter of the year but that was well below expectations and another still major service thought a voice in the positive territory after posting a sixteen percent rise in second quarter profits but that was also below forecasts . russia's exports oil will increase six dollars to four hundred forty four dollars per ton in september on thursday prime minister

vladimir putin has also signed russia's new oil product exploit the regime and this is intended to increase investment in refining and help avoid a repetition of the fuel shortages see earlier this year. that's all of us is for now for more stories you can head to our website artsy dot com slash business but in the meantime states in for the headlines with.

most of the kooks among philosophy. maximum thrust. muslim efficiency. come for. months among maneuverability most navy asian decent to denmark's moscow's more famous here show on technology update here on r.g.p. we've got the future covered. dynamic. for a. month. would

be twenty four hours a day. despite claims the coalition is not involved until the rebels with. some concerns grow but who will get their hands on the country's weapons of mass destruction. forecast for economic growth in france despite the country's. measures of twelve billion euro tax hikes for the rich the fears melt it could lead to public outrage across the country. because the approach for a new president with much of the country. struggling to maintain independence from georgia results from the race will be announced on some.