years after being recognized as an independent state our top stories this hour. international news and comment live from our headquarters in moscow where it's not just possible living pm nine pm in libya where british tornado jets cruise missiles that colonel gadhafi is command and control bunker in his hometown of sirte it comes despite nato is previous denials that it would assist rebels in the hunt for the libyan leader and u.n. calls to arrest the leader not kill him he is more of a notion that reports now from tripoli. khadafi still remains the goal number one for the rebels and since the beginning of the peroration here in the libyan capital of tripoli we've been hearing numerous reports and we've been here in numerous statements by the leaders all of the rebels that his whereabouts first as you remember they've announced that they catch captured say fall islam gadhafi is 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 end with any concrete detail and can create a success and today as well we are receiving reports that the rebels have flooded the streets of tripoli trying to hunt down khadafy 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. flags. waving everywhere and all the buildings all the walls covered with graffiti. 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 the because they're the cities we've been driving through loot abandoned am till i go cities. meanwhile the pentagon says it's monitoring libyan sites containing stockpiles of chemical weapons but cannot guarantee the arsenals will end up in the right hands it's thought they include tons of mustard gas and raw uranium and as are reports that's causing concern with some rebel factions said to have been infiltrated by islamic extremists. 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 in tripoli so now if you've got this cache of

weapons of mass destruction that again people really don't know. 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 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 victory or martyrdom will strike an ominous note to those who know 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. grievance 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. 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 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 qaeda are a commentator abdel bari atwan says the west got itself into this trouble 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 muslim extremists how that people is going to be with those people often remove all of them and i believe the post

will be more proper i'm i think that. if you 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 nato must now deal with the consequences even if that's w m d armed islamic extremists lore and it's our teams . and there is the director and founder of the french center for intelligence studies returned from libya a few weeks ago where he was helping the national council to draft a new constitution but he fears the basis of the document could provoke the rise of islamic extremism in the country. the fact that the article remember one of the. council to declare that the shanty out would be the source of the juridical system of the of the future levy on one side was people who are talking about the election

of democracy freedom but on the other side they are going back to the strongest position concerning a radical islamist so i think it's a very very very they're war and i think the problem is coming from the from the u.s. policy because we used to see in france that the secret agreement with the people. on the jihad is from the always for arrests and the sharia is for you so they are they really want them to get back to leave yeah because they prefer to have these camps in libya than in iraq and they accept that they do what they want to do in libya. just one condition they want to have all the. and by the way you can express your opinion on the situation in libya by going to our website and participating in our latest poll that some of the cold spring she will got there for you well today we're asking what's coming up next for the libyan people and so far you believe they face a slow war for years to come the prediction an oil in their hands time for

a lot of pockets is the second most popular response and something you say that diplomats will take it from here and the victory is here if you haven't already done so express your point of view by logging on to r.t. dot com. turning to syria now where thousands of people are once again taking to the streets in protest against president bashar 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 for protesting against the change of the regime and now we did speak to some people who would not talk to us in camera who did say that fortunately there is some grain of truth to that the the armed

gangs which the government of stalking about sort of developed the strategy of when they come behind the protesters who are protesting the current regime as they start shooting and then the armed forces the police are starting to shoot back as a result of these protesters who are stuck between a rock and a hard place and they are 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 it's basically hanging by a thread because unfortunately amidst the cries for change of government admits the cries for reforms to be implemented fortunately 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 of pasta is the possibility of a vid another libyan scenario breaking out in this middle eastern country what the

government says is obviously not enough to convince the international that everybody else is over the world that what they're actually trying to solve the situation gets they have done away with the emergency rule which has been in place since the one nine hundred sixty s. but there is more that needs to be done a lot of people are saying that they need jobs they need greater freedoms more human rights which they say are being violated the u.s. has implemented sanctions against the country of russia has been cautious in its approach off the situation in syria russian president has. basically said that it's a syrian problem and the syrians have to deal with it that means that russia does not want to see this scenario which has been playing out in libya to play out in syria and the people who are in the country will have to deal with it on their own without intervention from nato or the united states or any other country and in addition to reporting their will on the way this hearing r.t. picking the new president you can find out what voters in the republican guards are

thank you from the new leader who will succeed the late president but. that's still to come first europe spreading debt crisis is threatening to draw in france as the government announces new austerity measures amid concerns it could lose its triple a credit rating and you deficit reducing package will see some twelve billion euros worth of cuts plus a three percent for the rich result is down your bushel explains the move could be too little too late with social unrest is around the corner. france enjoys a triple a credit rating for now put it one of the choice dates 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 was just mr sir cause he's presided over the biggest jump in debt levels in our history books that carry too

much water. or. france has gone above the tolerance limit admitted prime minister as he explained a new round of spending cuts this week but economists fear things so bad those cuts go nowhere near enough and you can compare it with people saying we're going to buy a lamborghini and they only buy a porsche and they call that austerity doctors warn france these huge debts burden is bringing crudely under-investment in schools and hospitals. getting. into. computers. and old fashioned. out of the situations explosive say experts and frauds could be next to witness roy it's like those in britain with deprived

regions the likely spark the inner part of cities in the suburbs. are certainly 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 nicolas sarkozy's flying a fall front as he can on budget they taze pacific island of new caledonia with students planning street protests over the cuts he's left the job of presenting them to his prime minister to let them take that. four and hopefully unions students retirees can march directly and protest against their ministers 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 the new push to see

paris. time now to update you on more world news in brief. this hour and first to nigeria where at least eighteen people have been killed and many injured after a car bomb attack outside the united nations' main office in the capital of witnesses say a car drove through the security gates 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. group which wants to implement a strict version of sharia law in the nation has reportedly claimed responsibility for the attack. japan's prime minister has formally announced his resignation paving the way for the country's six in five years his move follows a 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 people the survivors complaining about slow recovery

efforts the new leader of the democratic party who will most likely become japan's next prime minister will be chosen on monday. at least fifty three people have been killed in an attack at a casino in the mexican city of monterrey government burst into the venue sprayed it with fuel and then. 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. and several states along the east coast of the u.s. have declared an emergency in anticipation of the arrival of hurricane irene in new york city the mayor has ordered some two hundred seventy thousand residents of low lying coastal areas to evacuate immediately the city's mass transit system is also being shut down for the first time ever before hurricane irene is expected to strike within the next several hours. the day voting has come to a close in a cause which is electing

a new leader following the death of its president said he passed away in may lead his country for more than six years during which time he managed to gain international recognition is in the carson 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 the 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 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 the fact that georgia's calls for people for observers not to cover what's the selections georgia still considers. to be part of its territory have fallen on on some deaf ears twenty seven countries worth of deaf ear as 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 they can't exactly support what you are doing here you know because you're fighting for your sovereignty or to an independent democracy appreciated. the context of this country is that the people are fighting for the

freedom they have kurds in people are going to want a lot from the next president primarily rebuilding and restructuring the country after a long fight for independence from from georgia since the collapse of the soviet union right up until two thousand and eight when independence was recognized by russia however all that fighting has left its main industries tourism and a good culture in a pretty poor state and that's to be the main priority for the next president to try and get this country economically at least back on its feet georgia still claims abkhazia and south asserted to the east to be part of georgia and so technically at least there is still a threat a military threat to the integrity of this small caucasus republic there's also five thousand russian troops there 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. reporting there well now it's time for the latest in our close up series where we venture to undiscovered parts of russia . and today we're in the kit of region it's located around a thousand kilometers east of where i'm sitting here in moscow the city of good obvious a renowned cultural center famous for its folk art and a ray of museums and theaters as we explore the region. explains our communities there are taking matters into their own hands in tackling local problems. they got what they asked for two slides a sandbank and it be charred might not seem like much but for a small community in the cure of region they've become a leisure hotspot working it there used to be no one here it was abandoned now when the sun is out you can get a place. this type of project only cost five thousand dollars but it was no money

in the local budget to build safe access to the lake until the regional government introduced a local initiative scheme when they heard of it the village club together and applied for a grant from a special fund within months the beach was laid. on the fifth of the people who were consulted over this it was our decision to build it and i think as a result people look after this property properly the idea of micro projects was thought of jointly by the world bank and the cure of administration they provide about two thirds of the money while local citizens have to fund the rest often go around houses to collect the cash nearly two hundred micro projects will be built in this region by the end of the year. we want to change people's attitudes instead of expecting things done for them we want them to take initiative we are giving power back to the people this might look like a women's institute meeting in a village hall in fact the participants are thrashing out the details of

a new road there is heated debate about the quality of the works and whether the builders are falling behind. unlike other projects the financing of the road is completely transparent we know where every rouble has gone. the village of color cheeky has just over a thousand residents several hundred of them petty criminals serving their time in a labor colony it has one poorly stuck shop and for every road built there are tens more that need to be repaired one micro project will not solve its problems but it is a start now the government can't just rely on its citizens to come up with a solution for every single infrastructural problem that faces russia but in a place where major decisions are often made with little consultation for the foreseeable future this program is a good idea either a artsy care of region. twenty two minutes past the hour now here in moscow for more news stories and videos you can go to our web site com here's what's right now

should you log on the prosecution in the case of alleged russian arms dealer to boot some of the serious blows a judge rules that statements he made before his extradition to the u.s. were coerced. or you dropped to the core you can read all the details on the news that the washington monument the world's tallest all this was cracked when a recent quake shook the eastern seaboard of america ought to see.

the official. from the. video. now in the palm of your. on the dot com. we're coming to you very shortly cross-talk out of a program where. bell will be discussing with his guests whether the i.m.f. can still justify its existence and if in fact is just a political tool of the west before that the business news is next with marina. hollow and. 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 the speech from jackson hole proved to be an anti-climax he signaled no new moves and that the fed would not be cranking up the prince and presses for q e three never the last fall a national investment strategist that burn the capital believes bernanke you still 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 i don't believe 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 a 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 standing behind to make some positive statements and i think you could see some further

weakness in 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 and he is hoping that the government will now focus . and let's take a look at the markets so oil prices are slightly higher this hour despite fears hurricane irene could disrupt refinery production on the east coast of the us let's take a look at the precious metals gold is gaining unspanked at over eighteen hundred dollars an ounce some of us despite the fact putting off talks of monetary easing this in late september over in the u.s. stocks are in the black although of the dow is the limiting are in their their

hands and masters have also been reacting to all this data on consumer sentiment which turned out to be slightly higher but still shows a lack of faith in the u.s. economy. and the european stocks closed in the red they managed to recover some of the losses after the facts chairman said the central bank has the tools if necessary simple servent harmony. and here rush of both the my sex and the artsy ass closed in the black the r.c.s. at points eight percent and the my six out of over a one percent let's take a look at so of the individual serves on the my sex fertilizer achnanthes game one for science after almost tripled the first half and that profits mean we're all still maker m.k. post down the company posted the ferrets need a million dollar net profit in the second quarter of the year and what's causing a wave of low expectations and another still made sense of itself was in the positive territory after posting a sixty percent rise in second quarter profits that was also below for past.

bush's export duty on the oil will increase six dollars to four hundred forty four dollars per ton and september on thursday prime minister vladimir putin also signed russia's new oil for that export duty regime and this is intended to increase investment refining and help avoid of repetition of the fuel shortages seen earlier this year. and that's all the business is for now for more stories you can always had so our websites are see that's called slash business in the meantime states in for the headlines with bill by for now.

last time the close up team was. where the gold rush still gets people. this time margi goes to your old region. where the local government is giving power back to the people. where everyone will be. where locals turned their land into

a tourist paradise well come. close up on our team. conduced childhood was shadowed by this tragedy. these still feel the fear of days to. remember every second of this nightmare. it will remain in their memories and hearts forever. and it seems so. innocent. tom a little angel. could

have you with us this is live from the russian capital with twenty four hours a day top stories now. targeting moammar gadhafi in his hometown in libya despite claims the coalition is not involved in helping rebels something. that's as concerns grow of a fool get their hands on the country's weapons of mass destruction. when a fresh anti-government fury erupts in syria smallest forces respond with crackdowns claiming they're fighting saboteurs more than two thousand people etc been killed in clashes since march. gloomy forecast for economic growth in france despite the country a sturdy measures of twelve billion euro cuts and tax hikes for the rich the fears .