independent state our top stories. international news and current life from my headquarters here in moscow where it's not just past one am eleven pm in libya where british tornado jets of cruise missiles that colonel gadhafi is command and control bunker in his hometown of sirte it comes despite nato previous denials that it would assist rebels in the search for the libyan leader and u.n. calls to arrest and not kill him riff notion that 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 of 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 off his whereabouts first as you remember they've announced

that they've captured captured safely slum kid 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 have been sad but they've cornered khadafi and they spin headlines. 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. flags. waving everywhere and all the buildings all the walls covered with graffiti 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. 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 is told include tons of mustard gas and raw uranium and reports that's causing concern with some rebel factions 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 what. 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 us 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 the. if there is no capability that he would be looking at that option that was pointed 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 or of 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 for muslim extremists so how that the two is going to be with those people laugh about it move all of them and i believe there. will be more problematic than that. if

you go 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 w m d armed islamic extremists lore and its other teams. russia has introduced its draft u.n. resolution calling for syrian president assad to expedite reforms he has announced it also calls on the opposition to engage in dialogue with the damascus authorities meanwhile thousands of people are once again taken to the streets in protest against the assad 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 now we did speak to some people who would not talk to us on camera who did say that fortunately there is some grain of truth to that that the armed gangs which the government to stalking about have sort of developed this 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 are the ones dying and this is this is what's happening according to those people who have been to the protest and also into 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 of for a change of government and minutes 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 pos is the possibility of a good another a libyan scenario breaking out in this middle eastern country. in a political reporting there 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 the new deficit reducing package will see some twelve billion euros worth of cuts plus a three percent tax hike for the rich but as artie's daniel bushell now 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 one of the choice debt 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 causes 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 to call them is fear things as. those cuts go nowhere near enough you can compare it with people saying we're going to buy a lamborghini and buy a porsche and they call that austerity doctors warned france's huge debt burden is bringing truly under-investment in schools and hospitals. getting. into. computers. very 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 socially segregated. very high stand far more so than say in the u.k. or in germany so yes unrest could come from the suburbs and spread through nicolas sarkozy's flying this fall from france as he can on budget they take 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 he'll let them take the flak for it and hopefully unions students retirees can march directly and protest against the ministers while he's bathing in the sun 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 of the new bush to see paris. the pentagon has released a report warning that china is looking to become a leading world military power and less than a is the us documents says that by building aircraft carriers missiles and developing cyber warfare beijing could potentially destabilization well for more i'm not joined from california by continent and he's an expert on asian military affairs at the foreign policy in focus think tank thanks very much indeed for being with us some may say is it hypocritical of the u.s. to talk of chinese military expansionism when america spends what three times more on defense than beijing considerably more than three times more according to the american figures chinese spend will spend in two thousand and eleven around one

hundred ninety billion dollars now i think that figure is probably a little inflated but around a hundred ninety billion dollars according to challenge johnson the late sociologist an expert on american military spending the u.s. spends about one point one trillion dollars a year because much of the military budget that's hidden away in other budgets nuclear weapons are part of the energy budget except or so it's not three times it it's more like five star nevertheless china is still clearly expanding its military in quite a significant way what's its posturing here offensive or defensive why is it doing this well i think the major reason why china is doing it is because of what happened in one thousand nine hundred six thousand nine hundred ninety six there was a lot of tension between taiwan and mainland and as the tension grew the clinton administration said to carry aircraft carrier battle groups into the taiwan strait which was a rather unsubtle message the chinese were forced to back away from that they felt

you million aged by now and they felt as if the united states was dictating their internal politics in their own home waters. and after that after the one thousand nine hundred six incident they want to crash. course of naval building keep in mind they have one aircraft carrier which is one half the size of american aircraft carriers in american and americans have ten nimitz class aircraft carriers so even if they build one or two or even three more aircraft carriers they're nowhere near the level they would need to challenge the united states i do understand that they are said to be developing weapons specifically for the purpose of thinking. well this is this talk about this new missile now and to be a little care for you know there's a lot of hype going on right now in the united states and and some of that is because they want to raise the chinese up so they were big danger that way we can

keep a large military footprint in asia but it also has to do with internal matters too there's a push to cut the military budget the arms companies and the military is sort of digging in their heels and so they're throwing up this kind of chinese bugaboo aircraft carriers this missile which can sink aircraft here it's not even been tested yet so we have no idea what its capabilities are what about the pentagon saying that this could actually destabilize asia and then china saying this is cold war mentality china is going to point. out as a very good point and i think a lot of that is cold war mentality i think the united states still has that cold war mentality that in order to have political influence in someplace they need to have a military presence i don't think that's really changed in the last sixty years now that said i think the chinese have gotten themselves in certain amount of trouble because they have been rather high handed with some of the smaller nations in the

south china sea i am not strong streak of nationalism in as well and that is allowed the united states to step in and aid vietnam in. in the philippines and taiwan and korea etc and so some of it is that there is a little bit. sick strong streak of nationalism under any sort of threat no ok i could talk to you a lot more on this but sadly we're out of time thank you very much indeed for your thoughts on how an expert with a foreign policy in focus think tank joining us live in the usa thanks for your time thank you for having. a devoted has come to a close in the cars here which is electing a new leader following the death of its president so he passed away in may having led his country for more than six years during which time it managed to gain international recognition tom barton is in the coliseum 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's concerns 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 or very particularly over pro russian they wouldn't really have a problem with any of those kind of 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 seems the actions 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 go zero but my impression is good i can exactly support what you're doing here you know because you're fighting for your silver into your turn to be independent democracy appreciates of the context of this country now as 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. gritty 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. reporting there next hour moscow our team explores the many impressive fountains and water features you can enjoy here in the russian capital and i'll be back with a summer of our main news stories in about twelve minutes from now.

great. old flame. come to. germany. so different but the only one. moscow. bringing. clothes the fire bomb the south were big going to come down scenes from drinking water safe food to political or cultural line blogs where

they used as simple missing faces all views as an artistic one this mosque was home to dozens of such interest singles pizzas and we thought up here just thanks to the kremlin at the well known world blog found. as the main gem of the underground shopping mall the hockey arena the glass structure of the fountain slowly rotates and every twenty four hours makes a full resolution opening night you know she said. if you look you can determine the time up to five minutes in the mideast cities of the world. was located. several other fountains built along the river up the street because that's the most. provided drinking water to muscovites and now decorate many of the city squares and pox the trustee fountain here is the only one remaining of those built before the revolution in russia built in eight

hundred thirty five it still puts the original location. interesting functional found has changed over the centuries. down to. something like today's petrol station. construction. industry. you want to forget. the eight hundred and fifty. number of old fountains were rebuilt and are still. at pushkin square. because of the cold climates outdoor fountains only operate during the warm season usually. at the beginning of spring they really

long back into the city and are a welcome addition to several cold winter months. the main fountain at the whole theory as is the group of places you can see here the full seasons. to create a solid tally the ground cutting of people to provide hours of how to entertainment just the way i sure will come back. on cold windy days it's best to stay away. in the among these young people love the sponson many of soaking wet. little chanting is very beautiful and also those closer to red square a meeting think region it must feel some enjoy it's just fantastic i like which.

i think counted. and i think most of the complex. found we've seen in the neighborhood. and indeed it is important to north the fountains come to my god before i'm beyond this exit are the designers they are. the signs they are fascinating be kept to their history you feel that they became the traditions and did the history of the us. on this occasion is that the department store that was built next to red square in eight hundred ninety three fountains or outside. one hundred seventeen this indoor space continuum one thousand two hundred shops and the centerpiece of the most impressive shopping mall in the soviet union was this next feature. this famous found it is

also a popular meeting place mccain is right in the heart of a good american in mexico six unless it has a bat on its opening day it was filled with sparkling wine brilliance. one hundred years in the reconstruction is not in fifty six its original circular design was replaced with the current adult based mostly i mean skeleton programming system for the water that was added to the from source is one of the most glamorous and expensive in russia and. the exclusivity of its main fountain can only match now if only the spoken rivers were true that would be a popular fountain. so what other will to display stand out condition capital the u.s.s.r. people's friendship fountain also known as the friendship of nations fountain is one of the most widely recognized symbols of soviet moscow stelling proud in the heart of the old russia exhibition center of its impressive gilded structure was

created in the nineteen fifties if each is sixteen different statues of maidens each representing a republic of the soviet union before nine hundred fifty six. when enjoying the views of central moscow you'll definitely not miss a lot of structure on the mosque of the river not far from the kremlin the bronze monument this is almost one hundred meters high depicting emperor peter the great on a ship the monument was erected to celebrate the three hundred thousand first rate of the russian fleet the fountain and landmark is surrounded in controversy many muscovites like the structure but little hated it definitely makes the area stand out join some its own. fountains are not only the perfect place to relax in the in the warm summer sun but also at night many of them become illuminated landmarks various shows featuring musical performances and light installations are often organized at the city's most prominent fountains stance and singing attractions are popular with muscovites ex-pats and visit his ideal and cooling outdoor

entertainment shared. with arrived at the city's in a museum and reserve distaste has been known since the late sixty's century when it belonged to any other sister of sabra schooled enough in seven hundred seventy five when the state was bought by empress catherine the great it received its present name which means thirteen is. park is located approximately fifteen kilometers from the center of moscow. it takes around half an hour to get there by car depending on traffic. and you can also take an underground train from the city center to the city through the metro stop. impressive fountain is like a few of the fifth in

a row and it's great and it's the largest miss the fountain today in the russian capital fifty five meters wide with nine hundred and fifteen water jets it was completely renovated only a few years ago and today it's a maze it's close attraction in moscow. comfortably isolated on an island in the middle of a pond two bridges link it with the mainland. each pumps ultimately jets reach up to fifteen meters in the news it can be heard from if we point of the plans bank. at times is something to be desired. it is easy enough that a uvula and thus far has been a catherine the great was not a fan of fountains she didn't like what she called there to officially streaming water but we think that every stage should have an attraction such as

a fountain because our guests when coming here and specially in what someone there should have a chance to enjoy the uplift in was rough the fountains and the flight without a fountain use it is also involved it creates a special festive mood and makes people happy and many suggest that the grand fountains here at least a symbolic of that strength and power. i think the sound of rushing water and spraying jets often creates a sense of nobility history. peacefulness. there's just something about the fountain feels good for the soul. today there are now in the five hundred fountains in the capital they do in the front of museums squares and parks and send proud next to shopping centers and theaters they used to own and to the jews or events recreation for entertainment many alignments in their own right indeed just like the fountains of lights here many of the countless fountains act not just

as tourist spots but the symbols of new moscow. proud and resilience erected to make a variety of social political and cultural statements unfortunately that's all it's how we have on this week's program about the various bounciness here in the russian capital i'll see you again at the same time next week for more adventures around and sell them for me the rest the team from big pot here. but. he's telling. friendly. dynamic. for a. month. from

moscow with the twenty top stories now nato bombs target mama gadhafi and his hometown in libya despite claims the coalition is not involved in helping rebels hunt the. concerns grow but who can. their hands on the country's weapons of mass destruction. a wave of fresh anti-government fury a ruckus in syria as loyalist forces respond with crackdowns claiming they're fighting. brought in two thousand people are said to have been killed in clashes since march. gloomy forecast for economic growth in france despite the country announcing new austerity measures of twelve billion euro cuts and tax hikes for the rich and the fears mounting could lead to public outrage across the country. and so .