and stories that shape the past week of this is our team live from moscow glad to have you with us it's the week of a decisive breakthrough finally arrived in libya's civil war when tripoli was the scene of a major battle between the rebels and forces fighting for longtime leader colonel gadhafi the opposition now controls most of the capital but can offer his whereabouts remain unknown the humanitarian situation in the capital remains dire as most of tripoli is without water and electricity and hospitals are running out of supplies pockets of resistance remain among some khadafi loyalists with the u.n. calling on both sides to bring a halt to the violence the rebels are now building up their forces you could offer his hometown of syria assisted by nato as aerial strikes meanwhile western powers have begun their own fight for libya's vast oil riches artie's sarah ferguson reports now on the nato states lining up to secure lucrative energy contracts. still to the house of mesa model was and you'll strike oil whether or not that

sayings churi when it comes to libya well it's going to play a pivotal role in the countries here we have to fear restrung interests that means . western interests to protect to destroy and. also to rebel to any way the future libyan government interests and to restart sending all this it's possible to a stranger to the concepts of friends with benefits. quick to casey out to the new transitional council inviting the public face of the great well it's really it's. these places you have here an ally in the nato a bombing campaign began back in april remember up he switched sides and again the rebels in the full the wall almost the third day energy needs were imported from libya an oil giant any with the largest foreign operates in the country the government. i have been doing all they can to safeguard these contracts but the if

they will be able to maintain these previously close business ties is by no means a given in a post gadhafi libya the future looks extremely uncertain and there are little guarantee one of the biggest problems with italy and other western countries since the beginning of the wall has been the struggle to adequately understand the internal workings of the rebels themselves. among the rebels there are many factions in the midst of tunisian people. it's disorganized and chaotic and many chief of these groups of rebels are from the politicians that before were with gadhafi and then they completely changed their face they went with the wind as they say and you to me i think that corrupt politician he. is almost gadhafi personally on a number of occasions three business connections less than a month the gay she returned from a fact finding trip to libya with a handwritten letter she says was written by gadhafi to berlusconi in it he

allegedly says he was surprised by your decision to join the coalition against libya especially after we signed the friendship and cooperation treaty between our two sides the treaty he's referring to he was talking just two months before the libyan uprising the letter goes on to ask why did you join our enemies without any diplomatic dialogue or investigation berlusconi now seems t.v. is the making the friends the walls that may be the final chapter the death the many fear the conflict will continue i would dare to say this stuff if you talk to you for which is among the rebels there is no such. intensity. no consensus call for me to be an internal whom you are actually the person to talk to. be. with her foreign media now is silly along with many in the west could well find that previous lucrative role. may turn out to be just

the way all the banks yet there. nato has vowed to stay in libya as long as it's needed with british jets firing missiles at colonel gadhafi his command and control bunker in his hometown of see it this week activist john reese says that self-interest may be behind the driving force be the driving force behind excuse me the alliances intervention nobody going to shed any tears for that brutal dictatorship but i imagine that what most people in libya don't want is to swap the rule of gadhafi for that of the western powers ability and see will come to power as the proxy use of the western powers and the western powers don't do this without asking for a payback and they will be asking for a payback if i were a libyan and i were listening to what nato said earlier that they want to assist the transition i mean heaven knows what a military alliance supposedly assisting a transition to democracy is all about i would take those remarks as more threat

than a promise that is a direct threat that they will use their military and economic weight to gain what they want out of any new government in libya the only chance of unity for the t.n.c. is that they do what most libyans i believe want them to do and that is to say that the future of libya is to be decided by libyans and by nobody else but they do not require the assistance of nato they do not require the assistance of the major powers that they do not want their resources exploited by western oil companies that could be a point of unification but if they continue down the line of competing amongst themselves for who has the ear who has the greatest sway with the major powers then i would i really believe that that will further divide them. anti-war activist john rees there commenting on the libyan crisis. it emerged this week that north korea is ready to return to international talks over its disputed nuclear plans with no

preconditions the announcement came as the country's reclusive leader met president of me to medvedev in russia on a rare trip abroad. rolled across siberia in an armored train also to discuss the vital energy deal for his state struggling economy. was following a visit. a man of mystery north korea's kim jong il prefers to stay out of the media spotlight the great leader as he's officially known at home constantly fears for his life which is why he avoids planes has armored cars and eats with chopsticks designed to detect poisons but the fear of ongoing sanctions and tough financial times proved more significant as think kim jong il embarked on a widely publicized trip to russia making tracks from pyongyang in a special armored train gifted to kim's father by stalin the leader crossed the border with russia and made his first stop in the far eastern town of husain from

there he traveled on the translate beren railway to the buy call region with the republic of video to as his final destination and a meeting with president made a video of his ultimate goal but before meeting with his current russian counterpart the north korean leader stopped to pay his respects to the first soviet leader this. is one of the biggest in the world and by stopping here kim jong il has made sure that the entire world knows that what might have been russia's past is still north korea's future as kim jong il's press service scrambled for their multitude of motion picture cameras to document the great leaders every word the two men get down to business but as far as i understand the democratic people's republic of korea is interested in the implementation of. this trilateral projects in which the russian federation and south korea will also take part some technical matters are going to be settled now some time ago a gas problem delegation at the level of the vice chairman of the board visited the

d.p. r. k. yesterday i ordered the chairman of the board alexey millet to tackle this issue the pipeline which would bring siberian natural gas to the hub of asia would mean money for the struggling north korea and a new market for russia the north koreans are not going to be able to pay a sufficient price for gas imports from russia would ever pay but because the building the pipelines of the pipeline has to be extended into south korea to the south korean market but the foremost of war between north and south korea is a huge obstacle and this is yet another situation where russia has an advantage but she 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 that there's

been a change the cold war has ended folks let's get on to the idea that you only build poppies 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 and markedly different approach from some of the other members of the six party talks like south korea and the u.s. who is constant sanctioning has failed to bring results and results are what this briefly to russia appears to have achieved with kim jong il's announcement of a desire to return to the talks and implement a moratorium on production. and testing of nuclear weapons if the talks resume for north korea is a chance to recover from recent data famine and get some much needed food aid but for russia it's a chance to do what everyone else has failed so far castro's are about r t well on

the day and still ahead for you this hour in new york prepares to weather the storm . the streets of the metropolis and stand empty as hurricane irene sweeps closer leaving devastation in its wake. and france is feeling the pinch as debt surges and growth stagnate with fears of huge cuts could spill over into and reruns . the hunter continues for the wreckage of an unmanned russian space ship that crashed on wednesday the progress vessel was carrying supplies for the crew at the international space station when it fell back to earth in siberia shortly after launch its crash spread fears its toxic fuel could be dangerous for locals and the environment jacob greaves takes up the story. the moment it's came crashing down. launched on wednesday from the baikonur cosmodrome three hundred twenty

five seconds later the progress craft atop a soyuz rocket plummeted back to earth i thought it was a plane at first but then i realized coins never fly in their clothes or quietly then it turned into some white object and then so that you were sparkly and i heard a loud noise it was like three bangs one really loud and two quieter it was due to dock with the international space station on friday delivering essential supplies to the six crew members on board rocket malfunction has been blamed for the unsuccessful launch as a craft ascended into orbit a signal failure here meant the third stage in the sequence in this part of the rocket was an activated as a result it failed to ignite and propel the progress out of the earth's atmosphere . teams have been sent to southern siberia out-i republic to look for signs of any wreckage amid fears toxic fuel may seep into the surrounding soil and water supply

so far they've drawn a blank but already the repercussions of the bush mission of being felt much further afield with the question of how to resupply the international space station proving the most pressing. operation glamorous always keep in mind the possibility of cargo space ship not docking to the international space station for some reason so that go on board has enough of water and food supplies to survive on for another three or four months until their. cargo spacecraft arrive to the space station time then maybe on the side of ross cosmos russia's space agency but the loss has still raised significant alarm bells this all use a rocket carrying. a crew is slightly different but not much there. then the one at last the progress they're going to want to make sure anything that is similar they could go on about why you want what happened you want to make sure that say it's up

like it was more turbulence of russia space program back in december when three clone a satellites the country's alternative to g.p.s. plummeted into the pacific ocean with this latest setback roscosmos says be forced to tighten quality control and hope there won't be a repeat of the problems that'll be good news for the six astronauts currently on board the international space station especially since after the scrapping of the u.s. shuttle program there's now global importance on the success of the soyuz. greaves r.t. . millions of new yorkers who have chosen to stay in their homes despite mandatory evacuations are bracing themselves for hurricane irene the storm has already devastated parts of the east coast of the u.s. leaving at least six people dead and millions without electricity. is among those preparing to weather the storm. a big apple looks extremely eerie the streets are

empty businesses are are either have boarded up their windows or put cheap along their windows the tropical winds are beginning to move into new york city at this moment and you could feel the wind increasing you feel the rain increasing the rain is coming down like sheets of water and new york city has also been put under attorney to watch chilled out five am sunday morning in new york city michael bloomberg did have a press conference stating and urging all new yorkers to stay away from their windows move away from their glass windows because he says the winds are going to pick up speed between now and sunday afternoon sunday evening these winds are expected to be as strong as eighty miles per hour if not more con ed may be forced to shut down power in certain parts of new york city between now and sunday evening if those areas get to flood it let's remind our viewers that on

friday new york city michael bloomberg here first time in history issued a mandatory evacuation of certain parts of new york city up to three hundred seventy thousand people live there all these evacuation zones a lot of people chose to not move chose to stay in their homes but overall there is a feeling of anxiety taking over not just new york but all the surrounding states as this as this hurricane hurricane irene is moving in we did get to speak with some people that were heading to the stores to buy up supplies odd saturday here's a little bit of what they have to say and i will go. on hold on while this is the only real one they really had a major evacuation for so here's sort of the you know something no we don't know the whole thing i'm very proud of. like going outside in the in like tons of water like hurricane katrina like that gave me the public transfer station system in new

york city has also been shut down that includes the trains the process is a new york city officials are on a week and see approach they're trying to monitor everything everything warn everybody but at this point the trouble quins are moving and everyone is just bracing themselves for the storm. artie's marina reporting for us there from new york now you are with r.t. and coming up a new president but old problems. as the people of the caucuses make their choice at the ballot box we look at what lies ahead for the new leader as his republican struggles to rebuild after winning independence from georgia. and our close up team takes you to a russian city that knows how to party find out more about the spectacular festival held in kid off every year. the richest sector of french society is pledging another three percent of its annual income this week to help the country battle its

descent into debt as growth slumps france has also announced some twelve billion euro worth of cuts but as daniel bushell explains the move could be too little too late with fears social unrest could fall. from enjoys a triple a credit rating for now one of the choice ratios among the world's top rated states many investors bitterly 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 circles he's presided over the biggest jump in debt levels in our history books that carry too much water. or. france is going to solve the. problem with. a six splendid new road of spending cuts this week but economists fear things. those cuts go nowhere near enough leave you can compare it with people

saying we're going to buy a lumber genie and buy a porsche and they call that heresy doctors board for all these huge debts burden is bringing truly this moment in schools and hospitals. hitting. in. computers. very old. fashioned. the situations explosive say experts and friends could be next to witness roy it's like those in britain with deprived regions the likely spot the inner part of cities and the suburbs. are certainly segregated to very high extent far more so than in the u.k. or in germany so yes unrest comes from the suburbs and spread through nicholas

because these flying is full from france as he chatted over budget they taze pacific island of new caledonia with students climbing 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 rights leading newspaper le figaro may be clip of politically but his failure to tackle the country's troubles now could be creating even greater problems for the future of the new push to see. the people of the caucasus republic of abkhazia have settled upon their choice of who they would like to run their fledgling country vice president alexander won the presidential vote beating two rivals he will succeed sergei who died recently from illness after

playing a crucial role a long and bitter struggle for independence from georgia dennis blonsky has more. he promised to make a pause it a stronger state now what expanded on fox has the power to do so winning fifty four percent of the vote in friday's presidential election had of two rivals has given him a clear mandate with some citizens of the small caucuses republican willing to travel a long way to support their man. i came from crimea to vote for our he helped war veterans like me a lot when we had tough times. alexander was feisty president one the man he succeeds as leader sergei bugg option died in office last may the two saw a pause in independence recognized by russia and a number of other countries in two thousand and eight with both men helping prevent war with georgia at the same year for almost two decades after a pause in a declared independence from georgia in one nine hundred ninety one military

conflict along with fear and uncertainty marked life in the country the mood now seems to have changed the early battles for independence led many scholars in a policy as capital you can see how badly the parliament building was damaged cleaning up the rubble and getting things back in order will probably be the toughest part of the job for the new president keeping good ties with russia and restoring the economy will be the top of an clubs agenda but out of a bargain we have to admit it and that is true we see some growth but there's no no we need loans and series investments. and clubs rivals foreign minister sergei shamba in a position leader role hodgin by one twenty one and nineteen percent of those respectively the campaign was monitored by more than one hundred international observers from countries including france austria and israel some lakes whisper lemon tarion dominie came despite pressure not to do so from georgia when i was invited to. have. a very quick reaction from the georgian always says oh no don't

go sir it's a part of georgia. it's illegal completely illegal. for in the election observers ignored the threats and gave the pull a clean bill of health aside from two minor complaints no other violations were found these elections have been very well planned and have been operative at the highest level as well as the results of the outcome has meant another positive step for democracy in the region according to the election monitors my idea of the silver and general independence and i can relate exactly need support what you are doing here you know because you are fighting for your soaring geo to be independent democracy the new man faces stiff challenges and leading his country with a hostile labor in georgia and a legacy of difficulties following independence citizens will be hoping the man they've chosen this president will help herald a new era for their country. r t so cool. and don't forget you can watch the

news you want when you want it right here at r.t. dot com here's a taste of what we've got lined up for you right now. a personal account of nine eleven is that band a former f.b.i. agent who claims that the cia could have stopped the attacks and is prevented from publishing his upcoming inside story. and attacks from the deep a third man is mauled by a shark in russia's far east find out more about the search for the sea predator at our tea dot com. now time for our close up series where we continue to take you want to journey across the vast and varied landscape of russia. this week we've been in the very heart of the european part of russia the city of kid of famed for its stunning scenery and countryside it's also known for its

popular handmade toys which represent the country on postcards and in the summer it attracts tourists from all over the world for one highly unusual festival as archie's you've got it all go to them for ports. it's the pride of the cure of region that annual cucumber festival the governor himself invited journalists from all across russia just to showcase the region's tourist potential organizers here make the bold claim that the pickled cucumbers in this village of stubbins are the best in the world. so while the players sing folk songs extolling the virtues of the green staple because only one store where the actual vegetable can be bought a lot of trouble ninety kilometers to be in this queue i'm curious about what it is that makes them so special but i'm a bit disappointed i wasn't allowed to buy more disheartened by the long wait we decided to take our search to the locals it's the middle of the pickling season if

you can with the harvest that put in brine. and mixed with. the recipe to what makes them special is a strictly kept secret but the magic ingredients are deal garlic and horseradish. but the truly unique part of the local pickling process is that the sealed barrels are dumped in the river for six months it's served in the cold war to give them a subtle shawqi flavor luckily we found some pickles left over from last year's crop all the stalk of cucumber has made me quite hungry for the local delicacy so i decided to give it a try myself. thankee traditionally the care of region has been known for its dim covered toys base an ancient pagan date these clay figurines have been handmade here for hundreds of years the handicrafts trick tradition describes

that artisans most depict very specific subjects namely peasant women and improbably color down to most of them. this is not just a trademark a very gentle this is russia's visiting card who want the well to take notice the toys can only be made by women and apprentices have to perfect their craft for years before they can be called masters and i suppose the most before i became to make a thought making the same things over and over again would be boring but actually they always turn out different and once i have most of the traditional motifs i my grandchild and it's. local authorities are hoping master classes like this one will become a tourist attraction and a recruiting ground for new craftswomen there's also talk of massive craft fairs that promise to draw thousands now there's even a dim core family statue in the city square but that was paid for by a mobile phone operator when my journey at the end i was charmed by did them cover

toys and filled myself up on the local pickles but whether this is enough to turn the care of region into a tourist destination well that's another question altogether eager party cure of region. and i'll be back with headlines in just a few moments don't go away. from.

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a thirty on a sunday morning at russia's capital moscow this. on to today's news and the week's top stories libyan rebels hunch colonel gadhafi after taking over tripoli meanwhile their western allies are eyeing payback as a carve up of the country's oil wealth begins. north korea is ready to limit nuclear arms testing and production international talks on security in the region resume the pledge was made by the country's reclusive leader kim jong il on a rare trip to russia. and unmanned a russian space ship is missing after crashing over siberia the progress of the vessel was carrying supplies to the international space station when it plummeted back to earth shortly.