it is the week that a decisive breakthrough 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 claims that now controls most of the capital but cut off his whereabouts are still unknown 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 gadhafi loyalists with the u.n. calling on both sides to bring a halt to the violence the rebels are now building up forces near gadhafi his hometown of syria assisted by nato strikes meanwhile the pentagon says it's monitoring libyan sites containing stockpiles of chemical weapons and pledging to prevent them from falling into the wrong hands as are reports that is causing concern with some rebel factions. who have been infiltrated by islamic extremists.

tripoli a city in chaos there's constant gunfire 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 that 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 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 inside 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. 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 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 know that you know the majority of the people who are fighting for the muslim extremists how their people is going to deal with those people often remove all of them and i believe the post will be more problem i think than that. if you're there are some indications nato is considering putting peacekeeping troops on the ground in libya regional experts warn back 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 it. nato has vowed to stay in libya as long as it is needed with british jets firing missiles that colonel gadhafi has command and control bunker in his hometown of see it this week activist john reste says that self interest may be behind the driving force behind the alliances intervention.

nobody's 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 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 of a threat but 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 and war activist john rhys's 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 dmitri medvedev in russia on a rare trip abroad kim jong il rolled across siberia in an armored train also to discuss a vital energy deal for his state's struggling economy. was following the 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 home constantly fears for his life which is why evil explains has armored cars and eats with chopsticks designed to detect reasons but the fear of ongoing sanctions and tough financial times proved more significant as he can john l. 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 class on from

there he traveled on the. beren railway to the bike call region with the republic of video to as its final destination and a meeting with president of age 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. as far as i understand the democratic people's republic of korea is interested in the implementation of this trilateral project 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 gasp delegation at the level of the vice chairman of the board visited the d.p. r. k. yesterday i ordered the chairman of the border lexie miller 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 a marketing 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 free speech of 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 it 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 catherine as are about r t well on the day and still ahead for you this hour a storm brewing in new york. the streets of the metropolis of stand empty as hurricane irene sweeps closer leaving devastation in its way. and france is feeling the pinch as debt surges and growth stagnate with fears huge cuts could spill over into angry writes. the hunt continues for the wreckage of an unmanned russian space ship the crashed on wednesday the progress vessel was carrying supplies for the crew of 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 graves 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 a first but then i realized queens never fly and that or quietly then it turned into some white object and i saw that it was sparkling 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 successful launch as a craft ascended into orbit a signal failure here meant the third station 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 be 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. operational planners always keep in mind the possibility of cargo space ship not docking to the international space station for some reason so that get on board have enough of water and food supplies to survive on for another three or four months until their. cargo spacecraft arrives for the space station time then maybe on the side of ross cosmos russia space agency but the loss has still raised significant alarm bells this story is a rocket carrying. a crew slightly different but not that much there than the one that lost the progress they're going to want to make sure anything that is similar could go on about why you want what happened well it shouldn't say oh it's of life

there's more turbulence of russia's space program back in december when three grown 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 to sell for the scrapping of the u.s. shuttle program there's now global importance on the success of the soyuz j.q. griefs r.t. . millions of new yorkers who've chosen to stay in their homes despite mandatory evacuations are bracing themselves for hurricane irene the storm has already devastated parts of east coast of the u.s. leaving at least nine 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 either or 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 filled up 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 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 flooding friday new york city michael bloomberg the 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 we did get to speak with some people down we're heading to the stores to buy up supplies odd saturday here's a little bit of what they have to say. my hold on. this is the only real one they really had a major evacuation for so there's two of the you know something now we don't know the whole thing i'm scared out of like going outside in the i'm lying. on the water like hurricane katrina like that for me the public transfer station system in new york city has also been shut down that includes the trains the boss says at this point the trouble. went are moving and everyone is just bracing themselves for this storm. is more important i are reporting for us from new york and of course you are

with r t coming up a new president but all. as the people in the caucuses that make their choice at the ballot box we look at what lies ahead for the new leader and his republican struggles to rebuild after winning independence from georgia. and our close up team and takes you to a russian city that knows how to party find out more about the festival with a difference in cuba 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 artie's daniel bushell explains the move could be too little too late with fears social unrest could follow. france's enjoys a triple a credit rating but now 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 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 the tolerance limits admitted prime minister as explained the new road of spending cuts this week but economists fear things. those cuts go nowhere near enough lead you can compare it with people saying we're going to buy lumber gini and they only buy a porsche and they call that austerity doctors board for all these huge debts burden is bringing crudely of during this moment in schools and hospitals. hitting. winter and.

computers. and old fashioned. out of the situations explosive say experts and friends could be next to witness roy it's like those in britain with deprived regions the likely spoke 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 could come from the suburbs and spread through nicholas thought because these flying is full from front as he can over budget they taze pacific island of new caledonia with students climbing street protests over the cuts he's left the job of presenting a bill 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 bush you see. the people of the caucuses republic of abkhazia have settled upon their choice of who they want to lead their fledgling country vice president alexander one the presidential vote beating two rivals he will succeed sergei who died recently from illness after playing a crucial role because he has a long and bitter struggle for independence from georgia dennis blonsky has more. he promised to make a pause it a stronger state know what x. on the one five 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 caucus republican willing to travel

a long way to support their man. i came from crimea to vote for our bob he helped war veterans like me a lot when we had tough times. alexandr unquote up was feisty president one the man he succeeds as leader sergei bug 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 and clubs agenda. and we have to admit it

and that is true we see certain growth but it is no no we need loans and serious investments. the campaign was monitored by more than one hundred international observers from countries including france austria and israel and i was invited to. have an earthquake a reaction from the georgian always says oh no don't go sir but my ideals are any american independence and i can exactly you support what you are doing here you know because you are fighting for your summer and geo tone of the independence of democracy for an election observers ignored the threats and gave the poll a clean bill of health this. elections are a well planned and have been a part of the highest law as well as the result the outcome has meant another positive step for democracy in the region according to the election monitors the new man faces stiff challenges and leading his country with

a hostile neighbor 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 and when you want to at r.t. dot com here's a taste of what we've got lined up for you right now. a personal account of the nine eleven is banned a former f.b.i. agent who claims the cia could have stopped the attacks 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 r.t. dot com. on to some other international news in brief for you now. in syria two more protesters have reportedly been killed by security forces with just saying there was sporadic shooting in separate cities it comes as its close ally

iran has reaffirmed its support for president assad but said he should answer the legitimate demands of his people the arab league has decided to send a mission to the country saying it will no longer be silent on the crackdown against protesters over two thousand people have been killed since anti-government demonstrations began in march. at least five people have died in brazil after a tram popular with tourists derailed in rio de janeiro more than thirty others were injured some of them even critically after coming off the tracks the tram skidded down a street before crashing into a lamp post investigators are trying to find out what caused the accident it comes to months after a french tourist died falling out of one of the trams as it was crossing a bridge. venezuela's president hugo chavez has announced he will start a third round of chemotherapy at home instead of cuba where he had two previous courses of treatment chavez underwent surgery in june for

a malignant tumor in his pelvic area the exact nature of his cancer has not been disclosed chavez who's been in power for over a decade is his party's only candidate for the two thousand and twelve presidential election. and now it's time for our close up series where we continue to take you on a 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 a kit off famed for its stunning scenery and countryside it's also known for its popular handmade toys which represent the country on postcards and in summer to attract tourists from all over the world for one highly unusual festival as are teens and one of the four. it's the pride of the kirov 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 a pickle 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 pulled out 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 the little the cucumber the harvest that put in brine. and mixed with. some of the recipe to what makes them special is a strictly kept secret at the magic ingredients are dill 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. thank you traditionally the care of region has been known for its dim covered toys base an ancient pagan day tease these clay figurines have been handmade here for hundreds of years the handicraft strict tradition describes that artisans most depict very specific subjects namely how people present women and i'm probably color down the most. this is not just a trademark of our region this is russia's visiting come out 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 ice there's the must before i became to make 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 and now have a party cure of region and shortly we'll hear from both sides of the debate on

capital punishment in the u.s. that's after a recap of the week's top stories right here on our. news

today violence is once again flared up. and these are the images the world has been seeing from the streets of canada. china cooperation to rule the day.

broadcasting direct from the heart of russia's capital moscow this is our two certainly glad to have you with us now to day's news and the week's top stories the libyan rebels hunt colonel gadhafi after taking over tripoli meanwhile there are fears that the country's a chemical weapons could fall into the wrong hands. north korea is ready to limit nuclear arms testing and production if 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 vessel was carrying supplies to the international space station when it plummeted back to earth shortly.