today's news end of the week's top stories in libya's tipping point as the rebels hunt colonel gadhafi after taking over tripoli their western allies are eyeing payback as they carve up of the country's oil wealth begins. although that's a big on prices of another trying to leave his main city joining us now from tripoli in just a few moments. north korea will limit nuclear arms testing and production if international talks on security in the region resume a pledge made by the country's reclusive leader on a rare trip to russia. and lack of progress unmanned a space ship ferrying supplies to the international space station is missing after

crashing over siberia. recapping the top news from the past week and this is our live from moscow where it is eleven am on a sunday morning 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 with his whereabouts still unknown khadafi is reportedly getting ready to begin talks to transfer power meanwhile the situation in the capital tripoli remain dire shortages of basic essentials as archies marie financial reports. as the rebels report there now control in most of the libyan capital it seems that facing the battle of another kind of a humanitarian one the situation here on the ground is very complicated this very

difficult and this is very close to humanitarian catastrophe because the city is now facing severe shortages of running water electricity gas line and medicine people use public taps throughout the city to get some water we've seen many of them lining up with plastic cans trying to do all the cross trickily and also they use electric generators to produce and it's through city since the city's municipal services have been paralyzed the streets are full of garbage and people are trying to clean themselves try to do something with that in the evening since and live here usually silence in the evening in the evening they come out to the streets with brooms and trash bags but of course they say to their tamsin not enough to deal with the situation and many of them concerned that it will take a while for their life to get back to normal people here in tripoli also live in fear of anarchy there is no police in the city and here people are trying to deal

with the situation themselves. the water now here in the libyan capital is maintained and maintained by armed volunteers there are checkpoints every one hundred two hundred meters they check every car passing by and a leading would drive with lights switched on inside the car just to allow people at the checkpoints to see years it's still not safe here in tripoli and people are afraid to leave their houses that's why the libyan capital looks quite empty and in some districts even abandoned the rebels have recently announced that they've been there hold on the road from tripoli to the tunisian border known as the major supply route. expects t. help improve the situation but so far the picture is not at all the rebels are no claiming that kerry in florida assault on duffy's native town city which is about

six hundred kilometers east of the capital tripoli this city thought to be his last stronghold and they say they are now waiting for nato to help them to clear the path of this one as. they will advance towards sears we've been hearing airplanes during the day and night and recently we've heard from nato that it had carried out several air strikes meanwhile. is undergoing recently i've been hearing numerous reports from the rebels leader is. khadafi his whereabouts and they've been several reports that he had been cornered steel we don't have any sign of. maria financial reporting for us there from tripoli meanwhile western powers have begun their own fight for libya's vast oil riches or peace or for reports now on the nato states lining up to secure lucrative energy contracts. kill

to the hearts of most modern was and you'll strike oil whether or not that's sayings true but it comes to libya well it's going to play a pivotal role in the country's future q we have to feel rich from interest that meets. the western interest to check if it's one. or two rebels why don't we try living interesting we start shelling worst possible the stranger to the concepts of friends with benefits berlusconi's being quick to casey up to the new transitional council inviting the public face of the group which left me djibril to italy saw. these closest european allies in the late a bombing campaign began back in april when a properly switched sides began courting the rebels in full the wall almost a third of its least daily energy needs were imported from libya an oil giant any

with the largest four operating in the country because many here have been doing all they can to safeguard these contracts with the if they will be able to maintain these previously close business ties is by no means a given. in libya the future likely extremely uncertain and there are little guarantee one of the biggest problems italy and other western countries since the beginning of the war has been a struggle to adequately understand the internal workings of the rebels themselves . amongst the rebels there are many factions islamist tunisian people. if you. are sick and many chiefs of these groups of rebels are from a politicians with gadhafi and then they completely change their face the winter with the wind as they say anything i think corrupt politician. it will make it happy personally on a number of occasions three business connections in a month the gay sure turn from a. fact finding trip to libya with

a handwritten letter she says is written by get updates about skating in it he allegedly says he was surprised by your decision to join the coalition against libya especially after we signed a friendship and cooperation between us he cites the cittie he's referring to he was tight just two months before the libyan uprising the letter goes on. why did you join our enemies without any to mattick dialogue or investigation gainey now seems to be making the friends that maybe the final chapter of the many conflicts will continue i would there to see. if you start a new season for which he's among the rebels so there is no such. consensus no consensus helping you to be an internal you actually the person you talk to. be. with her foreign media now is silly along with many in the west could well find

previous lucrative relations may turn out to be just despicable but the rainfall the friendship. and remember you can get the latest news on the situation in libya as well as our blogs and analysis at our website arching dot com. it emerged this week that north korea is ready to return to international talks over its disputed nuclear plans with no preconditions came as the country's reclusive leader met president dmitry 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 struggling economy katherina i was following a visit. three 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 you avoid planes as armored cars and eats chopsticks designed

to detect reasons but the fear of ongoing sanctions and tough financial times proved more significant as 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 a far eastern town of his son from there he traveled on the transept here in railway to the baikal region with the republic of borneo to as his final destination and a meeting with president medvedev his ultimate goal but before meeting with this 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 think 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 gazprom delegation at the level of the vice chairman of the board visited the d.p. ok yesterday i ordered the chairman of the border like similar to tackle this issue the pipeline which would bring say during natural gas the hub of asia would mean money for the strictly north korea and a new market for russia the north koreans are not going to. price. forgive us imports from russia would ever pay but the cost of building the pipelines of the pipeline has to be extended into south korea so it's not the south korean market but the formal state of war between north and south korea is

a huge obstacle and this is yet another situation where russia has an advantage bush 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 long ride with north korea as china is you know president obama. once said that we must change our ray 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 markedly different approach from some of the other members of the six party talks like south korea and the u.s. was constant sanctioning has failed to bring results and results are what this free treats russia appears to have achieved with kim jong il's announcement of a desire to return to the talks and implement a march for human production and testing of nuclear weapons if the talks resume for

north korea is a chance to recover from recent bouts of famine and get some much needed food aid for russia it's a chance to do what everyone else has failed so far catherine as are our t. . 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 stagnates with fears huge cuts could spill over into angry riots. the hunt continues for the wreckage of an unmanned russian space ship that crashed on wednesday the progress the 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 in the environment jacob greaves takes up a story. at the moment it's who came crashing down.

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 first but then i realized coins never flying there or quietly then it turned into some bright object and then suddenly it was i heard a loud noise it was like three bangs one really loud and three 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 makes the third station a sequence in this part of the rocket was an activated as a result it failed to ignite propel the progress out of the earth's atmosphere. teams have been sent to southern siberia altai 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 books mission of being fails much further afield of the question of how to resupply the international space station proving the most pressing. operation always keep in mind that possibility of cargoes not talking to the international space station for some reason so that crew on board pairs of water and food supplies to survive on for another three or four months and deal. with graphs are right 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 all use a rocket carrying the crew is slightly different but not much there. what was the

progress they're going to want to make sure anything is similar they could go on about why you want what happened where they should. live there's more turbulence of russia's space program back in december when three globalist satellites the country's alternative to cheat p.s. plummeted into the pacific ocean with this latest setback with cosmos as before sometimes in quality control in hope there won't be a repeat of the problems possibly could use of 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 two griefs r.t. . millions of new yorkers who have chosen to stay in their homes despite mandatory evacuations are bracing themselves for hurricane irene the deadly storm has already devastated parts of the east coast of the u.s. leaving millions without electricity is among those prepared to weather the store.

the big apple looks extremely eerie the streets are empty businesses 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 can 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 hold up five am sunday morning in new york city michael bloomberg did have up last conference stating and encouraging all new yorkers to stay away from their windows move away from their glass windows because he says the winds are going to take 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 three hundred seventy thousand people live there all these evacuation zones the 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 were heading to the stores to buy up supplies odd saturday here's a little bit of what they have to say i will go. my whole day. this is the only real one it really had a major regularly for so there's no something or we don't know the whole thing arms around it like going out right in the in my tongue in the water like hurricane katrina like that maybe the public transportation system in new york city has also been shut down that includes the trains the process is at this point

the trouble. when are moving and everyone is just bracing themselves for the storm parties marina port and i are reporting for us from new york and you are with are coming up a new president but all problems. as the people of cars here in the caucuses make their choice at the ballot box we look at what lies ahead for the new leader as his republic struggles to rebuild after winning independence from georgia. and our cause takes you to a russian city that knows how the party find out more about the first of all with a different held 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 find france has also announced some twelve billion euro worth of cuts but as our general bushell explains the move could be too little too late with fears of social unrest that could follow. brawls enjoys

a triple a credit rating for now one of the fois ratios among the world's top rated states does bits of it to the u.s. and be downgraded just paying interest on it this year has overtaken education and defense as the government's biggest. causes presided over the biggest jump and levels in our history. too much water. france is going to. limit its approach. as explained to you rolled up 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 lumber gini and they only buy a porsche and they call their parents and doctors board for all these huge tits birds and is bringing critique of the reverse moods in schools and. spittles.

keeping. three. computers. very old. fashioned. out of the situations explosives the experts and friends could be next to witness roy it's like those in britain with the proved regions the likely the inner part of cities in the suburbs. are essentially segregated stand for more so in the u.k. or in germany so yes unrest come from the suburbs and spread through nicolas sarkozy's flying us all from france as he can all day to his pacific island of new caledonia with students planning street protests over the cuts he's got 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 right 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 cultural scene. the people of the caucuses republic of cars here have settled upon their choice of who they want to lead 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 long and bitter struggle for independence from georgia and its blocks he has more. he promised to make a posit a stronger state now what it's on that i thought has the power to do so winning fifty four percent of the vote in friday's presidential election out 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 help war veterans like me a lot when we had tough times. alexandr uncuff was vice president one the man he succeeds as leader sergei volkov she died in office last may the two soft paws 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 educate their dependents from georgia and nine hundred ninety one military conflict along with fear and uncertainty marked life in the country the mood now seems to have changed people only battles where independence left many scars in a pause he has 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 in clubs agenda. and we have to admit it and it is true we see some growth but it is no no we loans and serious investments . the campaign was monitored by more than one hundred international observers from countries including france austria and israel when i was invited to. have a very quick reaction from george now he says oh no don't go sir but my ideals are any true independence and i can't exactly support what you are doing here you know because you are fighting for your summer and geo turn of the independence democracy for an election observers ignored the threats and gave the poll a clean bill of health care. selections for a while prime have been operative at the highest level 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 labor and georgette and a legacy of difficulty swallowing independence citizens will be hoping the man they've chosen as president will help herald a new era for their country that is full of r.t.e. school. and don't forget you can watch the news if you want when you want to do it 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 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 that r.t. 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 kirov 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 it attracts tourists from all over the world for one highly unusual festival as such an easy but i'll go there for ports. it's the pride of the killed region. 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 pickle cucumbers in this village of the students are the best in the world . so while the players say folksongs extolling the virtues of the green

staple this is only one store what actual birgitta ball can be pulled out of trouble eighty kilometers to be in this queue i'm curious about what it is that makes them so special but i'm going to be disappointed i wasn't allowed to buy more disheartened by the long wait we decided to take on search to. locals it's the middle of the pickling siegel if you can get a harvest to put in brine. and mix with. the recipe to what makes them special is a strictly kept secret at the magic ingredients are deal garlic in horseradish. but the truly unique part of the local pickling process is that a sealed barrels are dumped in the river for six months and serve a bit called water gives them a subtle chalky 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

decided to give it a try myself. traditionally the care of region has been known for its them covered toys base an ancient pagan day sees these clay figurines hoping handmade here for hundreds of years to handicrafts trick tradition prescribe artisans was their pick very specific subjects namely present women and improbably colored animals. this is not just a trademark of our region this is russia's visiting card we want the well 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 of the most. before i became tommy 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. 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 go thousands now there's even a dimple family statue in the city square but that was paid for by a mobile phone operator where journey of the man i was child would have been covered toys and filled myself up on the local pickles but whether this is enough to turn to cure a region into a tourist destination well that's another question altogether. clear of region. and just ahead watch our special report on the death penalty in the united states that's after a reminder of the week's main stories that's coming up in just a few moments. he

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