recapping the top news from the past week this is 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 due to shortages of basic essentials as artie's marie financial reports. as the rebels report that stare now controlled in most of the libyan capital it seems that there are 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 castle 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 tranquilly and also they use electric generators to produce some electricity since the city's municipal services have been paralyzed series of full of garbage and people are trying to clean them selves try to do something with that in the evening since in some are done live here usually saws in the evening in the evening the come out to the streets with brooms and trash bags but of course they say that their times are not enough to deal with this 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 again people trying to deal with this situation themselves. their order now here in the libyan capital is

maintained and maintained by armed volunteers there are checkpoints every one hundred or two hundred meters they check every car passing by and believin we drive with lights switched on inside the car just to allow people at the checkpoints to 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 strengthened their hold on the road from tripoli to the need to metion walder known as the major supplier. we expect to help improve the situation but so far the picture is not pride at all the rebels are no a claiming that the year of preparing for an assault on khadafi native town city which is about six hundred kilometers east of the capital tripoli and this city is thought to be his last stronghold and they say

they are now waiting for nato to help them to clear the path and as soon 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 tries meanwhile khadafi is undergoing recently i've been hearing numerous reports from the rebels leader is that they know. his whereabouts and they've been several reports that gadhafi had been cornered but still we don't have any sign of khadafi or tears a maria financial reporting for us there from tripoli meanwhile western powers have begun the very own fight for libya's a vast oil riches are peace or first reports now on the nato states lining up to secure lucrative energy contracts. drill to the heart of mace modern walls and you'll strike oil whether or not that sayings true when it comes to libya well it's

going to play a pivotal role in the country's future here we have to restructure interests that. western interest to the torah. also to rebel to why don't we. need the government interest to restart selling all this possible the stranger to the concepts of friends with benefits gagne's being quick to casey up to the new transitional council biting the public face of the group. it's really. was good at these places and you have here an ally in the nato bombing can. pain began back in april when the property switch sides began courting the rebels in full the war almost a third of its lease daily energy needs were imported from libya an oil giant any was the largest foreign operator in the country the government here have been doing all they can to safeguard these contracts but the if they will be able to maintain

these previously close business cards 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 today italy and other western countries since the beginning of the war has been the struggle to adequately understand the internal workings of the rebels themselves. among the rebels there are many factions islamists tunisian people. if. you're sick and many of these groups of rebels not from the politicians that before were with gadhafi and then they completely changed their face they went with the wind as they send it to me i think they're corrupt politicians. gadhafi personally on a number of occasions three business connections less than a month the gay sure turned 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 trying 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 he making me friends but was that maybe the final chapter that deathy many fear the conflict will continue i would dare to say this stuff if you talk. which is among the rebels there is no such. thing. broken sense. to me and general who actually personally talked. with her point. now is silly along with many in the west could well find that previous lucrative relations may turn out to be just as they were in full the

french there. and remember you can get the latest news on the situation in libya as well as blogs and analysis at our website or two dot com. 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. it was following the 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 avoids planes has 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 the far eastern town of sun 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 past of like the meddling and 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 the 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 border 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 put a. price. gas imports from russia would ever pay but because the building the pipelines of the pipeline has to be extended in south korea to 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 lot i did with north korea as china is you know president vaclav havel 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 brief trip 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 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 about our will

on the day. and still ahead for you this hour a storm brewing in new york. the streets of the metropolis of the 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 a vessel was carrying supplies for the crew at the. national space station when it fell back to earth in siberia shortly after launch it crashed 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 a first but then i realized coins never fly and that more quietly then it turned into some white object and then so 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 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 are being felt much further afield with the question of how to resupply the international space station proving the most pressing. operational glamourous always keep in mind the possibility of a big 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 arrives to the space station time then maybe on the side of ross cosmos raw. space agency but the loss has still raised significant alarm bells this story is a rocket carrying crew is slightly different but not that much different than the one that wants to progress they're going to want to make sure that anything that is similar could go on that why it won't will happen well it shouldn't say it's life

there's 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 would 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've 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 preparing to weather the storm . the 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 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 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 for 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

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 i will go. my whole life and this is the only real one they really had a major evacuation for so here's to you know something though 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 me the public transportation system in new york city has also been shut down that includes the trains the processes at this point the trouble. are moving and everyone is just bracing themselves for this storm are reporting for us from new york and you are with r t coming up

a new president but all problems. as the people of cars in the caucuses make their choice at the ballot box we'll look at what lies ahead for the new leader as his republic struggles to rebuild after winning independence from georgia. and our close up team it takes you to a russian city that knows how to party find out more about the festival with a different held in kirov 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 fine 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 of social unrest that could fall. from the sea enjoys a triple a credit rating for now one of the foisted ratios among the world's top

rated states many investors bitterly to follow the u.s. and be downgraded just repaying interest on its 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 limits. as explained to you rolled up spending cuts this week but to call them is fear things. those cuts go nowhere near enough lead you can compare it with people saying we're going to buy a lumber genie and buy a porsche and they call the parents and doctors for all these huge debts burden is bringing truly this moment in schools and. spittles. heating. winter and. computers. the.

equipment old fashioned. the situations explosive say experts and friends could be next to witness rule it's like those in britain was deprived regions like the inner part of cities in the suburbs. are certainly segregated to very high extent. or in germany so yes unrest could come from the suburbs and spread through nicholas thought because these flying us fall from france as he had on budget day to his 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 in 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'll see. the people of the caucuses republican 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 now causes long and bitter struggle for independence from georgia dennis blonsky has more. he promised to make a pause it a stronger state now what it's on the down fall 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 public he

helped war veterans like me a lot when we had tough times it's. alex on that 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 the same year for almost two decades after a pause it declared independence from georgia in one thousand 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 on clubs agenda at that but i would have

a blog and we have to admit it and it is true we see certain growth but it is no no we need loans and series 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 there about my ideals office or anything or independence and i can exactly you support what you are doing here you know because you are fighting for your sorrentino tournament independence democracy for an election observers ignored the threats and gave the poll a clean bill of health this. elections are 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 the new man faces stiff challenges leaving his country with a hostile labor in georgia and

a legacy of difficulties following independence citizens will be hoping demand the chills of this president will help peril to a new era for their country. and don't forget you can watch it in the news if you want when you want it are to 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 his c.a.a. could have stopped the attacks is prevented from publishing his upcoming inside story. and attacks from the deep a for third man is mauled by a shark in russia's far east find out more about the search for the sea predator that are to dot com. now 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 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 on tuesday but never points. it's the pride of the kirov region the 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 all the best in the world. so while the players saying folksongs extolling the virtues of the green staple has only one store where the actual vegetable can be pulled out of trouble ninety

kilometers to be in this queue you know i'm curious about what it is that makes them so special but time a bit disappointed i wasn't allowed to buy my 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 but the magic ingredients are deal garlic and horseradish. but the truly unique part of the local pickling process is that a sealed barrels are dumped in the river for six months it's said that 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 decide 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 prescribes that artisans most depict very specific subjects namely how people present women and i'm probably color down to most of them. this is not just a trademark a very gentle this is russia's visiting card you won't do 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 a tall maker 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. 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 shown by the dim covered 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. cure 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 story that's coming up in just a few moments. he

. says.

broadcasting live direct from the heart of moscow this is our to have you with us now to day's news and the week's top stories colonel gadhafi wants talks with of the libyan rebels to arrange a transfer of power according to his spokesman. meanwhile the opposition's western allies are eyeing payback as a carve up of the country's oil will begin its. north korea is ready to limit nuclear arms testing and production if international talks on security in the region to 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 to.