it is it twelve noon on sunday here in moscow this is r t certainly glad to have you with us it's 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 gadhafi is reportedly ready to begin talks to transfer power meanwhile the situation in the capital tripoli remains dire due to shortages of basic essentials as our financial reports. as the rebels reports that stand 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 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 their plastic cans trying to do all the cross tripoli 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 themselves try to do something with ads in the evening since since ramadan live here usually saws in the evening in the evening they 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 by armed volunteers the right checkpoints every one hundred or two

hundred meters the rebels have recently announced that they've strengthened their hold on the road from tripoli to the need to metion border known as major supply route which expects to help improve the situation but so far the picture is not pride at all the rebels are now claiming that the are preparing for an assault on khadafi native town civs 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 we've been here in air. planes during the day and night and recently we've heard from nato that it had carried out several airstrikes meanwhile duffy is going to be recently i've been hearing numerous reports from the rebels leader is that they know khadafi his whereabouts and they've been several reports that gadhafi had been cornered but still we don't

have any kind of khadafi. or g.'s maria for national reporting there from tripoli side libya meanwhile the pentagon says it's monitoring the libyan sites containing stockpiles of chemical weapons and is pledging to prevent them from falling into the wrong hands it's thought the arsenals include mustard gas and raw uranium as are reports that's causing concern with some rebel factions said to have been infiltrated by islamic extremists. tripoli a city in chaos there's constant gunfire both aggressive and celebration and on the outskirts of the capital stockpiles of chemical weapons nato know very little about the people who might come to power. tripoli so now if you've got this cache of weapons of mass destruction that again people really don't know what's there and if this is falling into the hands of certain people i mean the situation is potentially disastrous despite the heavy presence of rebels in tripoli the chemical

stockpile appears still to be in the hands of what's left of gadhafi government that's both good and bad news following a series of meetings in two thousand and three moammar gadhafi agreed to allow weapons inspectors into libya the first step towards abandoning his w m d program in return for a normalizing of relations with the u.k. and u.s. they agree that he wouldn't use or move the material but now thanks in part to nato support of the rebels he's on the back foot and may feel he has nothing. by disregarding that agreements cry 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 muslim extremists so how that the two is going to be with those people off about remove all of them and i believe the post would be more problematic than that. if you 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 islamic extremists. and remember you can also the latest news on the situation in libya as well as blogs and analysis at our web site r.t. 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 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's struggling economy. it 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 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 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 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. 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 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 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 formal state of war between north and south korea is a huge obstacle and this is yet another situation where russia has an advantage russia 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 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. who is 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 data famine and get some much needed food aid for russia it's a chance to do what every. announce has failed so far castro has are about our will on the day still ahead for you this hour a storm brewing in new york. the streets of the metro police stand empty as hurricane irene sweeps it closer even devastation in its way. and france is feeling the pinch of 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 vessel was carrying supplies for the crew at the international space station when it fell back to earth in siberia shortly after its launch its crash spread fears its toxic fuel could be

dangerous for locals and the environment she could 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 queens never fly in their clothes or quietly then it turned into some white object and then so that it was 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. operational glamourous always keep in mind that 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 arrives 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 story is a rocket carrying crew is slightly different but not that much there. then the one

at last the progress they're going to want to make sure anything that is similar that could go on about why you want what happened we want to make sure that they supply those more turbulence with 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 has 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 j.q. 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 . 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 and you could feel the wind increasing you feel the rain increasing the rain is coming down like sheets the border and new york city has also been put under attorney to watch sold 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 friday new york city michael bloomberg for the first time in history issued a mandatory evacuation of certain parts of new york city two 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 hogs saturday here's a little bit of what they have to say and i will do. my hold on why this is the only real one they really had a major evacuation for so here's to you know something that 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 transfer station system in new york city has also been shut down that includes the trains the buses i could tell you that the city is prepared for the worst most new yorkers are hoping that the stories being overblown that it's being hyped up but i can't imagine that in time in this kind of time a time of economic crisis or city would go and spend so much money and the federal

government if this was not a serious store. or minute this point we're waiting for seeing it seems a little bit like a movie where you know you don't know what's going to happen but you're just prepared and that's the circumstance here in new york that's secretary right now parties more important reporting there from new york now you are with r t coming up a new president but old problem. as the people of in the caucuses make their choice at the ballot box we look at what lies ahead for the new leader and his republic struggles to rebuild after winning independence from georgia. the richest a 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 enjoys a triple a credit rating for now but with 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 just mr circles is presided over the biggest jump in debt levels in our history books that carry too much water. or. france is going on the tolerance limits admitted prime minister as he explained the new round of spending cuts this week but economists fear things is so bad those cuts go nowhere near enough leigh you can compare it with people saying we're going to buy a lumber genie and they only buy a porsche and they call that austerity doctors warned france's huge debt burden is bringing truly under-investment in schools and hospitals. hitting.

into. computers. very old. equipment old fashioned. out of the situations explosive say experts and frauds could be next to witness roy it's like those in britain with deprived regions the likely spark the inner part of cities and the suburbs. are certainly segregated to very high extent far more so than say or in germany so yes unrested come from the suburbs and spread through nicolas sarkozy's flying a fall from france as he chatted on budget they taze pacific island of new caledonia with students planning street protests over the cuts he's left the job of presenting them to his prime minister to let them take the. four and hopefully

unions students retirees can march directly in protest against their ministers bathing in the sun because these absence in this time of crisis rights leading newspaper le figaro may be clear both politically but his failure to tackle the country's troubles now could be creating even greater problems for the future of the new bush to see. the people of the caucuses republican have settled upon their choice of who they want to leave their fledgling country vice president alexander won the presidential vote beating two rivals he will succeed. who died recently from illness after playing a crucial role in 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 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 he helped war veterans like me a lot when we had tough times. alex on the 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 it 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 one club's agenda at that but out of a bog and we have to admit it and that is true we see certain growth but there's no no we close in 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 a very quick reaction from the georgian always says oh no don't go sir but my ideal so sore any to independence and i can't exactly you support what you are doing here you know because you are fighting for your sorrentino turn of the independence democracy for an election observers ignored the threats and gave the poll a clean bill of health this. elections have been very well defined and 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 in 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 when that you want when you want at r.t. dot com here is 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 story. and attacks from the db a florida man is mauled by a shark in russia's far east and find out more about the search for the sea predator at our team 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 activists saying there was sporadic shooting in separate cities it comes as it's 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 deal railed in rio de janeiro more than thirty others were injured some of them critically after coming off the tracks the tram skidded down a street before crashing into a lamp post investigators are trying to find what caused the accident it comes to months after a french tourists died falling out of one of the trams as it was crossing a bridge. that as well as 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 yet 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. this week is the fourth time african player of the year samuel eto agreed to a historic deal with russian team. making him one of the highest paid players in the world the arrival of the superstar striker is a massive coup for russia's premier league and puts firmly on the map as one of the global game's most ambitious clubs. medina as the story. of this group up will go mike and for the next three years most of samara at tells big games will be in russia this thursday the cameroon international left into. melanie today behind flying in to join new club and. i'm

starting from scratch is possible in europe as a player and here i can start a new plus i've played with a bunch of crazies before and he told me a lot about russian and i do not forward to joining the team is the three time champions league winner and the most decorated african clay of all time pace has made one of the sport's most prolific goalscorers yes this still assigning has put this region of russia the north caucasus into the soaker world spotlight this is the innate says. it seems that until recently few side of russia had heard off but which is now making sports had lines across the globe and it's in this unlikely setting that i'd seen world soap a stoss is being built the story behind this transfer began in january when the druggist on the clock was bought by sally monk getting him off a locally born businessman and one of the richest men in russia he found to turn

gene into a contender hoping to transform the republic's image in the process a handful of promising acquisitions followed among the legendary brazilian de-fund about the cardless the current captain of the club the fact that one of the best players in the world will be playing him there are some families. america very big impacts of the development of the game here in russia. i think we're given a very good image of russian football because. it is one of the best years of the start of the past russian money in european football is nothing new back in two thousand and three russian businessmen are more in the but are more beach boys english club chelsea and transformed a mid-level club into a you are paying powerhouse i wish it was small enough has also ploughed his millions into english. arsenal but this time the situation is different here is the

bet is to make a little known russian football team known across the world this deal may heralds a new reality in the european game where international football superstar spraying for russian clubs are ask common at telescope's meissner which no r t reporting from the north caucasus now back to recap the week's main news in just a few moments stay with us.

to the newseum. to.

broadcasting live from the heart of moscow this is r t certainly glad to have you with us today's news in the week's top stories colonel gadhafi wants talks with the libyan rebels to arrange a transfer of power according to a spokesman meanwhile the opposition's 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 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 russian space ship is missing after crashing over siberia progress a vessel was carrying supplies to the international space station when it plummeted back to earth short.