recapping the top news and headlines from the past week this is r t with some interesting news now colonel gadhafi is reportedly ready to begin talks to transfer power the news comes a week after a decisive breakthrough in libya's civil war when tripoli was the scene of a major battle as the rebels took control of the city from gadhafi loyalists let's get more from archies maria who's in the libyan capital now maria thanks for joining us where does this announcement by khadafi spokesman of a possible transfer of power take us at this point. well indeed we are receiving reports that khadafi wants to hold talks with the rebels to form a transitional government to mussa ibrahim cut off his information has apparently called a.p. news agencies has quarters in new york and has sad that he is a ready for negotiations with the rebels to form transitional government and he's

appointed his third son saadi to lead these negotiations this news comes just one week after the rebel successful assault on the libyan capital tripoli which became kind of breakthrough in the libyan six month long civil war and just days after the colonel himself and now nst he would tell you he would fight till his dad would never never receive the seized would never keep bar band called libyan people to come and fight against rebels and to die or with him so no one can say for sure so far whether these negotiations will really take place between khadafi and the rebels but many here are skeptics about his intentions because that's not for the first time that the colonel expresses his readiness for peaceful solution of this crisis we know that his repeatedly announced cease fire during these six months but he had broken his wards many times as well so he hasn't are and

enough trust to now. be sure that these negotiations will take place meanwhile the rebels are progressing quite well they're now claiming that they are controlling most part of the country which is actually true including the capital tripoli virtually now are almost completely under their control there now claiming that they're preparing currently for kind of final battle for an assault or an assault on kid off his native town civet which is about six hundred kilometers east off for the capital tripoli where we are now. which he's thought actually to be khadafi is. last stronghold and they is now saying that they're just waiting for nato to help them clear the path towards islamist down they will advance toward says. no it is interesting to see how these talks with gadhafi as representatives and the rebels could possibly play out but as you mentioned there's been six months

of a civil war plus intense fighting in tripoli itself as for the dire humanitarian situation in the libyan capital how are citizens coping there now. while the situation on the ground in the libyan capital is very complicated and it is very close to humanitarian catastrophe actually the city is currently facing severe shortages of running water electricity few and medicine even here a hotel where we are stayed in where most of the foreign journalists are staying we have serious problems we have bad right now there is no running water crowd hotel so people are trying to do with that they are using public taps to get some water we've been and we've seen many of them lining up with their plastic plastic cans and they use electric generators to produce some electricity and since

the city's municipal services have been paralyzed that streets of the capital tripoli a full of garbage and people are also trying to cope with that themselves we've seen many of them taken out to the streets in the evening with brooms and trash bags and cleaning the streets themselves but of course they say the efforts are not enough to deal with that and many of them concerned that that will take a while for their life to get back to normal also people here believe in a fear of anarchy because there is no police in the city and began people trying to do that themselves the order now is maintained by armed volunteers there are checkpoints throughout the city many of them make every one hundred two hundred meters they are checking all the cars passing by and even in the main all the drivers are required and we're off the driving with lies reached on inside the car

to let people at the checkpoints to see who is inside the car and. it's not safe here in tripoli because we are receiving from time to time reports about sniper shooting that's why people are afraid to. leave their houses and that's why tripoli now looks a little bit and t. and in some districts even abandoned and just a piece of good news so far the rebels have been claiming that they've strengthened their hold on the road from the capital tripoli to the new tunisian border known as a major supply route so. they are now controlling all the western part of. the country and the border with tunisia and it acts acts to help improve the situation but so far the station is quite. not optimistic not bright what we see here back to you right arches were a financial reporting from the libyan cup. as more information becomes available.

and sticking with the story the scenes of celebrations this week across libya were reminiscent of those in cairo's tahrir square in february but there the high expectations after the revolution soon gave way to disillusionment egypt had been due to hold its first parliamentary vote in september but the interim government has delayed it citing the need for more time to prepare or two you can look at the parallels with libya. the cadets the regime is crumbling. the rebels are cheering. the. same cheers and tears could be seen in egypt in february as the nation ousted their longtime leader hosni mubarak but six months on many egyptians say their hopes have been crushed by reality. you know i love the revolution when it happened i welcomed the looked at the time we call life at the end of the tunnel we see it's not getting better we have

nothing to eat just don't tell me about democracy for hungry people it just doesn't matter the egyptians now are not governed by who they chose as their leaders instead it's their army that's in control the army that has strong ties with the us and is sponsored by washington the military regime that the edifice the institutions that were the essence the fundamental essence of the mubarak regime those remain and we can see the thousands of people have been brought to military trial since the end of the popular revolution that ousted mubarak in tripoli the body taking over is the national transitional council also not chosen by the levy in people yet the council has been recognized as the legitimate government of libya by all allies who've been helping oust gadhafi many leave ians are outraged by the fact that foreign powers are effectively making vital choices for them there is too much wealth and geopolitical strategic value to libya to only be. reformed in

democratic rights and universal participation by the citizenry. western powers need to implement a western economic and military agenda and therefore the people who will eventually command the political situation in libya and the military situation in libya will indeed be supported and buttress by western powers western powers have thrown all their support behind the league in national transitional council giving them billions of dollars and weapons to gain control but the rebels are far from being a united group what is going to face after that is a period of prolonged chaos nobody knows the outcome this is tribe against tribe this is not democracy against totalitarianism revolutions in libya have developed under different scenarios it was an on armed uprising of millions in libya it's been an insurgency flooded with weapons by the west and those weapons are still in

their arms and they're not going anywhere and many analysts are saying that libyans could find himself in a much worse situation than the egyptians because on top of power crisis similar to the one egyptian they're having libyans could be facing a fresh break of violence at the hands of the armed mom. reporting from washington our team. and remember you can also get the latest news on the situation in libya as well as blogs and analysis at our website or 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 struggling economy. was following. a man of

mystery north korea's kim jong il prefers to stay out of the. like the great leader as he's officially known at home constantly fears for his life which is why he avoids planes has armored cars and eats 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 translate beren 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 his current russian counterpart the north korean leader stopped to pay his respects to the first soviet leader this bust of legs in the leg 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 but 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 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. price for gas imports from russia would we overpay but because the building

pipelines. 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. this 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 bounce 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 stand empty as hurricane irene sweeps closer leaving devastation in its wake. and france is feeling the pinch as dead surges and growth stagnate 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

launch its cry. spread fears had started fuel could be dangerous for locals any environment jacob greaves takes up a 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 trainer first but then i realized i never find their trail or quietly then it turned into some white object and then so that you will spark 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 joined 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 planner always keep in mind a possibility of cargo space ship not docking to the international space station for some reason so the crew on board has enough of water and food supplies to survive on for another three or four months and deal. with graft arrive to 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. a rocket carrying

crew is slightly different but not that much there and the one that lost progress they're going to want to make sure that anything that is similar could go on about why you won't want happen we want to make sure that they apply those more turbulence of russia's 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 thus 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 odyssey 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 preparing to weather the storm . a big apple looks extremely eerie the streets are and the 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 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 friday new york city michael bloomberg 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 were heading to the stores to buy up supplies saturday here's a little bit of what they have said and 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 that we don't know the whole thing i'm scared out of like going outside in the i'm like. on the water like hurricane katrina like that there's 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 story is 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 where city would go and spend so much money and the federal government if this was not a serious store. or minute this point where we're waiting 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 i could tell you right now are trees marina porno reporting to us there on the situation of hurricane irene now 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 our daniel bushell explains the move could be too little too late with fears social unrest could follow. enjoys a triple a credit rating but 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 debt this year has overtaken education and defense as the government's biggest spend was just mr serco says presided over the biggest jump in debt levels in our history books that carry too much water. or. france is going to the limit it probably does do it for us as explained didn't you rolled up spending cuts this week but economists fear things. those cuts go nowhere near enough me you can compare it with people saying we're going to buy lumber gini and they only buy a porsche and they call that heresy doctors board frauds these huge debt burden is bringing crudely of drink versus mint in schools and hospitals. hitting. winter and. computers are very old.

fashioned to. the situations explosive say experts and frauds could be next to. witness roy 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 far more so than in the u.k. or in germany so yes and from the suburbs and spread through. because these flying is full from france as he turned over to his 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 wright's

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. don't forget you can watch the news you want when you want it at r.t. dot com here's a taste of what we've got mined out 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 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. 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 kin of famed for its stunning scenery and countryside it's also known for its popular handmade toys which represent the country on postcards and in summer it attracts so tourists from all over the world for one highly unusual festival and r.t.c. got all got a lot of reports this kirov region so far not very well known outside of russia and even end side russia is going to brand itself after one thing and this thing is cucumbers the most russian of vegetables so if you look behind me what you are seeing is a cucumber festival people thousands of them coming here all day eating cucumber either fresh or pickled or whatever else and this is something of an initiative we'll see what it takes off but we're noticing that over the last fifteen years first it was getting bigger and bigger and this year it's international with people

coming in from all over the world just to sample these special cucumbers which are local speciality but more and out than my report it's the pride of the cure of region that annual cucumber festival the governor himself invited journalists from all across russia just to showcase the region's tourist potential organizers here make the bold claim that a pickle cucumbers in this village of stubbins are the best in the world. but while the players sing folk songs extolling the virtues of the green staple because only one store where the actual vegetable can be bought a lot of trouble ninety kilometers to be in this queue i'm curious about what it is that makes them so special that time and be disappointed i wasn't allowed to buy more disheartened by the long wait we decided to to. to the locals it's the middle of the tickling season if you can with 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 the 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. banky tradition need to cure of region has been known for its. base an ancient pagan day tease these clay figurines have been handmade here for hundreds of years the handicraft strict tradition describes the artisans most depict very specific subjects namely how will present women and

improbably color down the most. this is not just a trademark a very june this is russia's visiting come out of 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. before i became a tall maker 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 charmed by the toys and filled myself up on the local pickles but whether this is enough to turn to care of

region into a tourist destination well that's another question altogether i'm not standing next attempt to be he's been living in russia for five years and he's got his own very popular video blog dedicated largely to tourism so. a body think of the future but there are going to places like this one thing as i describe. describing sort of like the problems and one of the big things is price and there's that others like no information about things in russia a lot of russians have no idea what's happening even one person said that there's nothing to see in russia nothing to see in the biggest country in the world there's got to be something you know and on the other. is to is for a lot of russians they just don't think russia is cool and i feel. i love this place and so i want to see that that's another thing with blogging like people like me i do you know how many people have written me like tim now i know that you know i could be have something be proud of. you well thank you very much. i've been speaking to tim could be he's got his very video blog about terrorism about how we

might see an improvement in the situation people who want to travel inside russia. and i'll be back in a few moments to recap the week's top stories for you stay with us. we'll. bring you the latest in science and technology from around the world.

we go to the future of coverage. and bringing you the top news in the headlines from around the globe as well as a recap of the top stories of the week this is hard to colonel gadhafi reportedly offers talks with the libyan rebels to arrange a transfer of power that says the opposition hunt the fugitive leader after taking over the capital tripoli. 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 the progress vessel was carrying supplies to the international space station when it plummeted back to earth shortly.