u.s. eastern seaboard as it slams into new york bringing high winds and heavy rain. it's just after eleven pm here in the russian capital and this is our team with the day's news and the week's top stories well we start in libya where rebels have given a resolute no to wal-mart gadhafi is reported suggestion to sit down for talks the national transitional council says all the colonel deserves is a rest not dialogue artie's but he often has spoken to the rebels and has more from tripoli they have been able to speak to the rebels information minister here in tripoli and he's made his position quite clear the rebels will not negotiate with the criminals the rebels will not negotiate with the killers they want to get our fee and they're running after him street after street district after district and as soon as they catch him they will throw him to jail this statement comes after

the news solution news of the page that. duff is information chief has apparently called a.p.s. headquarters and has said that gadhafi is ready for talks with the rabble to form a transitional government and even appointed his third son sided to lead the negotiations and this news comes just a week after a successful assault by the rebels on the libyan capital tripoli which became kind of breakthrough in the libyan six month long. civil war well meanwhile the rebels are progressing quite well they're currently control in most of the country and including the capital tripoli and they are now claiming that they are preparing for what they call this final battle an assault on kid off his native town city at the same time the rebels say that the go round to go in with. his supporters there in

syria and if. they will no be any military operation if only they agreed to surrender if not. we'll start within the next two days while the people here in tripoli are struggling because currently the city is facing severe sure the chauffeur electricity gas line medicine and water garbage everywhere on the streets because municipal services happen paralyzed people trying to deal with it themselves they are. taken out to the streets with brooms and. trash bags trying to clean them. now live in in fear of an acute because there is no police but they also try to deal with it themselves coming out to the streets and organizing kind of armed volunteers to for checkpoints so the situation is very hard to call here in tripoli professor university dr muslim

told r.t. the us to bring back its military base to libya has driven its role in the nato campaign. have interests in libya. most important of course libyan oil and the us used to have a military base there. they are very interested. in military power in libya so in that sense i see a problem in the structure of the libyan revolution and the way that has formed we have a theory itself well clearly there are bulls were created by the western powers initially there were a few demonstrations that were one thing. and then of course the western powers nato had interfere. and it is not just the military power in the air that they are pushing they have also increasingly put weapons on the ground for their roles they

have also supported them with special forces from britain even the united states but are giving them training and this in some way diligent tomorrow is the rebels because it puts a foreign imprint on sensually what was before that rebellion like the egyptian rebellion or the tunisian rebellion. oh noto allies have already spent millions of dollars on their participation in the coalition's campaign a libya are now racing to cash in on profitable oil deals are reports now of the coalition members lining up to secure lucrative energy contracts. drill to the heart of most modern walls and you'll strike oil whether or not the sayings true when it comes to libya will it's going to play a pivotal role in the country's future here we have to fear a strong interest in the. big question interest to protect the torah. but also to rebel to ordinary. living government interest to restart spending all

this possible this stranger to the concept of friends with benefits berlusconi's being quick to casey up to the new transitional council inviting the public face of the group. to italy. was duffy's closest european allies when the native bombing campaign began back in april graeme abruptly switch sides and began courting the rebels in full the wall almost a third of italy's 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 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 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. it's disorganized your sick and many of these groups of rebels not from the politicians that before well we're. khadafi and then they completely change their face they went with the wind as they send it to me i think that corrupt politician. yvonne mcduffie personally on a number of occasions three business connections less than a month ago a sure turn from a fact finding trip to libya with a handwritten letter she says was written by gadhafi to berlusconi to 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 the two sides the treaty he's referring to he was talking just two months before the libyan uprising the letter gaze on to ask why did you join our enemies without any

to mattick dialogue or investigation ballasts caney now seems t.v. is the making the friends the waltz that may be the final shot to the death a many things the conflict will continue i would dare to say don't think if you talk to friends or before but she's among the rebels there is no such. circumstances no consensus call for me to be an internal coup no actual person to talk to. be. with her foreign media now is silly along with many in the west could well find that previous lucrative relations may turn out to be just as fickle as the rainfall the friendships surf city. and coming up on r t were on a store watch the city that never sleeps brings tropical storm irene as it sweeps up the west coast moving through the big apple. now the russian government

has ordered a major shake up of the country's space agency after the loss of yet another unmanned mission a progress resupply craft failed to reach the international space station and burned up in the earth's atmosphere while six crew members aboard the i assess will now have to ration out the food and water they have left jacob graves reports. 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 goings never fly that close or quietly then it turned into some white object and i saw that it was sparkling and i heard a loud noise it was like three bangs one really loud and two quieter it was due to dock with the international space station on friday delivery of century supplies to

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 of pell the progress out of the earth's atmosphere. teams have be sent to southern siberia out-i republic to look for signs of any wreckage amid fears toxic fuel may seep into the surrounding soil and water supply so far they've drawn a blank but already the repercussions of the bush mission 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 episode billet the offer of a 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 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 story as a rocket carrying crew is slightly different but not more that much to. the progress they're going to want to make sure anything that is similar could go on about why all happened. supplies those more turbulence of russian 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 been forced to tighten quality control and hope there won't be a repeat of the problems that'll be good news for the six astronauts currently on board the international space station especially to sell for the scrapping of the u.s. shuttle program there's now global importance on the success of the soyuz j.q.

greaves r.t. . this week north korea announced its readiness to regime international talks over its disputed nuclear plants the news came as the country's leader made a rare except abroad to meet president dmitri medvedev and discuss among other things a vital energy deal for north korea's struggling economy artie's got there he reports . 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 he avoids planes has armored cars and eats with chopsticks designed to detect poisons 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 quests on from there he traveled on the translate beren railway to the buy call region with the republic of borneo to as its 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. 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 in the pipeline which would bring siberian natural gas to the hub of asia would mean money for the struggling north korea and. 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 over pay but because the building the pipelines of the pipeline has to be extended into south korea to the south korean market but the foremost of war between north and south korea is a huge obstacle and this is yet another situation where russia has an advantage 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. whose 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 but for russia it's a chance to do what everyone else has failed so far catherine as are about r t one of them. millions of new yorkers decided to stay in their homes as hurricane irene swept through the city bringing partial flooding and power shortages while it's been downgraded to a tropical storm all public transportation will remain shut throughout sunday all i remain is sweeping up the u.s.

eastern seaboard and house claimed at least fifteen lives artie's many of the port i reports now from new york. the city was prepared a way in advance before i renewed begat it's way down the eastern seaboard but at this point things seem extremely calm relatively calm the sun actually looking out of my window in the sun is beginning to come out here in new york city but that does not mean that there has not been any damage from this tropical storm now i remarked the hurricane but according to meteorologist when it was making its way down the eastern seaboard and once it i went through cloud through north carolina it downgraded to a tropical storm by the time it hit manhattan we did see sheets of rain coming down and the wind became extremely heavy and it was downgraded to a tropical storm as you mentioned at this point there's been severe flooding all along the hudson river in manhattan and they in all the outer boroughs of new york city there are how out in power shortages now on manhattan all the emergency

workers and first responders are dealing with major flooding for the low lying areas south of manhattan as we remember it was in new york city mayor michael bloomberg that order a mandatory evacuation of certain parts of new york city those are wrangled lying areas approximately three hundred seventy thousand people who live in all those different areas are a lot of people evacuated and a lot of new yorkers chose to stay and are way out of the storm as it made its way to new york according to what we are all just are saying this storm has now passed new york city is heading towards rhode island newport rhode island and new england and he could even become a little bit greater as it gains momentum heading that way but it did turn out to be a lot less than what was anticipated and what was hyped up and at this point it's just about cleanup here in new york. well of course we're closely following the developments of unraveling on the east coast of america which has been hit by

a wave of extreme weather so you can log onto our you tube channel to watch the most recent videos from the hurricane site. europe spreading debt crisis is threatening to draw in a friends as the government announced new us thirty measures earlier this week amid concerns it could lose its aaa credit rating for the new deficit reducing package will sing some twelve billion euros worth of cuts plus a tax hike for the rich but as artie's done a bushel explains the move could be too although all too late with fears that social of rest is just around the corner. from the enjoys a triple a credit rating for now one of the toys 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 this year has overtaken education and defense as the government's biggest spend. causes presided over the biggest

jump in debt levels in our history books that carry too much water. or. france is going to the tolerance limit admitted prime minister as he explained the new round of spending cuts this week but to call them is fear things. those cuts go nowhere near enough you can compare it with people saying we're going to buy a lamborghini and buy a porsche and they call that heresy doctors warn frances huge debt burden is bringing crudely of drink this mint in schools and hospitals. getting. into. computers. very old. fashioned. the situation's explosive say experts and for olds

could be mixed 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 in the u.k. or in germany so yes unrest could come from the suburbs and spread through. because these flying this fall from france as he can on budget they taze 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 and protest against their 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 paris. and still ahead for you this hour a journey through russia all the way to the good old age and where an unusual festival held in the name of a leader and a green vegetable as entertaining adults and children alike. and now to some news that made headlines today across the world on the west continues in syria with activists claiming the government forces have opened far protesters in separate cities killing at least five people it comes as the arab league announce it will separate envoy to the country to hold talks with president assad and seek an end to the violence meanwhile iran has reaffirmed its alliance with syria but warned that assad should listen to his people's legitimate demands and more than twenty thousand have been killed since our government demonstrations began in march . a series of overnight bomb attacks has left six people dead and injured at least

seven and the iraqi capital baghdad explosions targeted a police patrol in one of the city's neighborhoods more than half of the casualties were officers officials say at least two hundred fifty people have been killed by extremists in iraq in july alone. now a superstar football striker has joined the russian north caucasus. some cameroon native it aforetime african player of the year reportedly receive ten million euros a season well his arrival is a massive coup for russia's premier league and puts firmly on the map as one of the world's most ambitious clubs but you know coach of us has the details. from the above to go much and for the next three years most of salmon at joe's big games will be in russia this thursday the cameroon international left into milan and each leave behind flying in to join new club and. i'm starting from

scratch i won all the trophies possible in europe as a player. plus. it was before and you told me a lot about russian feeble and i do not forward to joining the team is a three time champions league winner and the most decorated african player of all time lightening pace has made one of the sport's most prolific goal scorers increased again this still assigning has spoke of this region of russia the north caucasus into the soccer world spotlight this is the in the says. it seems that until recently few outside 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 team of world soap a stone house is being built the story behind this transfer began in january when the darkest on the clock was bought by slowly month 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 wears in the world will be where. there are some families will. america very big in parts of the world from top of the game here in russia. i think you would give a very good image of rawson football because. it is one of the best parts inquests here is not the star of the past russian money in european football is nothing new back in two thousand and three russian businessmen are more in them but are more each bought english club chelsea and transformed a mid-level club into a you are paying powerhouse i should have small enough has also ploughed his millions into english giants arsenal but this time the situation is different here is a bit is to make a little known russian football team known across the world this deal may herald

a new reality. european games where international football superstar playing for russian clubs are ask common telescopes meisner question our team reporting from the north caucasus. although it's time for the latest that our close up series this week we're care of region look at it around a thousand kilometers east of moscow where now for its folk arts and crafts in the summer it also hosts an annual festival celebrating a common green vegetable. joins in the fun. 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 the pickled 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 there's only one store where the actual vegetable can be bought and i've travelled eighty kilometers to be in this queue i'm curious about what it is that makes them so special but i'm a bit disappointed i wasn't allowed to buy more disheartened by the long wait we decided to take our search to the locals it's the middle of the pickling season if you can there's a 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 water gives them

a subtle shortie 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 decide to give it a try myself. thank you traditionally the cure of region has been known for its dim covered stories base an ancient pagan day teas these clay figurines have been handmade here for hundreds of years the handicraft strict tradition prescribes that artisans was depict very specific subjects namely how people present women and probably color down to most of the day this is not just a trademark a very gentle this is russia's visiting card we want the world 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 of the most 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 mastered the traditional motifs i my grandchild and its. local authorities are hoping master classes like this one will become a tourist attraction and a recruiting ground for new craftswomen. eager of party cure of region. well that's all for now i'll be back in a few moments to recap the week's top stories for you r.t. .

lose. the book.

welcome back and this is our team now here's a recap of the week's top stories and today's main headlines libyan rebels have joined our reported offer by moammar gadhafi to negotiate the power transfer as they prepare a final attack on the colonel's home town. there's a big a shake. in the russian space agency after the loss of one another on a mission and scientists now rushing to resupply the international space station and prevent a disaster. north korean leader kim jong il rolls through half of russia by train for a meeting with president medvedev saying that he wants a resumption of international talks that will bring peace to the peninsula. and.