million people without power along the u.s. eastern seaboard as it slams into new york bringing high winds and heavy rain. just after midnight here in the russian capital this is r t with the day's news and the week's top stories well we start in libya where rebels have given a resolutely no to moammar gadhafi is reported suggestion to sit down for talks the national transitional council says that all the colonel deserves is a rest and not dialogue. in the house spoken to the rebels and has more from tripoli. we 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 cut off he 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 use of the feed that. duff is information chief has apparently called a peace 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 this 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 it's successful they will no be any military operation if only they agreed to surrender if not. will start within the next two days while the people here in tripoli are struggling because currently the city is facing severe sure the show for electricity gas a line magazine 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 they also now live in in fear of anarchy because there is no police but the. also try to do that themselves. to the streets and. kind of. volunteer. for checkpoints so the situation is very hard to call here in tripoli. all

concerns have been very so over who is to control libya stockpiles of chemical weapons with reports of rebel factions have been infiltrated by islamic extremists or washington admits it cannot guarantee terrorists will not get there hasn't been arsenals but has pledged to try to prevent it from happening artie's allure and that has more. 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. 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 is 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 to lose by disregarding that agreement 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 the majority of the people who are off i think a few muslim extremists so how that the two is going to deal with those people often that remove all of chemical i believe their post their fear would be more proper magic than that precut that here there are some indications nato is considering putting peacekeeping troops on the ground in libya regional experts warned that 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's w m d armed islamic extremists lower and it's our team london. international observers say the rebels are a weak and divided force which may not be able to properly govern the country but middle east expert dan glazebrook told r.t. that's exactly what nato wanted to happen in libya this war is fundamentally a war to maintain africa in a subordinate position in the global economy in twenty ten get there we made a proposal to the african union that was that dr that that no african country would allow us based on its soil since that time the u.s. has been desperate to get rid of gadhafi when we talk about the rebels but this is a very disparate group of people really who's calling the shots as nato few leaders that we hear about matthew jabril abdul julio these are people who have stablished links with western financial institutions are going back over several years so

really when when we hear from these people bad mouth pieces of nato place the libyan state with the same as what's replaced the state in iraq afghanistan which is a dysfunctional government complete lack of security gang warfare and civil war and this is not a mistake for nato would prefer to see failed states and states that are powerful and independent and able to challenge their germany and those who are fighting for nato and in libya and fighting for the t.n.c. really need to understand that this is nato vision for their country they need to wake up and seeing that they're being used. and coming up on r t we're on a storm watch the city that never sleeps braves tropical storm irene as it's something u.s. east coast living through the big gap. now the russian government has ordered a major shake up of the country's space agency after the loss of yet another mission a progress resupply craft for failed to reach the international space station and

burned up in the earth's atmosphere all six crew members aboard the i assess will now have to ration out the food and water they have left are the grooves has more. 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 and they're close or quietly then it turned into some white object and then saw that you were 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 and propel 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 glamourous always keep in mind that possibility of a big cargo space ship not docking to the international space station for some reason so that crew on board pairs of water and food supplies to survive on for another three or four months until their. cargo spacecraft arrive 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 or you as a rocket carrying the 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 what happened well they should say. there was more turbulence of russia's space program back in december when three clone a satellite's 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 in 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. greaves r.t. . now this week north korea announced its readiness to resume international talks over its disputed nuclear plugs well the news came as the country's leader made

a rare trip abroad to meet president dmitri medvedev and discuss among other things a vital energy deal for north korea's struggling economy artie's got to be no more . 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 video to as his final destination and a meeting with president of egypt 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 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 doubts 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 breaking the back of the caucasus football club has splash the cash for a new super striker making him one of the world's highest paid players. now millions of new yorkers decided to stay of their homes as hurricane irene swept through the city bringing partial flooding and power outages a wall it's now been downgraded to a tropical storm all public transportation will remain shot throughout sunday i

read is sweeping up the u.s. eastern seaboard and has claimed at least fifteen lives artie's let in a fortnight 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 once it i went through plowed through north carolina it downgraded to a tropical storm by the time it hit manhattan we did see sheets of of rain coming down the wind became extremely heavy it was downgraded to a tropical storm as you mentioned at this point there's been severe flooding are along the hudson river in manhattan and in all the outer boroughs of new york city there how out there how are shortages now on manhattan at all the emergency workers

and first responders are dealing with major flooding before the old the lying areas 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 it 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. of course we're closely following the developments

unraveling on the east coast of america which has been hit by a wave of the extreme weather the log on to to one. chalte watch the most recent and most impressive videos from the hurricane site. a europe spreading debt crisis is threatening to draw in frats as the government announced a new a sterile measures earlier this week amid concerns it could lose its aaa credit rating well the new deficit reducing package will see some twelve billion euros worth of cuts plus a tax hike for the rich as a bushel explains the move could be too little too late with fears that social unrest is just around the corner. from enjoys a triple a credit rating for now one of the choice 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 it 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 has gone above the tolerance limit admitted prime minister as he explained the new road 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 austerity doctors warned france's huge did burden is bringing crudely of dream vestment in schools and hospitals. getting. into. computer. equipment fashion. out of the situations explosive say

experts and frauds could be next to witness routes like those in britain with. leaved regions the likely spark the inner part of cities and the suburbs. are certainly segregated to very high extent far more so than say in the u.k. or in germany so yes unrest could come from the suburbs and spread through. because these flying is all from france as he had on budget they tease pacific island of new caledonia with students planning street protests over the cuts he's left the job of presenting his prime minister to let them take the flak for it and hopefully unions students retirees can march directly and protest against their ministers while he's behaving in a certain 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 to see paris. and still ahead for you this hour a journey through russia all the way to the cattle region where an unusual festival held the name of a lean and a green vegetable that are too many adults and children alike. and now to some news that made headlines today across the world the rest continues in syria with activists claiming that government forces have opened protesters in separate cities killing at least five it comes as the arab league announced it will send an 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 to legitimize demands more than two thousand have been killed since anti-government demonstrations began in march. a

series of overnight bomb attacks as 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 and 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. cameroon native and four time african player of the year will 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. 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. possible in europe as. 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 feeble and i do not forward to joining the team is the three time champions league winner and the most decorated african player of all time low lightening pace has made after one of the sport's most prolific goals scorers increased again this still assigning house of this region of russia the north caucasus into the soccer 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 team of world soap a stone house is being built the story behind this transfer began in january when the druggist on the clock was bought by sally monk giving him of

a locally born businessman and one of the richest men in russia he found to turn on gene into a contender hoping to transform the republic's image in the process a handful of promising acquisitions followed among them legendary brazilian to fund the cardless the current captain of the club the fact that one of the first where's in the world will be where. there are some families. america a very big damper in parts of the world from top of the game here in russia. i think it would give a very good image of rawson football because. it is one of the best where there's not the star of the past russian money in european football is nothing new back in two thousand and three russian businessmen are more members 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 the world. steel may heralds a new reality in the european game where international football superstar playing for russian clubs are ask common tells goals mice not bushnell our team reporting from the north caucasus i and now it's time for the latest in our close of series and this week we're in the care of regional located around a thousand kilometers east of moscow renowned for its folk arts and crafts and the summer it also hosts an adult festival celebrating all common green vegetable. joints in the fun. it's the pride of the kirov region 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 pickle cucumbers in this village of stubbins are the best in the world. so while the players sing folk songs extolling the virtues of the green staple this is only one store where the actual vegetable can report we're going to try to come up much as to be in this case you know i'm curious about what it is that makes them so special but i'm 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 looking a little 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 at 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 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 so i decided to give it a try myself. thank you traditionally the kirov region has been known for its them covered toys bay some ancient pagan date these clay figurines have been handmade here for hundreds of years handicrafts trick tradition describes that artisans was depicted very specific subjects namely how people present women and i'm probably color down the most. this is not just a trademark of our region this is russia's visiting come out 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 monsters yet i still use the must know

before i became to make 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. local authorities are hoping master classes like this one will become a tourist attraction and a recruiting ground for new craftswomen. eager observe. care of region. well that's all for now i'll be back in a few moments with a recap of the top stories do stay with us.

len.

welcome back here's a recap of the week's top stories at today's made headlines hard to live in rubble some turned out reported offer by wal-mart the feat to negotiate the power transfer stage for fear of violence on the colonel's hometown. there's a big shakeup in the russian space agency after the loss of another on the mission and scientists now rushing to resupply the international space station and that disaster. north korean leader kim jong il rolls through russia by train for a meeting with the president medvedev saying that pyongyang was never something of the truth. that will bring peace to the peninsula.