international news and comment live from a headquarters here in central moscow this is r t the us and remain you have signed a joint missile defense pact in washington the agreement authorizes the deployment of police to missile interceptors in romania as part of an american project to build a broader nato defense shield in europe an r.t.s. got a gun as this report. what they signed this part of america's revamped plan to build a missile shield in europe with elements of it deployed in different countries in eastern europe romania will host america's land base this time so we interceptors the shield will be unfolding fairly close to russian borders needless to say that's always been an irritant in the relations between washington and moscow the new u.s. missile defense plan that we're talking about is the fourth stage planned in the first two stages invision deescalation access and three interceptors of lower capability in the last two or higher capability is the last to that especially by

the russians the more advanced ones because russians have a different analysis of the weapons that the so-called rogue states happen what they don't happen in moscow doesn't want the system to be eventually directed against russia the war of words on missile defense has been going on for quite some time with washington saying we need powerful missile interceptors against a possible attack from some dangerous state they usually navy ran and were screened in moscow saying why would you need interceptors for weapons that those rogue states don't have but russia does russians have been quite persistent a few years you know saying ok if it's not against us let's build a missile shield in europe together and the response they get is always a no a polite no but no they say yes we will cooperate but not on equal terms to that russian state then give us legally binding to be used against us to decide the purpose the mere effectiveness of the shield is now in question last thursday for the first time the u.s. tested its advance to send three block one interceptor missile and it failed to hit

a target by the way the federation of american scientists recently come up with a report that calls for a review of america's missile defense plan based on the inconsistences that they see between schools and means the report touched upon two very interesting points a the effectiveness of those interceptors is arguable from a scientific point of view and be that it could push the russians and possibly the chinese to try and restore some kind of balance by arming themselves more. and professor of paris west university says the u.s. missile shield plans are for political reasons as there's no real threat facing america and its allies i don't think it's really a military necessity no one really believed that there was a possibility of iran attacking europe its myside stude not reach could not reach western europe so it was the deployment was scrapped in the czech republic knowledge and new deployment in rumania but i think this takes up purely political

washington probably wants to reassure the former satellite countries of the soviet union so it's a political move but hardly a military necessity and also considering this link to the us economy i don't think it's a wise move in plentiful terms one of. this we said all this he would brush at least he was achieving something corp russia and key issues but this new deployment is aware of antagonizing russia which is going to turn into maybe some kind of new arms race which is totally pointless not only because the effectiveness of that shield is problematic doubtful but also because it's going to cost a lot of money and unnecessarily because frankly i don't think iran is in a position to attack anyone in the west. professor peter going to talk to me a little earlier here on r.t. to libya now and the transitional authority has given residents of the the seas gadhafi strongholds two days to evacuate or face

a full scale attack as nato airstrikes help the rebels to secure a key oil town in the east the leader of the t.c. in his first speech since the colonel was ousted libyans to strive for a civil democratic state based on moderate islam. international has called on the country's new leaders to prevent human rights abuses accusing both sides of the conflict of violence concern grows over the humanitarian situation in libya that seen over two thousand six hundred killed since the uprising began. has been talking to the people of tripoli about the outcome of the revolution. that. the dock you free tripoli just can't stop chanting to celebrate the birth of . the man of all remind us of a recently overthrown dictatorship are suppressed but used to bring nightmares to some four decades. after. his

curly hair we call him because his hair is so long and he doesn't cut it it's ugly actually but some are not smiling believe in the past gadhafi freedom is nothing but them in iran as a crime has been the rest of three times in the last two weeks rebels interrogated him and took his documents the reason the twenty seven year old copilot says is his family's ties with gadhafi his regime he covered his face and changed his name in supposedly free libya this man is afraid of being thrown to jail again or even killed you can see a bad words about gadhafi but you can say about wars and about the national council but they are talking about democracy this is not democracy a crime says he. we didn't get rid of a dictatorship but only fell into another one of the rebels' weapons in a city where the gun has become a common accessory just like

a cell phone and where one can only cross the town's numerous checkpoints with an obligatory a large bar to the winners this is a reality not hard to believe you. know everybody we are happy we are freedom good that feels good run away this is not true believe me because they are fair to all have a good laugh are turned back to tripoli you see the same people same people same personality they are supporting a revolution can bring much hope that what comes after you is often different. those who drove egypt's revolt this year are still on the streets this weekend seven months after toppling president mubarak and grief at the lack of progress on the reforms libya's future two still far from clear the post gadhafi libyan capital has been the scene of euphoria with celebrate three gunfire and singing heard here around the clock for more than

a fortnight already like all parties however some believe there could be a serious hangover after wards in the form of retribution and uncertainty as to how the future country will be governed region ocean r.t. tripoli libya. still ahead for you this disaster site see today interest travelers want first hand experience of the exclusions twenty is off to chernobyl's nuclear plant blast but the government says the tools are illegal. that story come but first television will continue to abide by its peace treaty with egypt despite the attack on its embassy in cairo that's according to israel's prime minister he spoke following the assault in which three people died in clashes with security forces on friday. stormed the compound in response to five egyptian officers being killed by israeli troops in a border clash last month meanwhile the turkish prime minister he's on a three day visit to current ones israel is facing growing regional isolation

because your search for latasha told me a little the two countries want to pressure and i.v. into abiding by international law. turkey and egypt is in the process of creating mutual understanding all regional areas and israel for sure is one part of the mutual understanding of what they want to do is just to drag israel into international law or in this scope of the international law the problem with the israeli government is they don't abide with international laws and they interpret interpret international law just for their sake for their interests that is the point and both countries at this moment want the once the israeli government to revise their policies are not in the process of delay due to my doing israel instead we are in the process of finding ways for israel to push israel

back to the international community. germany has called on euro zone members to stick together in an attempt to settle over the potential greek default the chance of the says that greece must stay aboard the blog to avoid causing a domino effect a statement came off the fears of greece declaring bankruptcy caused a show up for the global markets on monday it was triggered by reports that germany was preparing for greece to leave the euro zone i think has been struggling to bring its debt crisis under control despite the stringent of storage emissions financial journalist and weekly confidence that is no easy way out. and there are different ways that. the european central bank and the e.u. could go about dealing with a default in greece or an exit of greece portugal or some of the peripheral countries they could break the euro into two different types of euro but the fact that no one is willing to talk about that option openly and kind of admit that that's where we are with an unsustainable debt like greece has and now the fact

that you have a country the size of italy which is no longer really able to access the markets the way they're accessing it for the markets but the e.c.b. isn't there buying spanish debt so the fact that you have these countries on able to issue debt paper on their own is is frightening for the european union for the eurozone there is no real exit mechanism from the euro if you're part of the v.m. you are part of it supposedly for life ok and if so we saw how chaotic it was when argentina. default on its debt and exit of the dollar peg in the case of greece it's not even a peg they've given up their currency their french banks that are that are potentially on the hook with a lot of greek debt now who was exposed to those french banks then who's exposed the banks very close the french banks a lot of the banks prefer an environment like they've had now which is we can lever up as much as we want doesn't matter and if we lose we just get bailed out their their they have structurally adjusted their business model and their profit making mechanism to this new environment which has been perpetual bailouts that we've seen

since the one nine hundred eighty. in the meantime italy burdened by its own debt crisis has turned to china for a possible rescue top level talks were held with beijing off to italy moved closer to the epicenter of europe's financial turmoil treasury refused to give out details but it is understood that china was offered an option to buy a stake in the italian sovereign debt government is pushing a fifty four billion euro a sturdy package that includes changes to pensions government spending cuts and a special levy on the lower house of parliament is expected to approve it by when. it's been dubbed one of the most unusual tourist destinations and twenty five years after the chernobyl nuclear disaster the exclusion zone around the plant seems to be putting the crowds in rather than keeping them out ukrainian government however recently banned excursions to the contaminated area amid allegations officials were pocketing money from the business but as. you discovered with falling levels of

radioactivity there are new plans for the area. these cars were once heavily affected by nuclear radiation now the radiator for a different reason part of an exhibition in key of dedicated to the clear rubble of the nine hundred eighty six fallout over the year is the church of mobile museum in ukraine's capital kiev has become one of the top tourist attractions especially in april this year when the world marked the twenty fifth anniversary of the disaster but for those craving for the firsthand post-apocalyptic experience looking at the exhibition here has not been enough. and there is an adventurous alternative the contaminated zone around should know bill itself over the past decades tourists have been floor can hear more than ten thousand of them each year that's why forbes magazine named the dead zone one of the world's most exotic tourist destinations. alexander former resident of the ghost town of pretty bad has been organizing these

tours for several years he told us that visitors are always fascinated by what they see although their motivations for making the trip have always varied. look. people have different reasons. some want to see what an apocalypse could look like kind of someone to feel the history. some it's their childhood like the atmosphere union has been preserved but for me it's more important not to why they come here it's what effect it has on them. but since june that this radioactive tourism has been suspended the prosecutor general's office conducted checks and ruled that the emergencies ministry had broken the law with these trips as well as making an unhealthy profit every tourist to the zone has been paying around one hundred u.s. dollars to do so equating to a multi-million dollar revenue every year was. the ministry to inform the

government of every dollar earned by the strip we know that a lot of money is money but we have no idea. why not put the money into the budget and use it to solve the problems but. the ministry is defined it says it stuck by the law it claims these troops are a vital way of educating the world on how to avoid such disasters the chernobyl zone will never again be inhabited but experts say it could still serve other purposes. due to decontamination procedures almost half of there has acceptable levels of radiation and that's why we can use this watch on a complied spaces to build solar and wind power stations and even grow be a fuel there be emergencies ministry has now filed a lawsuit in a bid to resume tours to the contaminated zone and the court is expected to start hearings in mid september ukraine's thirty kilometers and you can hear wasteland will remain closed to the public until then but the debate remains very much open.

from kiev. in ukraine. the latest on the. a story in afghanistan now where reports coming from kabul say at least nine people have been killed and twenty three wounded in going taliban attack in the government and embassy district of the city the american diplomatic mission and nato coalition headquarters have come under heavy fire and several other sites in the city were also attacked including police stations and the office solve iran's press t.v. news channel insurgent stormed an occupied an empty high rise building from there they fired guns and rocket propelled grenades afghan and nato forces have surrounded the block and several insurgents are reported killed but at least one remains inside the building this comes just weeks after twelve people died in an attack on the british counsel's office in the same district let's get more insight now from investigative journalist gareth porter he's in the u.s. capital joining us live now on r.t.

garth good to see here on our team now washington and brussels have been quick to play down the kabul attack even before it's ended but just how concerned should they be with this. well i think they have to be very concerned because what this shows is once again over the last period of a year i would say or nearly a year the taliban have been able to strike targets that have made over and over again the same point which is that we are everywhere we cannot be kept out of the most supposedly the most secure places in afghanistan and really what they have been able to show is that they cannot be prevented from making their point and they are in fact it is very clear that they are in fact making a strong impact on the perceptions of afghans they are in fact controlling the war

narrative and i think that is something that the united states and nato are very concerned about well top afghan officials that in the government in kabul have allegedly been linked to some of these insurgents so is this a reflection of government policy in kabul or should the blame be laid on the security forces the u.s. and its allies and indeed the afghan security forces. well it's hard to say to what extent their ability to get into kabul itself into the very heart of kabul to hit the u.s. embassy and the u.s. nato had had quarters in kabul is related somehow to having an inside person a taliban figure who helped them from within the government what i can say is that many other. targets that have been hit by the taliban over the last several months have involved clearly the help of somebody within the the afghan government

security services they could not have done what they did without that help for example many people recall the escape from kandahar provincial prisons of several hundred prisoners clearly with the connivance of some people within the kandahar provincial prison system and then of course the assassination of president karzai brother while he karzai in kandahar which apparently does turn out to have been a case where he was in touch with the taliban and again underlines the point that the taliban have been making with their strategy that they have in fact been able to strike targets because they are afghans and they have afghan allies to help what about the timing of this is it to challenge the transition all of the power of the

u.s. and to be a force is the security over to the afghan security services and if that's the case surely this is a message saying it's too late even to think about withdrawing one of those forces and handing power over to the afghan officials. well i think that's certainly part of the calculation that is being made here that this would have an impact on the opinion and politics surrounding this trans the so-called transition but i think it's clearly a larger strategic calculus that underlies just overall strategy of hitting targets that make this point politically you cannot keep us out of these most sensitive places we can hit the highest level and most sensitive targets that are present in afghanistan and it's because we have the help of people inside the afghan government security services so so i think that it's really a response to the u.s.

effort to try to persuade afghans and americans both the u.s. military presence the surge of troops and the special operations raids have in fact harmed the taliban of hurt the taliban so much that they cannot maintain the pressure that they had been maintaining up to about the beginning of that surge just briefly at this is one attack in kabul today but nato does say that many areas that are now enjoying some sort of stability in the country this attack can be taken as a reflection of the state of security throughout all of afghanistan can it and indeed perhaps reflect on the future that we all actually going to see continued instability there. well in fact of course kabul is far more secure relatively speaking than most of the country that is particularly the south and east including those provinces that are immediately abutting the capital area for

example ward back and gaza and provinces are just just below. the capital right next to the capital and these are promises where we know that the taliban have in fact been making a gradual but very definite strides in terms of increasing their military pressure is military operations because these are not areas where the united states has a lot of troops so so i think that the reality is that kabul is much less subject to the military pressures of the taliban than most of almost all of the south but in fact nevertheless despite the heavy presence of afghan and u.s. troops in the background there are they are able to strike targets and make a political point ok kathleen at that point to hear what you have to say thank you for your time current point and joining us live in washington. it was

a new day to struggle to restore security in libya there's growing concern about the massive number of weapons on the streets and been speaking to a former u.n. arms expert about the challenge of disarming civilians peacefully that interview is coming up very shortly stay with us live in. with all the talk about diplomacy the power of the gun still remains the primary means of solving international conflicts to discuss the current state of arms trade

and. we're now joined by the former u.n. expert on those issues brian johnson thank you very much for being with us today let's start with in the beginning of the uprising of the revolution whatever you call it there were concerns that there may fall into the hands of terrorists has already happened. because it's easier for guns to root leaving. most of the guns that were looted in the nine hundred ninety just still missing. in the hands of criminals as much as in the hands of terrorists. start off by being legally married and legally so but at some point. in the case of libya. a lot of the rebels were until fairly recently. that is being in league with al qaida in some cases so that is similar to what they might

do with them that is you know going on as they should go take all kinds of democracy which would always take an interest in what happens in libya and once you get support for the revolution of any sort then you tend to do some control of some of the individuals within it now prior to the uprising russia was one of the main suppliers of flappers to libya. but as far as i know it was not the only one and some of the countries that are now waging a campaign a military campaign against colonel gaddafi are also supplying weapons to his regime quite openly yes because it's interesting isn't it that if you look at the the moral record to the west in these things is notable for the good we've seen to intervene in. iraq and libya because they've got something we want i don't see anyone having any great desire to go and invade syria and dispose of a president thought so maybe he's got nothing nobody wants human so i think that's

where real politic comes into play but yes there was a decision taken for whatever reason to support the libyan uprising even though the same countries did go to the security council and get a resolution which in part imposed an arms above you they then went a long long way beyond those terms of reference you could argue the bombing campaign itself was pushing the envelope what sort of measures do you think the libyan authorities daily been authorities could take an audience here to crazed the . percentage of votes for them the population i mean maybe buying them out there or are offering some sort of surrender campaign or find buying guns back is a city that says there's not a good i mean i've been bold and several sort of buy about campaigns with guns that they're not just credited when there's one occasion i was working i want to browse a hole in the congo going to go twenty years ago on a day and i forget the price but we were paying seventy five dollars shall we say

a gun when the problem was on the other side of the congo river you could buy the fifty books some people were actually bringing guns for the country became a sort of business becomes a business this is the rent of the get the bounty so they then tried different ways around this by saying well as a community as a child there was a village if you as a weapon sit on the forests we'll build you when you build shelter and you put states no stuff like that so that seems to work better in some ways i have to say that the problem of getting weapons at the circulation is much more difficult than people tend to think when in kosovo it just failed totally it was a very very expensive campaign and that was it was embarrassing you know and everyone looked like a look at it like made it to the end of it it is easier not to get guns or to circulate. so nomination because i'm going to schmooze happy it's both. and you can have more success and there's no point have you going to him going i'm going to sion so many ways so domination is the key to controlling lawson's weapons if they

can get out of a notion of the i'm going to is no good to them ok fine i have a question regarding their recent allegations or theories that some countries may be. illegally selling arms to rebel us i know that the french have admitted dropping weapons to some rebel groups and posted separately which is on the face but it's a breach of the security council resolution which one can only do pull. particularly when a permanent member of the security council goes wrong frothing resolution they voted for i think it's a bit about show but you know real the real world is sometimes not a last place to be in. a british foreign secretary back and he century said that once that britain has no permanent friends i mean you couldn't interests i think that's true of every country is true of russia is true but it's true to americans on the french so people will look to their interests as they see them at the time but yes it's about thing with the united nations system is not perfect but i would

it and for its and i'm one of warehouse paintings but by going to specter that nothing else which is the best system we have and i think it's better he unfortunate with the member states of the security council then he ignores the resolutions they voted for us brian johnson thomas thank you very much for your time pleasure. and.

this is our top stories now that the u.s. will remain on a strategic defense pact that will now. rise the deployment of ballistic missile interceptors in rumania moscow. legal guarantees of the system will not be aimed at russia. germany attempts to calm fears over greece's potential default urging members of the eurozone to stick together and stormy skies a looming debt stricken. libya's transitional forces have given residents of the perceived good daffy strongholds two days to leave and face an.