well welcome to you watching r t it's just after ten pm now here in moscow this friday evening my name's kevin zero in and first tonight kosovo as prime ministers announce that the breakaway region has introduced customs control on its border with serbia that's a move strongly opposed by belgrade local serbs have been trying to prevent it by blocking roads leading to the two border posts and hundreds of them of protest against the move in the northern city of mitrovica our correspondent sara firth is they'll be catching up with her just a little bit later on in the program meantime political analyst alexander private says the nato led mission in kosovo assisting the breakaway republic in installing customs controls is violating the original un mandate. ok for meeting nato have absolutely overstepped their mandate their un mandate is clear they're

supposed to be neutral down there they're supposed to be keeping the peace they're not supposed to be taking anyone's side they're clearly taking the albanian side the secession is the government increased tonight the capital of kosovo and so this is bound to stir trouble and they've openly sided with them together with the western countries the western powers that are sitting in the security council so caution toci has a lot to thank for as far as they're concerned we have the security council we have five states each with veto power we have three western states and two non western states in the security council with veto power so really if the west decides to support any unilateral action. you can't stop it and you can't give a mandate to the u.n. to do anything about it because either the united states great britain and france will put a veto veto to it so it's not surprising they've been sponsoring kosovo independence

for years now and they're actually thinking that they're entering the endgame now and they're actually doing a hard push for it right now. it was still trying to establish the connection with sarah furthur measure of it so when we get to it we will bring it to you and get some more comment from her but meantime we invited your comments your thoughts on the story on our website r.t. dot com tonight the question is what do you think belgrade should do about costs of a now this is what it's telling us the majority of you think the best way out is to simply take it back from the albanians but ten percent of you suggesting tonight that recognizing kosovo or joining the e.u. is the way forward. others of either thinking belgrade should repent treat all serbs and simply just forget about it and a minority of you so it's good to get your views saying serbia should just build a concrete wall at the border what's your take on the story log on to r.t. dot com and have your say. this to another libya see what's happening there the latest and the latest is that fierce fighting is underway for the few remaining

strongholds of well most gadhafi loyalists rebel forces claim they've launched offensive on certain bunny were laid back by tanks and heavy weapons as well as a nato air shield that israel for not is in libya for us with the latest for you. we're hearing from the national transitional council here in the capital tripoli that its troops have apparently entered the city of sirte some five hundred kilometers east of tripoli that off his hometown and one of the colonel's last strongholds the m.t.c. report that at least four of its fighters eleven and other reports have been killed during these offensive seven others wounded and also there is information that forty could often loyalist have been captured and since there are several reports that this information chief dr muesli brigade would have been one of them but this information is very hard to verify fighting over another center of gadhafi supporters bani walid some two hundred kilometers south of the capital tripoli continues meanwhile concerns over security safety of civilians trapped in the

cities and the areas where the clashes between the rebels and gadhafi loyalists opened meanwhile the u.n. is expected to ease sanctions against libya visiting the country on thursday british prime minister david cameron and a french president nicolas sarkozy have said that they would introduce a u.n. security council draft resolution which expects to abolish international arms embargo and freeze libyan asses that. had been frozen as part of sanctions against gadhafi also stylish mission u.n. mission here in the country leaders of the two nato countries that played a prominent a key role in the libyan revolution have also said that nato mission here on the ground will continue for as long as it is necessary to protect civilians here in libya meanwhile some are skeptical about the real aims of this mission as it's more loops right now like the rabble and helping them take control over the rest of the

country rather than protecting civilians so yes now a little bit far from its initial go roof national correspondent libya well as the british prime minister the parts there after celebrating the end of gadhafi is full . the two year rule anger is growing in the u.k. over the arms fair that once hosted the colonel when he was stocking up with new military hardware critics say it's one of the world's biggest weapon sales foes in fact and that it provided libya's ousted leader with the means to launch his deadly crackdown on the opposition and artie's of a bennett's been investigating some prominent dictators have been shopping around for arms in london to. selling weapons could be a moral minefield but not here this is the world's biggest arms fire and a massive earner for the british economy the government's putting its conscience aside as international delegates shop for tanks rocket launchers and missiles so long as business is being done here it doesn't seem to matter who's buying this is

guest list includes countries like saudi arabia and bahrain both regimes that violently suppressed demonstrations earlier this year bahrain was accused of opening fire on its own armed citizens in february saudi arabia sent its national guard in to help driving arm and vehicles made by be a systems the u.k.'s largest defense company its products on display here would be a home in any bond film this tank can alter its temperature to changes infrared appearance but like the british government the company can't change its spots it says there are countries it won't sell to but that doesn't include any here if a country's been invited by the british government here it's it's probably going to be on your list of countries who are able to sell to. make sense of. these right to cells as a result regimes like bahrain that have repressed democratic process. that will try

because. these protesters from the stop the arms fair coalition they are angry it's going ahead despite the recent crackdowns in libya in egypt both former customers of britain using their purchases against their own people we're paying the price now in the mediterranean because we sold weapons deny all the countries that are now experiencing the arab spring i think is short sighted it's bad for this country it doesn't make money it makes wars why it's here to get this year's shoppers include fourteen country. he's branded all thora tarion by human rights groups in fact the government came clean on just one day before trade began i'm sure they're very embarrassed because of the one china did factory. david cameron was going to be walking around terrier square claiming his belief in human rights and freedom and democracy and the next stop was kuwait and it turned out he was travelling with

eight company executives but the whole purpose of the trip this trade one of the big traits or tried to make was weapons straight to the middle east the government says it's tightening restrictions on who can buy weapons that could be used for oppression and he claims an invite here doesn't guarantee an export license but if it is big business for britain it generated twenty two billion pounds for the economy last year and the case now the second biggest weapons exporter in the world . with money like that up for grabs turning customers away empty handed may prove difficult after bennett r.t. london. syria's regular demonstrations after friday prayers of turned into violent clashes with police local activists say around twenty protesters have been killed the bloodshed hasn't stopped thousands from pouring out of the streets across the country though taking the uprising against present the seventy seven month the real

story behind the syrian rage is the subject of our debate show cross-talk coming up very shortly in just one hour's time in fact it's a taster of what's in store for. the syrian government has spun it out that the opposition so many elements within the opposition have been armed by outside forces particularly the united states as well as israel are they claim that they have a confession from a former our journal from syria who defected and he's going to be featured on syrian television are very soon i don't know anyone who believes the syrian government now if the syrians now play. syrian government i don't know any nation in the world who takes serious word to syria the syrian government said if they are telling the truth then allow the media to syria allow the media into the squares along the myriad media to see the troops moving down innocent people like pacifist people and all roses to soldiers if they don't allow the media in because they know they can massacre and torture and brutalize

a lot more people if they don't allow the media in nobody believes the syrian government not even in fact the people the syrian government. you. know a top story the promise to just to recap the story again if you just to dig kosovo's probably this is announced that the breakaway region has introduced customs control its borders serbia that we've been strongly opposed by belgrade local serbs been trying to stop it by blocking roads leading to the two border posts hundreds of the protested indeed against the move in the northern city of mitrovica that's where our correspondent sort of firth is tonight so good to get the connection with eventually people protesting as i just mentioned there in madrid since today what is the mood now tonight that these controversial customs controls as i've reported have been in store. well days t.

to speak hit border crossings the main blocks tonight the ethnic sides have barricaded the rights leading up to them protesting of course the cost the government the take a that they placed now way here in mit's of it which is the ethnically divided town and the bridge that defies the north and serbian possibly town on the southern albanian part it's a day barricade had around three thousand serbs turned out to man that barricade and we saw a very similar thing happening at the teach exploits that one would try having in earlier we were at one of the checkpoints and from the other side we could see. the case full force is on the ground and what we've heard is that earlier today. ok for forces and your legs were lifted by helicopter to those checkpoints also the albanian cause the police they've only actually got to. each of the checkpoints at the moment and that only for the time being in an observatory role now of course

the plan is for them to eventually take a the control and that's what much of this dispute vests on now amid concerns of a repeat of what we saw in july when violent clashes over the course think of a making a move to try and take this place resulted in the death of a policeman is actually being relatively quiet here today what we've seen is a huge number of the serbian i think seven it's turning out at these barricades but what we've got at the moment is a standoff situation is being called a war of nerves because what you've got here image of the barricades at both the checkpoints at the barricades is the serbian protest is and then make a full force is at the actual crossings themselves at the no one wants to make me the case full force is they want to make me have to break up the barricades to fair sparking violence and the serbian protest is for exactly the same reasons they don't want to be preventing violence like i ever made to be seen really what happens naething forward from here of course everyone very very keen to avoid the

situation repeat of what happened in july. the united nations security council holding yesterday an emergency meeting knows at the request of belgrade and russia now no final decisions were really made from that there are a lot of countries that were unwilling really to make a statement russia and belgrade warning that this move to take a visit if i wish you could really provoke further bloodshed there's a lot of concern about that now what is very very clear is that as the. still consider the course of the breakaway turchin. parts of serbia a kind. independence in two thousand and eight that this is still a very very controversial issue in the east the putting a lot of pressure on belgrade to normalize ties with course if they what we see in the situation here today and over the past couple of months is that this does really a very complex very divisive issue and certainly it's got a long wait for it's going to be resolved here returns times where your sort of

first we're of course the station with your help to bring the best coverage on this story of reporting from motivation in kosovo thank you very much. energy news now european energy giants have signed up to bring the long planned south stream gas pipeline a step closer to reality the pipeline would run under the black sea and be another means of pumping russian gas directly into europe just like the nord stream network that was opened earlier this month i teased me to have a drink has got the latest on this from such. the fact that gazprom has signed the shareholder agreement with its european partners companies from france italy and germany means that russia is indeed one step closer to realizing the transportation of gas from russia underneath the black sea to bulgaria and then eventually to austria and italy so directly to european consumers and this one step gives it an extreme advantage over rival project in the bucco pipeline which is outlined to

deliver gas from central asia to europe and this has spurred concerns from europe for european of dorothy's about the security of energy in europe and we have heard a comment from. the year european energy commissioner saying that this makes europe more reliant on russian gas and therefore this is jeopardizing energy security in europe on the other hand actually the fact that russia will be delivering gas starting from zero twenty fifteen directly to european consumers means that actually energy security will be fortified as energy deliveries will be secured and russia won't have to deal with transit countries like ukraine which have created problems with deliveries to europe in the past also we have heard an offer of from kiev victory in the college the president has said suggested having the south stream go not underneath the black sea but through ukraine's territory

making it cheap by gazprom a said there's no point in doing that because the whole goal of the pipeline is to bypass transit countries. we don't know about that story on our websites and i doubt also a business bulletin coming up in about five minutes time. no we're not going to give this story we're going to do something else who already talked about kosovo let's talk about taiwan that's right president obama's approval new. arms package for taiwan in a movie expected to anger china the estimated four point two billion dollars deal reportedly include weapons and equipment to upgrade the breakaway islands f. sixteen jets that's talk more about that then go to london and talk to independent arms trade expert part of the pace to place very good evening to thanks for being at r.t. international the debate about selling arms to taiwan has been going on for a couple of years now in the us what do you think influenced this latest decision now in favor of that step and you know legal is this decision at the end of the day

. well i think the decision is a product partly of the u.s. as for imports in east asia obviously and its relationship with china but in the u.s. to master policy a great deal of inside of influence has come from arms companies and what won't be broadly taught because of the military industrial complex in the us that level of influence from private arms companies and let's face it this is a private arms deal that is only benefiting arms manufacturers and their profit margins is highly concerning for any us citizen or indeed anyone else in the world when it's determining us foreign policy. the u.s. is not over selling weapons to feuding countries does not equate to taking sides in conflicts across the world often even aggravating them. this could be argued certainly yes i mean our. exports from the us should be done with respect for human rights for not aggravating or provoking conflicts and not prolonging conflicts

unfortunately as you say the real. the real objective view on the matter is that the us does routinely arm repressive regimes tensions across the world in fact it's surprising that we're talking about taiwan today where as indeed there's a lot more grievous examples of this arguably that happened all the time with massive arms deals to saudi arabia to qatar and indeed the us isn't the only culprit when it comes to this the u.k. russia france china all nearly equally bad in in arming repressive regimes and stoking international tensions the fact is that more arms in the world doesn't help many people but it does pump the profits from arms manufacturers you say and this is a private deal and it is but a lot of pressure put on because it's worth so much the american economy but what's it going to do for relations between america and china i mean the above ministrations often said that military ties with china were a high priority and now the u.s. arms package is going to be sent to taiwan is this going to go down to china. or

presumably it's not going to go down very well my understanding is this is a compromise deal and i'm no expert on the chinese domestic politics but i doubt it will go down well but what you were saying actually about the the arms deal benefic the us economy to such a great deal probably actually isn't the case the us arms trade is heavily subsidized by the government and i said there was a private doing it benefiting private companies but it is most likely done with a very heavy government involvement probably through a government to government deal probably through government backed loans and in any case these arms manufacturers receive very heavy government subsidy and so in fact the jobs and the economic argument that's used in putting forward arms deal was low . like this will cross most world tend to be very. heavily skewed in favor of the arms deal where is the real economic benefits don't tend to be anywhere near as large as the promise to be really good to get your take in your insight on this

story explaining it for us part of the pace independent arms trade expert on the line from london tonight thank you. thank you. the larger community we want for nothing life is easy work is plentiful one such place did exist in remote russian post but not anymore it's not even indeed within russian borders anymore it's actually on the norwegian archipelago called spitsbergen and it wants embodied the soviet dream a system where everyone's needs were provided for but in a series of special reports this week for r.t. exam the boy visited what was meant to be communism's example of a bright future. it's one of the seagull colonies in the arctic. restless there's the old in sun the birds called the on land in search of food for their young noisy and really like old because families the sequels of the last reminder of the one family atmosphere that once permeated this arctic island this apartment block was built specifically to house families and while adults were out

working kids were left to their own devices running down hallways and banging doors local residents usually referred to this building as the crazy house across the street was a dormitory for single female workers nicknamed perry's given russian women's ondine infatuation with everything french a bit further weight was a male dormitory also known as london supposedly for the gentle mentors of its inhabitants during its best years the settlement housed more than a thousand people to date it's a ghost town but the spirit of communism lurks in the band and buildings. this settlement was called pyramid because of the cone like mountains surrounding it thirty years ago it had the highest living standards soviet people could dream off salaries two to three times higher than in the mainland free food around vibrant social life in many ways it was

a task for the brighter future that soviet people were trying to build. the world's northernmost statue of man in steel piers into the nearby glacier most of the pyramids residents worked at a coal mine it was never really profitable he had maintained for the sake of keeping the soviet presence at this place archipelago half way between north america and western europe. but only an outpost this western most soviet settlement was also an ideological showcase for capitalist rivals and no resources were spared to. to dash a concert hall a library a rock band and even this half size olympic pool people here are reliving the true salvi a dream you have the best hopes the almost overnight when the soviet union fell apart all of a sudden people of pyramid realized that their perfect life was just bad jew political pyramid based on faulty economy and shaky ideology in

a few years the film that arctic buried there is turned into an island nightmare people who were used to eating caviar for breakfast had to turn to hunting to put food on the table one of the families back down and left abandoning pyramid in all its grandstanding glory this pillar was erected here with much pomp on the settlements thirty of her fortieth anniversary only to become with the grave stone decades later when the last batch of coal was extracted from the local mine workers just laughed and here it was their way of raking over the coals for the life that always seemed too good to be true. are at sea pyramid spitzbergen archipelago. tomorrow as well is twenty five minutes away tonight from the latest for our sports update with kate a suburb so that's culture with the business next marina.

hello and welcome to business here on our top story today is of course russia's international investment forum and sought to see where the money is starting to roll in as deals get struck representatives from thirty five countries are in the black sea resort looking for investment opportunities ludmer putin made a speech at the forum and are seized with some of the gentle has the main points for us. well indeed the highlight of the day at the sochi international investment forum was of a thing of putin's view on the macroeconomic situation and what's interesting is that despite the ongoing turmoil on the markets and sovereign debt woes in europe and the united states this year it was a pretty upbeat that if a person said that russia's economy will come back to pre-crisis state in the twenty twelve that is next year that russia will see inflation of no more than seven percent this year according to the central bank inflation will actually gradually decrease by around half

a percentage point over the next three years and that russia will see a gross domestic product increase of four percent on average in the next three years when it comes to investments coming into russia vladimir putin's best buy but there's a certain type of investment that russia needs let's listen to what he had to say. that he must strive not only to grow the economy but to improve economic efficiency through the development of production and innovation we need to change the structure of the economy our common goal is not to be a safe haven for speculative capital russia should create all the conditions for so-called smart investments into creating and producing high tech. and surprisingly enough political groups and also said that russia will most likely meet its budget to have a balanced budget by the end of the year so we have a zero budget and next year the deficit might be one and a half percent but if the macroeconomic situation changes for example world prices grow we might see

a balanced budget next year too well apart from the most important deal and that is of course the widely discussed shareholder group of three gas chrome and its european partners italy's any france's e.d.f. and germany's winters hole has also been a wide range of deals are connected with the cross and our region where sochi is located but also the sochi investment forum is a perfect platform for companies to present themselves as developing and expanding and earlier business r.t. talked. to the head of lukoil the head of you said that oil is planning to expand its operations purchasing upstream businesses in the united states and in asia and will also increase production overseas. in the next ten years we'll concentrate on projects like west to iraq that will significantly change the structure and volume of oil production in twenty fifteen we're implementing a project in the north of the caspian sea which will also increase in production we think that in ten years our company will increase hydrocarbon production by twenty to thirty percent. so indeed such investment form has so once again proven to be

a perfect platform to talk about the macroeconomic situation in russia but also sign major deals and make new contacts and share ideas. and here is a look at the markets european stocks closed higher for a fourth day about speculation of coordinated action by policymakers who would be able to ease the region's that crisis banking shares let the games on the foot see that's for russia the markets end of the trading session in the red analysts say investors were hesitant to make big moves as the finance minister summit in poland and let's take a look at some of the in the movers on the y. sacks and originators were under pressure with gas from just under one percent in the red financial stocks were also down with losing point six percent and bucking the trend was burbank after reports this privatization is still possible this year . not all business looks the sour buy for the.

and our top stories tonight. powerless to prevent. public. control of the border. roads leading to the. remaining strongholds. when the back.