bring you today's top stories and a look back at the week's news turning first to libya where fierce fighting rages on between pro and anti kadafi forces loyalist troops are making a last stand in three cities that are under heavy assault by a relentless raw rebel fight who is being backed up who are backing the country's new government sirte bani walid and now witnessing house to house battles with hundreds of civilians caught in the crossfire it's not colonel gadhafi who is still on the run could be hiding in one of the besieged cities meanwhile life is returning to a kind of normal in the capital or if an ocean there are some libyans who already want gadhafi back. and months after tripoli fell into rebels' hands those who backed the old regime remain defiant fearful in parts of the city the rebels triumphant campaign feels like it's never happened or did so somewhere else. that we will do anything from our only moammar even if we have to give our own lives.

seven support for the ousted leader does solve once they see our camera. like what we're telling me how could you tell the camera why. it's the same situation with others two. hundred percent good we don't want this revolution we don't know the rebels we want them to go away. we are from television so i couldn't tell it on camera no no thanks to five pm front of the camera they will send the bullet to my well no the criminals you don't know them you call them the rebels hey guys do you remember the black guy he was arrested a few days ago after here appeared on t.v. don't do that new flags new slogans new speeches. the rebels were out celebrating again this week when they had of the national transitional council libya's new authority arise in the capital before large crowds leaving libyans in

no doubt about who's really. those who don't support mr fahd those only you and who we used to see all across the city proudly waving green flags just weeks ago backing khadafi now trying not to leave their own backyards here there. would. be a very. tough it is effectively gone they knew all sorts. have settled down here in the capital tripoli people are chanting that is a new free country but it seems that there is a police one thing that still remains of all the bear fear. one youngster finally agrees to talk. tripoli is now under the control of the national transitional council and we don't feel we have freedom to talk or to express an

opinion if we see something in favor of gadhafi they can kill us and the rest of us of course money or in the future. the nineteen year old says many of his friends have been arrested recently for making critical statements about a new regime ironically we're talking just a kilometer away from one of the dock is top secret jails for political prisoners known as abu salim though they have been the rebels they only represent themselves not the libyan people this revolution started with the killings to intimidate through fear their homes are covered in blood and misty international has recently accused both gadhafi regime and the one which you place to offer committing war crimes including killings and torture of military prisoners i'm civilians these are being felt by some here that more his in-store. reach notion r t three

pally libya nato is pledging to keep up its airstrikes to support and take out your forces for as long as it sees fit with news new governing body also gets a seat at the u.n. soon british and french leaders recently paid a visit to the national transitional council this week but africa analysts that are you know me as a q we think there is more to do more to do with securing deals than securing peace . the national transition council would have never been able to get outside of benghazi if it had not been for the support of the united states as well as the nato forces they have supplied these rebels with arms with diplomatic cover then of course there was the so-called no fly zone over libya which has really been a massive bombing operation against that country of six million people it's a very very tense situation that exists right now all over the country the fact that they have not been able to take over areas in the western part of libya such

as bani walid and sirte and. is very much indicative of the fact that this war is by no means settled the visit on a part of cosi of france and david cameron of britain this is an attempt to shore up this. takeover of the most all rich and the most prosperous country on the after the continent. commentary there from u.s. based africa analyst i you know me as i can wait. moscow is reiterating its deep concerns over plans to house u.s. missiles in poland following the announcement that parts of the defense shield could be in place by twenty eighteen the foreign ministry in moscow said saturday that urgent talks with nato are necessary as well as hard guarantees that russian security won't be at risk or saw and washington's outline for putting missiles on polish soil follows you'll see all this week with romania and turkey who agreed to host parts of america's missile defense system us and says it's designed to counter

possible attacks from iran or north korea peace analyst bruce gagnon tells r t that's not what the shield is all about the u.s. is using nato and nato expansion as the i think the ploy or the carrot to draw you know other countries like turkey in romania making them feel like they're going to be taken care of by the european union. but clearly what we're talking about here is major tensions in the region between the united states missile defense deployments that are now going into poland. turkey and other countries in the coming years as well as nato expansion throughout the region we're seeing basically the encirclement of russia at the same time the u.s. is doing the same thing to china with its bases in missile defense deployments in japan south korea okinawa the u.s. is deploying patriot missile defense systems on their i want and so this is clearly

about trying to control the contain both russia and china. more of the week's top stories still to come including the storage the launch of iran's first nuclear plant. the russian built to share but still it is successfully wired into the into iran's national grid with the deal to send the spent fuel rod so it can be used to make atomic weapons. south of the south stream streams ahead european energy majors signed up to the second project to get russian gas directly into europe but some still want to keep their supplier options open till it's plainly and. before we get to that the u.k. and russia made moves to patch things up between them with a visit to the kremlin by british prime minister david cameron this week leaders of both countries agreed that they're on resolving issues shouldn't get in the way of progress it was the first official visit to russia by a british pm in six years relations between the two soured over the murder of former f.s.b. officer alexander litvinenko in london in two thousand and six but david cameron

and to be remitted have agreed the case should not hold back their partnership dr patrick fuller who's worked extensively in science and technology projects between the u.k. and russia sees big potential ahead. russia's taken the first steps in establishing the new business center at skolkovo establishing what is going to be i suppose a kind of silicon valley there and british involvement in that is going to be absolutely key in terms of development companies development business and helping russian high tech businesses expand outside russia into markets in europe russia remains a kind of aladdin's cave weather up all kinds of interesting things to be found the legacy of the soviet research institutes and a first rate mathematics science and engineering education system means that there are all kinds of people ideas intellectual property that remain in russia to be

discovered and exploited them that i think is really key to the interesting future but. russia has in store in this whole area as ethnic tensions on serbia's border with a breakaway kosovo mount belgrade chief negotiator is urging for calm on both sides to find a diplomatic solution violence broke out after kosovo police backed by a nato led forces took over two disputed border posts that were previously under serb control r.t. sara for a thousand more. you can see the sign put up by the k full forces it's a warning to the ethnics protest is ok for the nato peacekeeping mission has been working here at the border points with you like they go there bob wire fence is out they've got the sandbags as well and still a number of protesters that have been staying at the barricade of these disputed border points not so many at the moment but they've made it very very clear that if

anyone tries to remove the barricades that they've made that they're willing to defend and there'll be lots more people coming to the defense as well take a vote of these control points what they see the essex population here in the north as an extension of kristina's control over the disputed territory now amid concerns repeat of what we saw in july when filing clashes over the course of the government . to try and take place resulted in the death of a policeman is actually being relatively quiet here what we've seen is a huge number of serbian. turning out at these barricades but what we've got at the moment is the standoff situation is being called a war of nerves because the base the checkpoints at the barricades is the serbian protesters and then the case full force is at the actual crossing themselves at the no one wants to make a meal and all day the way it's being quite diplomatic from what we've heard of a side this calls for calm and for peace but of course the actions these seem quite

different and there still seems to be a lot of hostility between both sides that needs to be resolved political analyst our words under-powered says the nato led mission in kosovo is violating the u.n. mandate or failing to maintain neutrality. 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 i mean one side they're clearly taking the albanian side these the session is the government in the capital of kosovo we have the security council we have five states each with veto power we have three western states and two non western states so really if the west decides to support any unilateral action. you can't stop 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. as commentary from political analyst alexander paddock in belgrade. iran's first nuclear energy plant went online monday the only such facility in the entire middle east russian built reactors are working at forty percent capacity right now and should reach full potential in december moscow says it will continue to provide help and fuel for the plant till iran can take full control in two thousand and fifteen western nations have long been worried about the country's atomic program claiming it's a cover for making nuclear bombs and weapons which tehran has repeatedly denied political science political scientist alley photo and as yod from university of london tells r.t. that without evidence iran has a right to peaceful nuclear energy. we have now a decades long standoff between iran and the west and over it the iranian

nuclear program this has been very hyped up. the nuclear issue for political reasons in order to be able to garner support to put pressure on iran if you cannot control or influence a country you might go for isolation and weakening of the country in the best way to do that is through economic sanctions economic sanctions and if we just listen to the most authoritative source when it comes to analyzing the iranian nuclear program which is the international atomic energy agency and if we read their reports we see that there is no evidence for any weaponization and also this is confirmed by numerously and on numerous occasions by the u.s. intelligence services and very recently so as well so the world has to face that iran as other developed countries has a nuclear program which is peaceful according. to all the evidence that we have. stay with us here on r t still ahead this hour the italian town that wants to run

from rome fed up with battered by the rest italy's floundering economy one sleepy little community it's a siding to go it alone plus. taking an exclusion excursion meet the sure noble tourists who are endangering their health for a holiday despite radiation risks. but first russia and its key are a p. and gas customers sealed a twenty five billion dollar energy deal this week the soon to be built south stream pipeline will pop russian gas straight into europe around moscow has spent the last four years agreeing on the details with its partners who want guarantees of nonstop supplies the flow had been disrupted several times in the past along current pipelines due to spats between russia and transit countries belarus and ukraine south stream will deliver gas along the bottom of the black sea bypassing any possible political barriers german french and italian firms have now signed up to the project which is due to be finished by twenty fifteen and energy analyst

julian elise says europe is still wary of becoming too dependent on russia nobody in europe is suggesting that russia will not be a major and probably the major supplier of gas to europe now and in the future that's not seen dispute. what you're trying to do is to add. variety to souless of gas supply he doesn't want to become overly dependent on russian gas in exactly the same way to be doesn't want to become a legally dependent on north african gas or indeed on north sea guess what he's seeking to do is to find a balance between a variety of suppliers delivering gas through variety of routes and nobody's disputing among that variety russian will ease and will continue to be was the most important. the greek prime minister has canceled a trip to the u.n.

general assembly meetings in the u.s. to deal with his country's worsening debt battle greece only has enough cash to see if the next few weeks and eurozone finance ministers are for now sitting on the eight billion euro second bailout payment they say the country is falling behind on its spending cut targets and as mr series of important deadline greece will now have to wait till october to find out whether it will get a second lower and says it's on the verge of being a unable to repay the interest on its massive debt or some experts though it's too late to save the greek economy and it must exit the euro zone. of the greek economy is in an outright depression now g.d.p. is shrinking at the moment seven to eight percent and you will basis unemployment is officially at sixteen percent but the reality is more close to twenty five percent what we hear from people from the i.m.f. informally is that the budget situation is out of control so there's

no way did the greek and greece can escape from this situation unless there's a somewhat orderly exit from the eurozone followed by a huge devaluation of the new greek currency i think we have passed the point now where we can argue that we can see for greece within the euro zone greece to exit it can be organized in an orderly way but the risk is of course that there will be contagion in the direction of countries like for example poor to go maybe i will and of course i'm not even mentioning here that would be an enormous problem countries like spain. meanwhile across the ionian sea italy's parliament has agreed on a fifty four billion euro package of cuts to try and stop the rot from engulfing europe's third largest economy this includes changes to pensions reducing government spending at a tax on the rich but it's a step too far for a summer talian societies ivor bennett discovered a town that is turning its back on in rome. welcome to filipino

a small town in the middle of italy that also claims to be an independent principality and to prove it it's even started printing its own money the man on the new note says town mayor lucas a lhari now self-proclaimed prince i guess everyone dreams of being a prince when they're a little boy and so did i now i get to live that dream filipinos going solo in protest over government plans to slash council funding it wants small towns to merge having the number of local authorities with a population of just six hundred phila teano and its mayor for the chop. it's a terrible idea because it makes no economic sense we have everything here to be autonomous and besides our neighboring towns are at least thirty kilometers away so it's not practically possible it wouldn't even save that much money most regional administrations do nothing to get rid of them instead italy's in deep debt one

hundred twenty percent of g.d.p. the second highest in europe but unions a furious with the cuts accusing the government of punishing those already at their poorest even some of silvio berlusconi's own allies now oppose them with amendments piling up but filipinos fed up determined to be the next san marino a constitutional republic within italy that has no national debt a rare thing in europe the methinks the town can live off its natural resources of wood and water but currently profits go to private companies there are constitutional hurdles but since autonomy is not illegal it could just be a matter of time at the moment there is no exam legal tender just souvenirs but the plan is for two theory to be worth one euro and for this to be the only currency they could be spent in the shops and restaurants here be. business is always been slow in this sleepy town but shopkeepers hope the new money will bring new cash.

i'm sure that once we start using the new currency the economic situation here will significantly improve it will have a positive effect on tourism of course attracting more people to the town so far from being a p.r. stunt filipino means business and berlusconi knows it he's visiting the town later this month to stave off the rebellion and he'll have a fight on his hands villa tino's the source of rome's water supply and the mayor is threatening to cut it off if he doesn't get what he wants after bennett's artsy filipino italy of all the places you might expect on a list of the world's most exotic tourist destinations the sure noble nuclear disaster site makes a surprising appearance twenty five years after the world's worst nuclear accident the exclusion zone seems to be pulling people in or other than driving them away but as our teams like sarah shahi reports from ukraine the hazardous holidays are

a double edged sword. 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 up of the nine hundred eighty six chernobyl fallout over the years the chernobyl 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 not bill itself over the past decade 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 a former resident of the goes down of prepared has been organizing these tours for several years he told us that visitors are always fascinated by what they see

although all their motivations for making the trip have always varied. look. you people have different reasons. some want to see what an apocalypse could look like. someone to feel the history. for some it's their childhood like the atmosphere of the soviet union has been preserved but for me it's more important not why they come here but it was 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 another healthy 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. we urge the ministry to inform the

government of every dollar earned by these trips we know that a lot of money has been made but we have no idea in whose pockets it ended up why not put the money into the budget and use it to solve the problems. 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 their air has acceptable levels of radiation that's why we can use this large spaces to build solar and wind power stations and even grow be a fuel their emergencies ministry has now filed a lawsuit in a bid to resume tours through the contaminated zone and the court is expected to start hearings in mid september ukraine's thirty kilometer nuclear wasteland will remain closed to the public until then with the debate remains very much open.

looks you are sort of ski on sea ripples you from kiev and ukraine. remember we're on air and online around the clock at r.t. dot com where there's plenty more stories of video and analysis a click away including this grabbing the bull by the horns in lower manhattan as hundreds protest at the banking system that's left many jobless and homeless with a demonstration a dubbed occupy wall street bus. seemed to be green world carfree day is ahead with russia's launch an eco week to get drivers to ditch the wheels and saddle up for a cycling. to see that in moscow turning now to some other stories making headlines across the globe the novato air show tragedy has now claimed nine lives as investigators look into how a vintage aircraft lost control and plunged into spectators dozens more were injured when the world war two era plane slammed into a box seat area in front of the main grandstand it's not mechanical problems were

to blame meanwhile there was a similar incident in west virginia when another vintage plane crashed and burst into flames killing the pilot no spectators were hurt in that incident. venezuela's ailing president says he'll return to cuba for a fourth and possibly final round of chemotherapy who go chavez underwent surgery in june to remove a tumor although it's not known for what type of cancer he's being treated chavez says he plans to finish his treatments soon and promises to run for re-election next year despite health concerns. and it's thought barack obama will announce monday they'll be a tax hike for americans are earning more than a million dollars a year it's designed to even out the tax burden between the wealthy and middle income earners and work toward the country's plan to reduce its long term deficit us media is reporting that obama will call this proposal the buffett rule referring to billionaire investor warren buffett who has repeatedly raised the issue in the past. and in

a few minutes the un's woman in. the world heritage tells us how antique females are jeopardizing global culture it's coming away after a recap of our top stories and today's headlines in a few moments. the little bit later. this is a city. of about one hundred ninety thousand people and we had eighty thousand people working for general motors. or

a job that depended on general motors. general motors is if it's not relations you it might be your neighbor or somebody you knew so it's kind of a family run business you know myself i'm third generation my father was working there and you have a lot of two three and four generation families that are there first let's understand that. this is a man doesn't work. then he should not. it is gong to want a. man to work. i think for a long time this notion in america that bigger was better was simply an undisputed fact in the twenty first century smarter it's going to be better general motors simply became too large for their own good and so many brands that they couldn't even keep up with they just basically became

a dinosaur. wealthy british science it's time to rise. in the. markets why not scandals. find out what's really happening to the global economy in these kinds of reports. download the official. tool on the phone only pulled touch from the store. one life on the go. video on demand on t.v.'s mine comes and says feeds now in the palm of your. questions on the dot com.

eight thirty am in moscow or during the week's top stories here on our team adopt these remaining supporters put up fierce resistance in three libyan cities while the people of tripoli who still support us internal say they're gripped by fear and face repression. as nato steams ahead with fresh agreements on putting u.s. missiles in eastern europe there are security concerns at the kremlin and in a call for urgent talks. moscow in london sweeping there are sour relations as david cameron makes a first trip to russia by a british prime minister in six years. plus peacekeepers in kosovo on high alert has ethnic tension in serbia as breakaway republic reaches up boiling point. when times are hard heritage is in peril un's head of the print.