top stories and a look at back at the week's news here on r t turn first to libya where fierce fighting rages on between pro and anti kadafi forces loyalist troops are making a last stand in three cities under heavy assault by the relentless fighters who are backing the country's new government body while lead and sabol now witnessing house to house battles with hundreds of civilians caught in the crossfire it's thought khadafi himself who is still on the run could be hiding in one of the siege cities meanwhile life is returning to the sort of normal in the capital but as artie's marie if an ocean reports there are some libyans who already walked off the back. and months after tripoli fell into rebels hands those who back the old regime remain defiant. in parts of the city the rebels triumphant campaign feels like it's never happened or did so somewhere else. i doubt that we will do anything to moammar any memoir even if we have to give all nice. seven support for the ousted

leader once they see our camera. here. we are going to be so quick to tell the camera why. it's the same situation with. because if he's hundred percent dude we don't want this revolution we don't know the rebels we want them to go away. we are from television so could you tell it on camera no no playing surprise peeve from the camera they will send the bullet to my head. 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 hear appeared on t.v. don't do that you flags new slogans new speeches. that the rebels were out celebrating again this week when the head of the national transitional council libya's new authority i rise in the capital before a large crowds even. libyans in no doubt about who's really oh.

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 back in khadafi now trying not to leave their own backyards there. will. be a very. tough it is effectively gone then you also have to settle down here in the capital tripoli people are chanting that is free country but it seems that there is at least one thing that still remains of all the beer 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 say something in favor of gadhafi they can kill us and

arrest us of course money or enough for them. the nineteen year old says many of his friends have been arrested recently for making critical statements about 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 sleen though that may have been the rebels they only represent themselves not the libyan people this revolution started with killings to intimidate through fear their homes are covered in blood and mist international has recently accused both gadhafi regime and the one which you place to of committing war crimes including killings and torture of military prisoners and civilians. have been felt by some here that more his in-store. raef notion r.t. tripoli libya. u.s.

was quick to support revolutions in libya and egypt as a democratic as expression of the people's free will and that it shouldn't stop there with calls for syria's regime to step down too and that could leave iran out in the cold in its own neighborhood as our he's got into the courts. as nations in the middle east and north africa are torn between the struggle to bring about change and the struggle not to let that change ruin their lives washington views the arab spring as an opportunity to finally see some of its longtime foes crumble even though. iran is not an arab country the arab spring to spread to absolutely. and i think in many ways it's a matter of time before that kind of change. and revolution occurs in the runs under the umbrella if arab revolutions washington is also beating the drums of regime change in syria iran's closest ally in the region violence within the country has been widely condemned countries like russia and china call for both

sides in syria to talk and end the bloodshed while america is blaming our side alone i think assad's days just like a dog for your number let's hope that for sure assad is next in line they were overthrown khadafi they're going to have a proxy or client government in tripoli the next step is syria they want to overthrow syria next to take advantage of any movement that exists in syria to overthrow the assad government now they have a more democratic government a more humane government but a government that is allied with the united states and after syria the next target will be iran itself watching regimes go down one by one american politicians are filled with new hopes and aspirations some went as far as to predict the arab spring would spread all across the world what this is all about is the arab spring and bashar assad is next and even places like china and russia and other places they are very uneasy this is about people aspiring for freedom and that's what the libyan people have just achieved oh that's wishful thinking on the part of john

mccain but it speaks volumes to where the real orientation is in washington not just of the republicans but the democrats too so they would like to overthrow the government in china they would like to overthrow the government in russia they would like to overthrow the government in venice. wailing cuba or wherever people are independent of the dictates of washington but when it comes to syria and iran washington doesn't seem to be just fantasizing about revolutions by throwing its support behind revolution makers and only say washington the seeking to increase its influence and control in these countries let's look at how things have been in the control department so far it thousands protest against the u.s. backed military there that's still in power last week objections storm peace really embassy and rage by the killing of five egyptian border guards in lead a washington supported leadership is taking over but the country is at risk of plunging into a tribal war syria the opposition includes those with radical agendas so the

aftermath of the so-called arab spring remains very murky and difficult yet washington seems to be using the arab spring to fulfill its long time goals but the fear is that it might end up getting the opposite of what it wishes for and undermining the whole region i'm going to check out reporting from washington r.t. . 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 two thousand and eighteen the foreign ministry in moscow said saturday that urgent talks with nato were necessary as well as hard guarantees that russian security won't be at risk warsaw and washington's outline for putting missiles on polish soil housed deals sealed this week with romania and turkey who agreed to host parts of the u.s. missile defense system american says it's designed to counter a possible strike from iran or north korea from the onset of the project russia has voiced concern that the shield may upset europe's delicate military balance investigative journalist escobar says moscow has

a right to be awarded. some of the best strategists military strategists in the world every russia and they know that the room surest of goals they don't have to tackle bullets is to attack iraq even if they wanted to number two they made the of . areas hard core regime but they're not suicidal so this excuse against a medina job or against it well you tell us how many from the part of the u.s. is absolutely ridiculous do you know it's basically the shield is against russia and it's eventually against china as well as if china or russia would have any interest in trying to undermine the european union which are excellent the markets for bowls and where they sell most of their products in the case of china stay with us here on r t still to come the historic launch of iran's first nuclear power plant a russian built to share facility is successfully wired to iran's national grid

with a deal in place to send a spent fuel abroad so it can be used to make atomic weapons plus. south stream steam ahead european energy majors signed up to a second project to get russian gas directly into europe but some still want to keep their supply options open we'll tell you more. but first the u.k. and russia made moves to patch things up between the two with a visit to the kremlin by british prime minister david cameron this week leaders of both countries agree that there are unresolved issues shouldn't get in the way of mutual 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 cameron and dimitri medvedev agreed that the case should not hold back a partnership dr patrick fuller who worked extensively in science and technology projects between the u.k. and russia says there is 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 developing shows this and helping the russian high tech business is expand outside russia into markets in europe russia remains a kind of aladdin's cave whether up all kinds of interesting things to be found the legacy of the soviet research institutes 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 that. russia has in store in this whole area. as ethnic tensions on serbia's border with breakaway kosovo mount belgrade chief negotiator is urging for

calm on both sides to seek a diplomatic solution violence broke out after a kosovo police back by nato led forces took over two disputed border posts that were previously under serb control r.t. sarah for has 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 of the men and 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 christina's control over the disputed territory now amid

concerns repeat of what we saw in july when violent clashes over the course of the government. to try and take this place resulted in the death of a policeman is actually being relatively quiet here what we've seen is a huge number of the serbian ethnic servants 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 at the checkpoints at the barricades is the serbian protesters and then the case full force is at the actual crossings themselves of the no one wants to make a move and although the words have been quite diplomatic from what we've heard on base sides those calls the calm and for peace but of course the actions the scene quite different and there still seems to be a lot of hostility between both sides that needs to be resolved. iran's first nuclear energy plant went on line monday the only such facility in the middle east the russian built reactors are working at forty percent capacity and should reach full power in december moscow says it will continue to provide help and fuel for

the plant to iran takes full control in twenty fifteen western nations have long worried about the country's atomic energy tonic program claiming it's a cover for making nuclear bombs which tehran has repeatedly tonight political scientist al if a television ad from university of london tells r.t. that without evidence in iran has the same right to peaceful nuclear energy. we have now a decades long standoff between iran and the west and over the iranian nuclear program this has been very hyped of. 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. 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 to come the italian town that wants to run from rome fed up with being battered by the rest of italy's economy one sleepy rural community deciding to go it alone. and taking an exclusion x. version meet the show noble tourists who are risking their health for a holiday despite the radiation risks. but first russia and its key european gas customers sealed a twenty five billion dollar energy deal this week the soon to be built south

stream pipeline will pump russian gas straight to europe year round basco spent the last four years agreeing the details with its partners who want guarantees of nonstop supplies flow had been disrupted several times in the past along the 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 possible political barriers german french and italian firms have now signed up to the project which is due to be wrapped up by two thousand and fifteen and she added as julian lease says europe still wary though 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 europe is 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 that he doesn't want to be dependent on north african gas or indeed on north sea gas what he's seeking to do is to find a balance between a variety of supply is delivering gas through a variety of routes and nobody's disputing good among mandarin actually russian will ease and will continue to be 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 on hand to see it through the next few weeks eurozone finance ministers are for an hour sitting on the eight billion euro second bailout payment the countries do they say greece has fallen behind on spending cuts targets and missed a series of deadlines greece will now have to wait till october to find out whether it will get the second loan and says that it's on the verge of being unable to

repay the interest on its massive debt for some experts though it's too late to save the greek economy and say it must exit the euro zone for its own good. the greek economy is in an outright depression now g.d.p. is shrinking at the moment seven to eight percent on an annual basis unemployment is officially at sixteen percent but in reality it's 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 that greek 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 safe within the euro zone greece will have to act 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 core to gold maybe i will

and of course i'm not even mentioning here that would be an enormous problem countries like spain. across the ionian sea italy's parliament's agreed to a fifty four billion euro package of cuts tamed trying to stop the rot from engulfing europe's third largest economy this included includes changes to pensions reducing government spending and taxing the rich but it's a step too far for a summit hellions bet it reports on a town that's turned its back on. 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 village tino 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 we should 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 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. 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 guillotine is the source of rome's water supply and that may is threatening to cut its own if he doesn't get what he wants on the bennetts. fillets. you can find all our coverage and much much more around the clock at our tea dot com here's what's a click away right now. right in the ball by the horns in lower manhattan as hundreds of protests that the banking system that's left many jobless and homeless with the demonstration dubbed occupy wall street what's. being seen to be green world carfree day coming up and russia's even launched an eco week to get drivers the wheels on saddle up for cycling. of all the places you might expect appear on a list of the world's most exotic tourist destinations there 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 rather than driving them away but as artie's alexia shows your of course from ukraine the hazardous holidays are a double edged sword. these cars were once heavily affected by nuclear radiation now they radiate 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 to 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. of their childhood like the atmosphere of the soviet union has been preserved but for me it's more important not why they come here which 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 and on 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. of 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 there 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 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 c. it was you and in ukraine. sure not to some other stories making headlines across the globe but nevada air show tragedy has now claimed nine lives as investigators look at 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 in front of the main grandstand it's not mechanical problems are to blame there was also a similar incident in west virginia when a vintage plane crashed and burst into flames killing the pilot no spectators there were hurt. 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 reelection next

year despite wider concerns for his health. and it's thought barack obama will announce monday that they'll be a tax hike for americans 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 reducing the country's long term deficit the u.s. media is reporting that obama will call his proposal the buffett rule referring to billionaire investor warren buffett who has repeatedly raised the issue in the past . coming up in our special report hard though on wars that leave our fragile ecology struggling to survive after a recap of the top stories stay with us here on r.t. . to.

be in the movies. just so.

nine thirty am in moscow these are today's top stories and look back at the week's news here on r t khadafi remaining supporters put up fierce resistance in three libyan cities while his remaining supporters in tripoli say they are gripped by fear and oppression loyalist forces are deeply entrenched in certain bani walid and gadhafi is whereabouts remain unknown. as nato moves ahead with fresh agreements on putting u.s. missiles in eastern europe there are security concerns at the kremlin and a call for urgent talks were mainly of poland and turkey poised to host elements of the defense shield that moscow feels could neutralize its nuclear arsenal. moscow and london put deals before differences with david cameron securing a multi-million dollar contract during the first trip bribe it by british prime minister to russia in six years both sides agreed to shelve their.