recapping the top stories of the week this is our team live from moscow glad to have you with us in libya fighting between moammar gadhafi remaining loyal lists and former rebels shows no sign of letting letting up troops loyal to the ousted leader have launched fresh attacks on the town of bani walid they are using a mortars and snipers to target the opposition fighters meanwhile anti-god off the forces are making slow progress at another stronghold gadhafi hometown of syria hundreds of civilians have been caught up in the crossfire with battles continuing in a few remaining pockets but as artie's marie financial reports there are those who already want to see the ousted leader back in power. and months after tripoli fell into rebels hands those who backed 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 mom our only moammar even if we have to leave our own lives. seven support for the ousted leader to solve once they see our camera interview with their hero like the one with a weird television how could it 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'll throw televisions so they're going to tell the camera no no thanks all right gave front of the camera they will send a bullet to my well oh the criminals you don't know them you call them the rebels hey guys do you remember enough the black guy he was arrested a few days ago after here appearing on t.v. don't do that you flags you slogans new speeches. the rebels were out

celebrating again this week when they had of the national transitional council the business authority to rise in the capital before large crowds even libyans in no doubt about who's ruling out. those who don't support mr fogg those only and who we used to see all across the city proudly waving green flags just weeks ago thanking dollface now trying not to leave their own backyards here they're afraid they're. out. with money. to get the rid. of. gadhafi is effectively gone the new all sources have settled down here in the capital tripoli people are chanting that is him free country but it seems that there is at least one thing that still remains of all the. fear. one

youngster finally agrees to talk about how 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. in favor of gadhafi that can kill us and the rest of us of course monitoring the fire as the nineteen year old says many of his friends have been arrested recently for making critical state about new regime but ironically we're talking just a kilometer away from one of the doctors top secret jails for political prisoners known as abu sleen don't believe the rebels they only represent themselves not the libyan people of this revolution started with killings to intimidate through fear their hobbies are covered in blogs and misty international has recently accused both gadhafi regime and the one which replaced it of committing war crimes including killings and torture of military prisoners and civilians.

have been held by some here that more is in store. raef notion r t tripoli libya. libya's national transitional council was granted a seat at the un earlier this week the united nations that new resolution eased the sanctions imposed during the khadafi regime and promised assistance in rebuilding the country and as james the middle east analyst thinks libya's new authorities will face a hard time trying to restore order. it's a really dangerous scenario is similar to what happened in iraq in the fall of baghdad very weaponized society people with automatic weapons in their homes as well as the looting of large scale military grade munitions r.p.g. is mortars and even materials are components of potential chemical weapons this is a very dangerous scenario considering the numbers of groups operating in libya at present and the fluid nature of the situation so i believe that the the transitional national council their first job is of course to finish off the

fighting in the areas that are still holding out pretty good at the their second job is to give themselves legitimacy by getting the electoral cycle in under under god and the third job really is to prevent weapons proliferation across the country that's a very difficult job. on to syria now where the leadership of the country says it's committed to political reforms and peaceful change members of russia's upper house of parliament on a fact finding mission in syria and i've had talks with president assad last week moscow hosted the country's opposition leaders the kremlin insists that the conflict in syria should be resolved without external involvement and international pressure previously russia rejected calls from the u.s. and ridging assad to step down saying he should be given more time to push through reforms anti-government demonstrations flared up in march with at least two thousand six hundred people reportedly killed in clashes analyst michel chossudovsky signs the russian delegation faces a tough task in syria with the opposition extremely diverse and. any

kind of military intervention in syria immediately leads to a scenario escalation and this is something which hopefully will be addressed by the russian delegation in its discussions with the syrian authorities first of all we must clarify what is the opposition there's an opposition within the syrian civil society which operates within the confines of the law and which has also dialogue with the go about event isn't and such and see which is funded and supported by outside forces. launched integrated by islamists it's a job this tool that sufis as well as muslim brotherhood. and consequently this should see is there to destabilize create a pretext for responsibility to protect nato intervention in syria.

moscow has reiterated its a deep concern over america's plans to base parts of its missile defense shield in poland some of which could be in place by twenty eighteen russia's. for urgent talks with nato saying that the u.s. program is stuck in the past plans for putting missiles on polish soil follow separate deals sealed with this week with romania and turkey who also agreed to host sections of the system the u.s. insists it's designed to counter a possible attack from states such as iran and north korea but russia sees the plans as a direct threat to its security proposed building a joint shield instead a suggestion nato declined asia times correspondent pepe escobar says the shield isn't aimed at keeping iran in check because it poses no threat to russia. some of the best strategists military strategists in the world are in russia and they know that iran first of all they don't have the cap ability to attack iran even if they

wanted to number two they may be a very hard core regime but they're not suicidal so this excuse against ahmadinejad or against it how many from a part of the u.s. is absolutely ridiculous do you know it's basically the shield is against russia and eventually i guess china as well as if china or russia would have any interest in trying to undermine the european union which are excellent markets for poles and where they sell most of their products in the case of china. many more of the week's top stories still to come this hour including the launch of iran's first nuclear power plant. built by russia it is the first operational nuclear power station in the region and it's already working at forty percent of capacity. tired of the public spending cuts in italy the mayor of one italian town as it unilaterally declared independence from rome and chose to

go it alone. the u.k. and russia look to put differences aside with a visit to the kremlin by british prime minister david cameron this week the leaders of both countries agreed to unresolved issues shouldn't stand in the way of progress it was the first official visit to russia by a british prime minister in six years relations between the two nations soured over the murder of former f s b officer alexander litvinenko in london in two thousand and six but david cameron and the dmitri medvedev agreed to 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 real potential. russia's first steps in establishing the new business center establishing what is going to be i suppose a kind of silicon valley there and british involvement is going to be absolutely

key in terms of development companies development and helping russian high tech businesses expand outside russia into markets in europe russia remains a kind of ally the weather 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 that i think is really key to the interesting future that. russia has in store in this whole area. tensions in northern kosovo have been stoked to after serbs set up barricades at two disputed border posts they're angry at the deployment of e.u. and kosovo customs officials on the frontier which was previously under-served

control belgrade's top negotiator called for calm urging all sides to seek a diplomatic solution ortiz's there for three reports from near one of the seized checkpoints. you can see the sign put up by the k full force it's a warning to the ethnics that protest is ok for the nato peacekeeping mission that's been working here at the border points with you like they call that bob wire fences out there with 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 to 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 making of

me to try and take place resulted in the death of a policeman is actually relatively quiet here what we've seen is a huge number of. finding out. what we've got at the moment it's a standoff situation is a war with no because the checkpoints at the barricades. and then the case full force is at the actual crossing of the no one wants to make a meal and although the way it's being quite diplomatic from what we've heard and based sites the schools the calm and the 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. first reporting for us there now we. launched its first nuclear power plant the only facility of its kind in the middle east completed with russia's assistance the point is expected to reach its full energy generating capacity by the end of the year moscow

says the plant will be working under its close supervision and all the spent fuel will be shipped back to russia for reprocessing western nations have repeatedly. concerned that iran's nuclear program is aimed at developing an atomic bomb charged denies political scientist. from the university of london told r.t. that according to all the evidence iran has the right to carry on with its peaceful nuclear program. we have now a decades long standoff between iran and the west. 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. a new 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. in the party backed by the large russian community there scored a big win in a snap a general election with almost all votes now counted twenty nine percent went to the harmony center party it is the first time a russia supporting political group has led the polls since the former soviet state became independent meanwhile speculation is growing that the second and third place rival parties may join forces to keep

a pro russian the winner from power about one third of the country's population are russian speakers but many are not citizens and have no voting rights. more news making the headlines for you tonight. at least sixteen people have been killed after a strong earthquake struck northern parts of india and neighboring in nepal among those were three people crushed when a british embassy compound wall collapsed in nepal dozens of others were injured jumping from windows during the quake several buildings came down roads were blocked and power was cut off across the region. strauss kahn has given his first t.v. interview since charges of attempted rape against a new york hotel maid were dropped the former international monetary fund chief was questioned on a french channel by an interviewer was a friend of his wife he insisted that the hotel encounter did not involve violence but admitted a moral failing on his part strauss kahn resigned as i.m.f.

head in may after he was arrested but the case it fell apart in august over doubts his accuser was credible. security forces have opened fire on protesters in the yemeni capital killing at least twelve and wounding dozens reports say over one hundred people were gathered near the state t.v. building and government offices when troops along with snipers on the grooves started shooting witnesses say many of the dead and injured have bullet wounds in the head face and chest it was the first significant crackdown in weeks on the daily protests demanding president saleh. stepped out. in the u.s. investigators are looking into how a vintage aircraft lost control and crashed into spectators at an avowed air show killing nine people dozens of others were injured some critically when the world war two plane slammed into an area in front of the main grandstand on saturday it's thought a mechanical fault is to blame but the official inquiry has yet to reach

a conclusion less than twenty four hours later in west virginia another world war two plane crashed killing a pilot. the release of two u.s. hikers convicted of spying in iran has been postponed until a second judge ruling on the case comes back from holiday demands a lawyer was in court again sunday trying to complete paperwork for their million dollar bail release the americans were each sentenced to eight years in prison last month after crossing into northern iraq they say they crossed the border but instead. the greek prime minister has canceled a trip to the u.s. as his country's debt crisis worsens georgia was due to attend the u.n. general assembly and meet the chief on the international monetary fund but he says he needs to stay home and deal with greece's debt deficit eurozone leaders decided to wait until october before ruling on whether to release the next eight billion euro bailout package for greece despite

a recently announced property tax athens is being criticized for missing a series of deadlines and failing to implement reforms quickly enough agree greece says without e.u. help it only has enough cash to survive until mid october but financial journalist johan van overdeveloped says the only way to rebuild its shattered economy is to leave the euro. the greek economy is in an outright depression the g.d.p. is shrinking at the moment seven to eight percent annual basis unemployment is officially at sixteen percent and the theory. 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 did a greek rescan 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 release within the eurozone. 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 ireland and of course i'm not even mentioning here that would be an enormous problem countries like spain meanwhile italy's parliament has approved fifty four billion euro of cuts to try and keep europe's third largest economy afloat the package includes changes to pensions slashing government spending and a new tax on the rich but as ivor bennett discovered there is one town that isn't willing to take it lying down. 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 he wants small towns to merge having the number of local authorities with a population of just six hundred tino and it's mayor a for the chop was a. terrible idea because it makes economic sense that we have everybody here to be autonomous and besides the neighboring towns or at least thirty kilometers away so it's not practically possible it wouldn't even save that much money regional administration to do nothing with if you get rid of them in a standard italy's in the tent 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 the term and 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 that 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 these notes on legal tender they just souvenirs but the plan is for two theory to to be worth one euro and for this to be the only currency they could be spent in the shops and restaurants here big. this is always been slow in the sleepy town but shopkeepers hope the new money will bring new cash to. show 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 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 as the source of rome's water supply and demand is threatening to. if he doesn't get what he wants. to latino. if you're looking for more in-depth coverage and other exclusive content from russia and abroad are to dot com is the place to be here's what's online for you right now. the highest award for the deepest voices up and coming russian baritones and basses are taking the top prize at a leading operatic contra's contest a loss of. life behind bars for some and a money spinner for others find out why private prisons in the u.s. we love having a full house on

a whole lot more right here on our cue dot com. you might not consider a chair noble an ideal holiday destination but hordes of travelers go there looking for adventure twenty five years after the world's worst atomic accident exclusion zone polls and thousands of tourists looking for a truly unique experience and as artie's alexy reports from ukraine the hazardous holidays are causing more than a little local trouble. 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 clean rubble of the nine hundred eighty six chernobyl fallout over the years the 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. over the decades tourists have been flocking here 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. and former resident of the ghost town of has been organizing these tours for several years he told us that visitors are always fascinated by what they see their motivations for making the trip have always varied. look. you people have different reasons. to see what an apocalypse could look like kind of someone to feel the history but of course 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 i mean 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 i don't know 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 was. 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 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 the area has acceptable

levels of radiation that's why we can use these large unoccupied spaces to build solar and wind power stations and even grow biofuel there where the 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. sea reporting from kiev. in ukraine. seems like a lovely destination. for a vacation i'll be back in a moment with a recap of the headlines in our review of the week stay with art.

this was a city. of about one hundred ninety thousand people and we had eighty fouls and 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 are there first let's understand that it is that this is a man doesn't have. in the should. it is gong. 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 better general motors simply became too large for their own good and so many brands that they couldn't even keep up with. became a dinosaur. and

broadcasting direct from moscow this is r.t. certainly glad to have you with us let's get right to tonight's headlines. forces continue their onslaught on loyalists. discoverers are living in fear of those who supposedly liberated the country residents of the capital claim civilians have been arrested for merely expressing the views. and the other big stories of the region the u.s. launches its european missile defense plans as three countries sign up to host parts of the system russia strongly objects to the proposed a deployment calling it a threat to national security and. agreeing to disagree a london and moscow put aside their political differences to focus on business during the first visit by british prime minister to russia in six years.