and welcome back it is seven a one in moscow russia's capital i'm sean thomas and these are the stories that shape your past week in libya fighting between moammar gadhafi is remaining loyalists and former rebels show no sign of letting up troops loyal to the ousted leader have launched fresh attacks on the town of bani walid they're using the mortars and snipers to target the opposition fighters meanwhile anti gadhafi forces are making slow progress another stronghold nothing from town of syria hundreds of civilians have been caught up in the crossfire with battles continuing in a few remaining pockets but has artie's many of the notion of 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 back the old regime remain defiant but fearful 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 for monarch anymore even if we have to be don't mind it's. seven six closed for the ousted leader just saul's once they see our camera and we were here i'd like to go on with how we are telling me how could you tell it on camera why. it's the same situation because these. hundred percent good we don't want this revolution we don't know the residents who want to go away like we are on television without regard to their real camera no no really sure i believe in the camera they will send it to my head whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa the criminals we don't know them you call them the rebel is a god fearing man like it or not the black guy he was arrested a few days ago after hearing hearing on t.v. don't do that you sags you slogans. the news pages. 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 a large crowds even libyans in no doubt about who's really in here. those who don't support mr fahd those illegal 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 here there are prayers there are if. you will drive. with me. you. have. it after it is effectively gone then you also have settled down here in the capital tripoli people are chanting that is new free country but it seems that there is at least one thing that still remains of all the. fear. while 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. in favor of gadhafi they can kill us and arrest us of course man or not fire them but 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 darkest top secret jails for political prisoners known as abu sleen don't believe me the rebels they only represent themselves not the libyan people this revolution started with killings to intimidate through fear their homes are covered in blogs amnesty 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 felt

by some here that more is in store. raef know she not t. tripoli libya. from libya 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 are on a fact finding mission in syria and have 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 e.u. urging 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 twenty six hundred people reportedly killed in clashes and less michel chossudovsky says the russian delegation faces a tough task in syria with the opposition being extremely diversified. 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 it's the scotians with the syrian authorities who first of all we must clarify what is the opposition this is all position within the syrian civil society which operates within the confines of the law and which has also done along with the go on them and then doesn't and such and see which is funded and supported by outside forces. this is the launch integrated by islamists it's a job this tool but it's a lot of this as well as was the brother. because that would be this insurgency is there to destabilize to create a pretext for responsibility to protect nato intervention in syria

moscow has reiterated its 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 is calling for urgent talks with nato saying that the u.s. program is stuck in the past players for putting missiles on polish soil follow separate deals this week with romania and turkey who also agreed to host sections of the system the u.s. insists it is designed to counter possible attacks from states such as iran and north korea but russia sees the plans as a direct threat to its own security and had proposed building a joint shield instead a suggestion nato has a decline. in is a professor of political science based in paris and thinks america's plans could trigger a new arms race. i don't think it's really a military necessity no one really believed that there was a possibility of iran attacking europe its myside still not reach could not reach

western europe i think this takes up surely political washington probably wants to reassure the former satellite countries of the soviet union so it's a political move but hardly a military necessity and also considering the state of the us economy i don't think it's a wise move in plentiful terms one of. these reset all this he would russia at least he was achieving something corp russia and key issues but this new deployment is aware of antagonizing russia which is going to turn into maybe some kind of new arms race which is totally pointless not only because the effectiveness of the shield is problematic it doubtful but also because it's going to cost a lot of money and unnecessarily because frankly i don't think iran is in a position to attack anyone in the west. 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 capacity. and a crazy clash of the. t.v. debate gets to what russian the billionaires under the collar. in 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 the sides signed a multi-billion dollar deals in science innovation and trade 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 dmitri medvedev agreed in the case we should not hold back their partnership dr

patrick fuller who has worked extensively in science and technology projects between the u.k. and russia sees real potential. russian first steps in establishing the new business center at skolkovo establishing what he's going to be i suppose a kind of silicon valley there and british involvement is going to be absolutely key in terms of developing companies developing helping russian high tech business is expand outside russia into markets in europe russia remains a kind of ally of the weather all kinds of interesting things to be found the legacy all the research institutes for us right 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. russia

has in store in this whole area. tensions in northern kosovo continue after serbs set up barricades to disputed border crossings they're angry about the deployment of kosovo customs officials on the frontier which was previously under some control belgrade's top negotiator called for calm urging all sides to seek a diplomatic solution. first 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 protest is ok for the nato peacekeeping mission that's been working here at the border points with you like they call that bob why offenses out there go the sun bikes as well and still a number of protesters that have been staying at the barricade at these disputed border points and also 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 few 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. these barricades but what we've got at the moment is a standoff situation is a war with no because the basic checkpoints at the barricades is the serbian protesters and then the case full force is at the actual crossing of the no one wants to make a meal and all the way it's being quite diplomatic from what we've heard and based sites those calls for calm and for peace but of course the actions the scene quite different than there still seems to be

a lot of hostility between both sides that needs to be resolved. reporting forces there now this week also saw iran officially launch its first nuclear power plant the only facility of its kind in the middle east completed with russia's assistance the plant 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 expressed concern that iran's nuclear program is aimed at developing an atomic bomb charged denies political scientist ali told the new job from the university of london told r.t. that according to all of the evidence iran has the right to carry on with it peaceful nuclear program. 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 and the best way to do that is through economic sanctions canonic 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. moving on to lafayette now a party representing the large ethnic russian minority has captured the most votes

in the country's parliamentary election with almost all ballots counted about twenty nine percent of the vote went to be harmony center party it is the first time in two decades that a pro russian political group has dominated the elections meanwhile there is a speculation that the second and third place lotfi and rival parties may form a coalition to keep harmony from forming the next government about one third of the country's population are ethnic russians but some are still classed as non-citizens and have no voting rights. more news making headlines for you tonight. at least twenty 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. dominic strauss kahn has given

his first t.v. interview since you tube 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 who is a friend of his wife he insisted the hotel encounter did not involve violence but admitted a moral failing on his part strauss kahn resigned as i am f. ed in may after he was arrested but the case fell apart in august over doubts his accuser was credible. security forces have opened fire on protesters in the yemeni capital killing at least twenty six 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 roof started shooting but this is to say many of the dead and injured have bullet wounds in the head face and chest it was the signal first. crackdown in weeks on the daily protests demanding president step down. in the u.s.

investigators are looking into how a vintage aircraft lost control and crashed into spectators at and nevada air show killing nine people dozens of others were injured some critically when the world war two plane slammed in the area in front of the main grandstand on saturday it is thought a mechanical failure is to blame a 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 the pilot. beliefs of two u.s. hikers convicted of spying in iran there has been postponed until a second judge ruling on the case comes back from holiday so men's lawyer was in court again on 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 iran they say they crossed the border by mistake. eurozone at leaders have delayed

a decision on paying out the next batch of emergency loans to greece as the country struggles with its huge deficit the greek prime minister has canceled a trip to the u.s. to deal with the worsening debt crisis european finance ministers will now wait until october before deciding when to release the next eight billion euro bailout installment for greece now things is being criticized for this in a series of deadlines and failing to implement reforms quickly enough despite introducing a new property tax in greece says that without even help it will run out of cash by mid october but financial journalist johan van overtveldt believes the only way to rebuild its shattered economy is for greece to abandon me to. 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. it's sixteen percent but the reality it's more close to twenty function

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 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 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 cork to go 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's 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 it wants small towns to merge having the number of local authorities with a population of just six hundred village teano and it's mayor for the chop was a. terrible idea because it makes economic sense we have everything here to be autonomous and besides neighboring towns are at least thirty kilometers away so it's not practically possible it wouldn't even save that much money regional

administrations do nothing we should get rid of them in a standard 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 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 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 these notes aren't legal tender they're 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 you know how the positive effect on tourism of colombia which people it's. 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 to latino is the source of supply and demand threatening to. if he doesn't get. well if you're looking for more coverage from russia and abroad r t dot com is the place to be here's what's online for you right now. back to earth with a bump and get the latest on the international space station crew that arrived home

this week after completing their five month mission and. a life behind bars for some and a money spinner for others find out why private prisons in the u.s. love having a full house a whole lot more. well you might not consider chernobyl an ideal holiday destination but hordes of travelers go there looking for adventure twenty five years after the world's worst atomic accident the exclusion zone pulls in the thousands of tourists looking for a truly unique experience and as. he 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 clear rubble 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. over the decades tourists have been floor can hear more than ten thousand of them each year that's why forbes magazine named the dead zone one of the world's most exotic tourist destinations. 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. fuck. you people have different reasons for someone to see what an apocalypse could look like. so moment to feel the history. which 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 you know 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 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 are to 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 with. 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 is. due to the contamination 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 by a little there where the 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 kilometers a nuclear wasteland will remain closed to the public until then but the debate remains very much open. reporting from kiev and in ukraine. i can see it now a two. a wonderful noble deal coming soon to a travel agent near you well the audience at a russian talk show got more than their money's worth when

a debate on the financial crisis ended up in a fist fight two super rich tycoons came to blows after a difference of opinion this is billionaire sergei polonsky had every cording of a discussion for one of russia's main channels and alexander lebedev the owner of the two british newspapers punched him saying he was defending himself claiming he thought he was going to be attacked first just moments earlier and told me about it is that if you wanted to punch him in the face in the habit of angrily stood up as the other businessmen attempted to calm him down moments later attacking punching polonsky twice and sending him sprawling from his chair the t.v. channel which posted the programs preview on its website as the show on sunday night it's. interesting to be on t.v. in russia thanks for being with r.t. i'll be back with a recap of the headlines for you in our review of the week in just a moment. please

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