but in that direction day russia and the poles have a fishy a bit at most they could be full of the latest information right from the heart of the cup though. the war of words between iran and the west turns into an inferno as washington and the e.u. infuriated by two of ron's phase reaction to threats head back by choking off oil revenues. the e.u. human rights commissioner calls for military intervention in syria sanctions continue to pile on damascus over alleged civilian abuses by forces loyal to president bashar al assad. islamize parties claim to win edges first post

revolution election and it frustrates them in the streets as many believe their voices are not heard. in the russian capital you're watching r t r marina joshua welcome to the program now it's a big day for voting in the world's biggest country with people deciding on a fresh board of lawmakers for the lower house of parliament. well the may intrigue rest in the ruling united russia party and whether it retains its overwhelming support among the population as its rivals pledge to offer a tough competition well forward now crossed over spawn and sarah firth is in

sandro moscow where we're watching the voting process roll out over russia's nine time zones and now the polling station doors of open in moscow what do we know so far. as these polling stations that must get out of the eight then they in the eight say that it will russia a huge country and placed in some of the eastern regions of a she's already underway it's been going on for the last eight hours and both of these hard to reach the people of the make a bit of a day at that to make sure they get today's polling be the people even arriving. thousands of polling be around russia people head out because. we're going to be bringing you all the latest information throughout the day you can follow our life low on our feet don't call full hundred and fifty feet in the stadium a seven percent threshold when they think of the parties that get picked that will

get a seat seven political parties the gates be battling it out to when they see the likely test that is being taking place look at how they think that the light of. this right here is the state duma the lower chamber of the russian parliament where laws are adopted and all bills are first and. of the term comes from the russian duma not meaning to think it was founded in one thousand nine hundred six but does survive the one nine hundred seventeen revolution however it did bounce back in one thousand nine hundred three women new constitution was introduced and the upcoming election will determine the makeup of the six duma since one thousand nine hundred three. over four hundred fifty seats up for grabs in the

duma and the elected deputies will serve for five years well as it stands to stay do must be divided between four political parties. are currently has three hundred fifteen seats it's the biggest party in the duma it's followed by the communists with fifty seven seats the liberal democrats forty seats and a fair russia has thirty eight. let's look at those parties in detail now the ruling united russia party has a constitutional majority in the current parliament and is led by prime minister vladimir putin and with the upcoming election of president dmitry medvedev will be at the top of the party's list of candidates for the party's representation in the duma is not only made up of career politicians but celebrities as well such as one of the most decorated gymnasts a two time olympic medalist. former n.h.l. star the salt as well as the first man to walk in space alexei now the party's platform essentially revolves around modernizing the economy uprooting corruption

and add to radicalism however united russia is also often criticized as bureaucratic inefficient and to some extent blamed for political and economic stagnation. and the second of the number of seats is the communist party headed by its leader gennady zyuganov the communist saw the biggest opposition force in the country constantly in second place and one of the most prominent deputies in this sector us of federal he's a nobel laureate in physics in two thousand and the communist party promises a not for the first time the nationalization of key industries they're often criticized for sticking to a plop. that caters to one elderly constituency that still dreams of returning to the glory days of the soviet union. or another old timer of the russian the state duma. he's a leader of the liberal democratic party of russia that was often called a one of the party he is widely considered to be a show mad at his over his eccentric behavior and sometimes shocking political

views for example he advocated forcibly taking alaska from the u.s. and openly expressed his hatred of certain ethnic groups from that is that in the last years often turned his words into action on a lighter note since resting trappin i'm excited to read it was elected as a united russia deputy there's been no more polls in the state. fair russia is headed by he said again you don't know and as the name implies its platform is based on the principles of fairness freedom dirty calling for the proper functioning of a well first. this is the usual working place with the deputy no bells and whistles just a mike and a device with which to vote but not all deputies are interested in the daily debates over bills last year a huge scandal emerge when it came to light that some deputies consistently missed sessions and simply asked their party called leaves to vote in their absence now only after public criticism from the president they returned to work despite the

shortcomings of russia's politicians there are still hopes of the country will be able to put together the kind of polling that it needs to address its people's demands and navigate russia's future so who exactly will be filling these four hundred fifty seats of the state duma we won't be long now to find. reporting there well the big decision day is in sharp focus here on r.t. and we'll be bringing you detailed coverage of russia's parliamentary election all the way through to the end and i were reporters will broadcast live from the central action committees office and from major party headquarters later in the day so stay with us for the results reaction and in-depth analysis. company closes. the people prepare to speak. to do about election. coverage of has won the hearts and minds of the russian.

authorities. watching r.t. coming to live from moscow still coming up in today's review of the week's news all ties are strained to the limit and pulls out of a crucial u.s. backed meeting on the future of afghanistan further widening the rift opened by a deadly nato air raid on pakistan's border. and you are hold his breath as virgo and sarkozy try to brew up a cure for the blocks financial agony while the people continue to protest against austerity. that's been one of the most tense weeks yet in iran's continuing drama as western nations unleash more sanctions greater restrictions and even more rhetoric on the middle east nation it all began with britain's decision to levy fresh measures against iran as punishment for what israel and others believed to be a covert nuclear program it sparked outrage among the iranian public angry students stormed the british embassy in tehran his reaction was to shut down its diplomatic

mission along with other nations and some twenty four iranian diplomats were expelled from london they returned home as heroes the u.s. has been quiet on the issue either with washington preparing its own crippling sanctions against iran central bank middle east expert and journalists of conscience done believe this is just the start of a much bigger campaign. the west is not engaged in war preparations just against iran which they have been they've invaded and occupied iran's two neighboring countries afghanistan on the one side and iraq on the other the west is engaged in a constant project of constant war and domination against all people who resist their domination so iran and syria are different from the cards and the conflagration will engulf the whole middle east so this has the potential for growing but that is the agenda right now very clearly they want change all across africa libya was the start and look at the pacific a major region the new the new troops sent to new u.s.

troops already sent to australia listen to clinton she is saying that the critical places for us domination is not iraq and afghanistan but in asia what's emerging right now is a historic time for the next ten fifteen years where britain and america know they're going down economically and militarily and they know china russia merging so they're really feeling that now is the crisis period to make sure that they can dominate as much as possible through sanctions and war i mean it's all it's all you know it's any means necessary i mean whether they do it through sanctions or war or funding opposition movements it's all the same they want complete domination as soon as possible. the e.u. is high commissioner for human rights has called for a military intervention in syria to bring down the government of president bashar al assad his side of the number of civilians allegedly killed by pro-government forces since the civil conflict began in the country the u.n. also condemn the awesome but a resolution that could have paved the way for intervention it was blocked by russia and china they believe the u.n.

continues to ignore reports of atrocities committed by rebels and war and that foreign meddling may worsen the situation meanwhile sanctions continue to pile in damascus but political activists franklin lamb has strong doubts about how effective they can be. i don't think that the sanctions are going to bring down the regime because the regime in training and show mistake and me and i think the enough of the population that takes underage at this western interference in terms of the sanctions. they were also resists and i think that history going back to iraq and before teachers because sanctions you know are not really affective in changing the behavior of a regime they're dramatic they're for local consumption i know the u.s. congress is thrilled with the sanctions against syria and against iran but in real

political terms i don't see the as the fruit of you know of our. efforts. or obviously both sides have got to find another way to defuse these. dangerous situations. and as the west mounts pressure on arab regimes to rely on to protest or is a man's approach taken to their own demonstrations from london to new york is markedly different. defying a brutal cop tactics and a government crackdown the occupy movement shows no signs of slowing down instead drawing supporters from the unlikeliest crowds. in the one major cities were at a virtual standstill as key workers came out on strike against pension cuts unions called as the largest walkout and a generation of. islamic parties have reportedly taken an overwhelming lead in the opening round of egypt's first parliamentary election

since mubarak's fall the muslim brotherhood freedom and justice party gained forty percent of the vote with fundamentalist all newer party claiming around twenty five percent however their results are in file as most parties are set to go through to the election rounds over the next two months but as our reports from cairo many of the streets feel their votes will carry little weight and they're troubled country . long vote. and a record turnout. of political interest in a country of dictatorship. the power of the ballot the faces of the dead smiled on the one mostly street corner and one egypt signs all excited to be voting in the real connection these smiles say maybe holds nothing but. iran to boot. i wrote down. there are tens of thousands like mr mohammed young unemployed and frustrated they

think it doesn't matter who they vote for because the military will still make all the important decisions the problem is you know what are they actually going to produce a parliament that cannot appoint ministers that cannot appoint a government. whose constitution whatever it turns out to be is going to be guarded by the army many in egypt say they will continue to camp out on talking square the center of the revolution and in front of the parliament building youth movement leaders like. upper testing of what they see as an empty vote offering no democratic mandate there will be you. know you will not go inside your office. and you have to go now and we do. two more rounds of voting still need to take place but the strong showing of the muslim brotherhood leaves little doubt that the islamic parties will have a significant majority in parliament for what it's worth although claims of

a record sixty two percent turnout is already being questioned after a series of irregularities were ported the country's only female candidate for the presidency is not surprised even. monitoring election just took the lead to mistakes and. we have a long way for democracy but the west has been quick to praise the election as an important step towards change although the americans are beginning to say well no the army must go back to barracks deep down they'll be perfectly happy to keep the army where it is illegal if you give one point three billion dollars a year to the egyptian army which the americans do you are spew expected to do what it wants which leaves little room for the people to get what they want sitting the stage for more to hear turmoil r.t. . europe is looking forward to another meeting of the german and french leaders said for this monday could propel the eurozone to fiscal union

a potential cure offered by angle merkel this week for european financial agony belgium angrily saw massive strikes as people rushed the leaders towards new hampshire is to stop the current financial rollercoaster european central committee has been pumping regions financial institutes with money to compensate for draining investor response earlier the e.u. monetary affairs he warned the eurozone has no more than ten days to contain the crisis though the german chancellor insists that the process is going to take years for the konami alice michael ross says europe has to act much faster revive the single currency. we in fact don't have for years we have only days in order to solve this crisis and with the words of angela merkel today we can see that the course is not sort of every week we have a new emergency meeting every week we have a news every week we have new hopes and every wreak nothing happens so this is the prognosis the forecast also for the u.s. summit next week and then under no two euro bonds this means nothing else then

no to the euro because you must not be an economist to know that the common currency cannot work with a common bond market sold because of the fact that germany is not permitted to pull out of the euro under the americans says we don't want euro bonds with our bureau bonds the euro won't work in europe we are twenty seven different countries with different cultures and different ways of living and of course they don't want to be ruled by brussels which is a fact that if you have a common currency you have to have a centralized government but this nobody wants to greece don't want it to germany don't want it and maybe also the french don't want this. now this week the u.k. has seen massive strikes as two million public sector workers took to the streets in the country's major cities over pensions unions have called it the largest walkout in generation in london over two thirds of schools were closed while

hospitals provided only emergency care anger was sparked by the of stary cuts which means people have to work longer a little to get a smaller engine the prime minister says these measures are to drag the country from the slippery slope to recession while opposition claims of will have the opposite effect we spoke to alex canning executive member of the national union of teachers who told us more about what initiated the anger. certainly people we didn't play for the crisis we didn't pay for the banking crisis and they bailed out the banks and now working people are being made to places and they won't accept it so we have an unprecedented thirty three unions taking action money of whom have never taken so i question the so we will see today just how strongly people feel about it. and in a few minutes we were poured in a novel way to demonstrate the ukrainian women for europe with a series of protests bearing their anger by burying their bodies.

at ten weeks of exhaustive controversial and sometimes even bloody protests the fruits of a movement that was widely expected to fizzle out in days but far from it the occupy wall street campaign is now bigger than ever defining a coordinated government crackdown widespread car brutality and media ridicule as artie's more in a word that has covered the movement's massachusetts even with those whose job is to silence it. occupy wall street has become an undeniable american household name. and police crackdowns against the democratic movement have become something of the norm not so normal is seeing one side endorse the other. retired philadelphia police captain bray lewis became the game changer on nov seventeenth arrested while demonstrating with occupy protesters on the streets of new york city the twenty four year veteran was held in police

custody for eleven hours and received one comment from a new york cop nobody talk to me this one individual said that i had the testicles of an elephant although all of america's police force is part of the ninety nine percent captain lewis says cops secretly supporting o.w.m. face dire consequences by going public tremendous fear of losing their job being disciplined being fired and then what do they do everybody in the ninety nine percent figure they're police officers also they cannot risk they have children they have one what would they do once a fire there are no jobs available the nighttime raid on zuccotti park and subsequent arrest of dozens of journalists covering the story are among many reasons captain lewis says he temporarily transplanted to manhattan that's close to dictatorship when you exclude the media. that's what the papers around the world and that is very scary brutal scare tactics such as pepper spray the tongs and

flash grenades pam is serves has been used against occupy camps throughout the us oakland california resembles something of an urban war zone this fall leaving a war vet in critical condition and the eyes of an eighty four year old burning from tear gas oakland police officer fred chavez is the only octave cop who's gone on record with his support like i totally agree with occupy. even to an extent what i can broker i am a part of the ninety nine percent for the most part people are peaceful and i want to see chased many believe the biggest change could calm when or if u.s. law enforcement officials stop suppressing the right to assemble and begin supporting it despite his arrest captain lewis is back at zuccotti park showing unwavering support for the occupy movement standing roughly ten or fifteen feet away from him a group of new york city police officers yes there we are securing the area but

some are beginning to show little interest for the first time i had an officer break ranks yesterday. a white officer named officer murray and introduced himself and if you question i said do you know the risk you're taking and he was so brave they said this is still america and until a supervisor ordered me back to the line i'm going to talk with you i hope to get mainstream america involved the players involved realizing that world of corporate america and america has got to be stopped marina port r.t. new york. and you can follow this in other stories on our website artie dot com and look at the what's the line for you at the moment the wearer of exploding apple's i phone proves to be the hottest touchscreen on the market with a substantively is combustion with border within a week. and a gravity dancing todd breakdown stars battle in its national contest in moscow

we've got the media narrative dot com. pakistan is ruled out taking part in a u.s. backed conference on the future of afghanistan next week the decision was just one of his reactions to a recent nato air strike that killed twenty four pakistani soldiers the air raid brought already tan's relations between the u.s. and pakistan to a new low and nato supply routes through pakistan were shut off and it's now about official said there can be no business as usual with washington killed makes a man's and wins back the paper people's trust terrorism analyst feel reason as it's just beginning and will see a full scale clash between u.s. and pakistani interests in the near future. i think both the united states and pakistan have this very strange relationship that they need each other and that probably before it absolutely rupture is there will be some concessions but you

know the the united states is planning to leave by two thousand and fourteen all its troops there what will be left behind pakistan is determined to have a force in kabul but actually pakistan wants to support it in other words for similar to the taliban that it's pressure to do based this is quite opposed to anything that the west warm so i think that the next two years are going to be fascinating when you've got to totally different dynamics unfolding there. having their public anger of painted on their naked bodies has become the trademark for one ukrainian protest group having made headlines at home for several years with their extravagant and revealing demonstrations they have now set their sights on europe are met with the bold ladies. oh. on a chilly morning in kiev half naked women in racing outfits drink champagne and chant

slogans this is how the feminine movement celebrated the resignation of silvio berlusconi several days prior to that the very same ladies were in rome voicing their support to the anti berlusconi protest even do it i mean we had staged a lot of protests against berlusconi and his sexual adventures here and here and we are really happy his political career has finished this inhibition interrupted the last couple somebody who came to the terran embassy not only to celebrate but to say that he needs to go on trial for his sexual crimes. for more than a week the ukrainian topless protesters had been making themselves heard across europe on a dedicated road trip to draw attention to the sexual exploitation of women in room one of their activists made a revealing protest against injustice towards women in the catholic church in the vatican right in front of the pope.

was before that they hit paris storming former i.m.f. banker dominique strauss kahn his residence. i mean women from italy came to us in switzerland and said we know that you're coming to rome and will be staging protests again berlusconi and the pope thank you they said for sharing our problems they are wild brother free rallies in ukraine have been making international headlines for several years now from protesting against the alarming rate of prostitution especially with the upcoming you are twenty twelve tournament exposing flaws in ukraine's politics now they're looking even further afield if the would do it within your could be worse what you went through the classic famine is no longer works it is if you excuse me impotent but what we do by. the desired effect that's why not only ukraine needs us but europe as well who are planning to take over the world. while we see how well you were received in europe remember your colorful

actions in ukraine where are you planning to expand now but those are what it is again we receive lots of letters telling us to continue fighting against religious and justice towards women especially in the muslim states that's where we want to develop we are even ready to go to iran or any other islamic state to stage our topless protests knowing all risks if given tale for us. they started out as a few enthusiastic complainer is now their talk of this protest message is going global. in ukraine alone they have tens of thousands of supporters the family network has been set up in europe and now stretches as far as the united states still they say they've got a lot of demons to fight at home let's see russia ski altie reporting from kiev ukraine. with us for a view of the top stories coming up in just a few minutes. as

russians pick for parliament who are the main contenders in the race for duma seats party. leader gennady zyuganov types the achievements of communism from before his time but he's criticized for his repost mall with the russian orthodox church

current campaign slogan the politics of the majority is made to when we return the motherland stolen from us priorities free education and housing punishing illegal immigration and introducing ethnicity stamps in passports party success story second in all presidential elections since the end of the u.s.s.r. criticized for exploiting soviet nostalgia with pensioners and a discontented industrial working class known for its red flags with the hammer and sickle the communist party of the russian federation duma election two thousand and eleven on r.t. . well into the future of science technology innovation and all the latest developments from around russia we've got the future covered.