now in the palm of your. question. it's. enough. time for the base is. the latest in. the war of words between iran and the west flares up as washington and the e.u. infuriated by tehran's unphased reaction to threats backed by choking off oil revenues. the un human rights commission cools for an international intervention in syria sanctions continued. over alleged civilian abuses by forces loyal to

president bashar al assad. and islamist parties claim to have won in egypt post a revolution election and in the streets many believe their voice is just not being heard. with the top stories of today and of this week you're watching the weekly with me rule received it is 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. now a following of months of heated debates politicking it's now up to the people to have

their say the main intrigue rests in the ruling united russia party and whether it retains its overwhelming support among the population as its rivals pledge to offer up some tough competition for more now let's go straight to our. moscow where the kremlin. behind you sarah so some day will show which of the political parties are managed to get their message across or so how was the voting going across the country. who facing continuing here in the capital and across much of the country but of course russia has knowing times and say in some of the far east reaches in russia the poles have placed on the face of the ready being counted as he said here in the car to ferry to continuing we've seen president dmitri medvedev and his wife turning out cause they today prime minister putin has all say called his hands the head of the communist party considered the main opposition to the leading united russia party both a costing his state today and of the rest of the public still turning out to see

any of the three thousand three hundred seventy four polling based around the capital most of them based in schools the people also able to call them they say railway stations. polls and hospitals as well know it's not just in russia but of course russians approved who are going to be able to call the favorite watching people and change polling base in countries such as you've done in thailand people have been turning out to vote today in ukraine in russia itself in the more flow of her fall flowing parts of the country we've seen helicopters use we seen snowmobiles to get possible polling base to the people who otherwise wouldn't have been able to cause that but we've been seeing some people turning out today all rain did to make it to those polling booths anything to cost of course that all important day today now in a bid to ease transparency concerns the russian election committee has said that

there's about half a million observers from competing parties and around seven hundred international lives but now the international observers accounted that they found that the no objections to the voting system amongst the competing poll. these are. some of the russian have. been. taken. we've been receiving some reports of small violations for example the t.v. crew wasn't let into a polling station in moscow there's also been information of a hacker attack on a radio station in the tuna region communist party activists were reportedly calling on voters at a station to vote for their party threatening them with violence if they didn't and in the republic of georgia ship one party's campaign propaganda wasn't removed together with the others. no of course to complain being taken extremely seriously

that that can perhaps be forgiven for overlooking one they were telling us that they received a call from someone complaining they haven't been registered to vote and that explaining that they thought they were king george the fifth. that one can be as good as the fighting continues of course an extremely important day the polls are going to be shouting at eight pm local time the focus will be counted it's going to be the first time it rushes more than history that the lawmakers will be taking those seats for a period of five years rather than the previous four years full hundred fifty feet up for grabs in the state duma seven political parties battling it out so when they say my colleague has been taking a closer look at how some of the political parties lined up. this right here is the state duma the lower chamber of the russian parliament where

laws are adopted and all bills are first reviewed and the term comes from the russian dumont meaning to think it was founded in one thousand nine hundred six but does survive the one nine hundred seventeen revolution whoever it did bounce back in one thousand nine hundred three when a new constitution was introduced and the upcoming election will determine the makeup of the six duma since one thousand nine hundred three. there are four hundred fifty seats up for grabs in the duma and the elected deputies will serve for five years well as it stands the stay do must be divided between four political parties. cannot ignore for currently has two hundred fifteen seats is the biggest party in the duma it's followed by the communists with fifty seven seats of the liberal democrats forty seats and a fair russia has thirty. plus look at those parties in detail now the ruling you. 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 it's. gone off the communist saw the biggest opposition force in the country constantly in second place and one of the most prominent deputies in this sector of federal is 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 platform that caters to an 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 now it's often called a one man party is widely considered to be a show mademoiselle for his eccentric behavior and sometimes shocking political views for example he advocated forcibly retaking alaska from the us and openly expressed his hatred of certain ethnic groups from that as it is no excuse often turned his words into action while on a lighter note says resting chopping i'm excited to read it was elected as a united russia deputy there's been no more pools in the state. now fair russia is headed by he said again and as the name implies. its platform is based on the principles of fairness freedom calling for the proper functioning of

a well first. this is the usual working place with a 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 colleagues to vote in the absence now only after public criticism from the president they returned to work despite the shortcomings of russia's politicians there are still hopes that the country will be able to put together the kind of problem 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 they won't be long now to fight. well the big decision day is in sharp focus here and he will be bringing you a detailed coverage of russia's parliamentary election all the way through to the reporters were broadcast live from

a central election committee's main office son from major party headquarters and later in the day here on r t do stay with us for the results reaction and in-depth analysis. closes. the people prepare to speak. in duma election. in-depth coverage of this one the hearts and minds of the russian people. all right and still to come in today's review of the week's news an old strained to the limit. pulls out a crucial us about the future of afghanistan further widening the rift opened by a deadly nato air strike on pakistan's border. and europe holds its breath. get together to brew up a new cure for the block any while the people protest ok. all

right now it's been one of the most tense weeks yet in iran's continuing drama as western nations on leash 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 the u.k.'s reaction was to shut down its diplomatic mission along with. many other e.u. nations and some twenty four iranian diplomats were expelled from london then they returned home though is here as the u.s. hasn't been a quiet on the issue either with washington preparing its own crippling sanctions against iran's central bank middle east expert and journalist chandan work believes 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 that 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 definitely on the cards and the conflagration will engulf the whole middle east that this has the potential for growing but that is the agenda right now very clearly they want regime change all across africa libya was the start and look at the pacific and asia region the new the new troops sent a 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 and russia are 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. you're watching r t now the un's high commissioner for human rights has called for an international intervention in syria to protect civilians from president assad's forces she cited the number of protesters and rebel fighters allegedly killed by pro-government forces since the civil conflict began assad's rule was also condemned by the u.n. but a resolution that could have paved the way for military intervention was blocked by russia and china they believe the u.n. continues to ignore reports of atrocities committed by opposition fighters and warned that foreign meddling may worsen the situation meanwhile the sanctions continue to pile on damascus but political activist franklin lamb has grave doubts about how effective they can be. i don't think that sank. they're going to bring down the regime because the regime is extremely and show mistake and me and i think

the enough of the population that takes underage at the this western interference in terms of the sanctions that they will also resist 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 these sanctions against syria and against iran but in real political terms i don't see the as the fruit of you know of of those efforts. or obviously both sides have got to find another way to defuse these. dangerous situations. and i want the west presses harder on arab nations to ease up on public protests and the approach taken to deal with their own demonstrations from london to new york is somewhat different the brutal cop tactics and the

government crackdown the occupy movement shows no signs of slowing down instead it's drawing in new supporters from the most unlikely of places. islamic parties have reportedly taken an overwhelming lead in the opening round of egypt's first parliamentary election since the fall of former president mubarak the muslim brotherhood's freedom and justice party gained forty percent of the vote but the fundamentalist nor party claimed about twenty five percent however the results are final as most parties are set to go through to further election rounds over the next two months but as i reports from cairo many in the streets feel their votes will carry little weight in their troubled country. along those stained fingers and a record turnout over a sign of political interest in a country where decades of dictatorship has missed little appetite for the power of the ballot the faces of the small down of one in the street and wanting to are

excited to be voting in a real mix and these same meaning hold nothing but. iran to. try to. grow to meet you down. there are tens of thousands of 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 their she 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 in tokyo square the center of the revolution and in front of the parliament building. youth movement leaders like dravot are protesting at what they see as an empty vote offering no democratic mandate and will be you. know we will not

go inside your office we have to stop you and you have to go and we do. two more rounds of voting still need to take place but a strong showing of the muslim brotherhood leaves little doubt that the islamist 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 reported the country's only female candidate for the presidency is not surprised. monitoring the election just to point out their mistakes their fraud we have no 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 in egypt if you give one point three billion dollars

a year to the egyptian army which the americans do you with your 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. . all right watching r.t. live from moscow europe is looking forward to another meeting between the german and french leaders it's set for this monday it could push the eurozone towards fiscal union a possible cure offered by angela merkel this week for the financial agony gripping the continent belgium and greece saw massive strikes as people fought against new measures to bring the current financial rollercoaster to a halt the european central bank has been pumping money into the blocks financial institutions to compensate for investors pulling out their. earlier monetary affairs chief warned that the eurozone has no more than ten days to contain the crisis though the german chancellor insists that the recovery process will take years but economic analyst michael ross says europe has to act much more quickly to

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 under an american we can see that the crisis is not sort of every week we have a new emergency meeting every week we haven't used every week we have new hopes and wreak nothing happens so this is the prognosis the forecast also for the u.s. summit next week and when under markel soon as 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 so all because of the fact that germany is not permitted to pull out of the euro under the american service we don't want euro bonds and with our bureau bonds the euro won't work i don't know twenty minutes past the hour here in moscow are coming your way in just a few minutes we report on a novel way to demonstrate a group of ukrainian women

a tour of europe with their series of protests varying their anger by baring their bodies. the occupy crackdown in the u.s. continues as cops shut down yet another camp this time in the city of portland. so nancy in the song long walks are now closed you may freely press to the north and the west. w. to do so and subject you join the. police in a riot made a number of arrests but officers refused to specify how many people were detained and this is the second time in less than a month that police have dismantled the occupy movements headquarters and portman protesters now vow to establish a new campaign plan made harder by knew that a slashing banning overnight stays in public parks as a teaching of pornographers the movement's message is beginning to resonate even

with those whose job it is to cite. streets 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 gray 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 spoke 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 w.-s. 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 has that fear and police officers also they cannot risk they have children . what would they do once you're fired there are no jobs available the nighttime raid on zuccotti park and subsequent arrest of dozens of journalists cover. in the story are among many reasons captain lewis says he temporarily transplanted to manhattan that's as close to a dictatorship when you exclude the media. as with dictators around the world and that is very scary brutal scare tactics such as pepper spray the tongs and flash grenades canisters have 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 but totally agree with occupy wall street 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 change 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 on wavering support for the occupy movement standing roughly ten or fifteen feet away from him a group of new york city police officers yes there are three or securing the area but some are beginning to show a little interest for the first time i had an officer break ranks yesterday at the barricade line a white officer named officer murray and introduced himself and he started asking if you question i said do you know the risk you're taking and he was so brave that you said this is still america and until a supervisor ordered 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 we're all victims of corporate america and that corporate america has got to be stopped marina port r.t. new york. now at twenty four minutes past the hour here in moscow pakistan has ruled out taking part in a u.s. backed conference on the future of afghanistan next week but the decision was just one of his lombards reactions to a recent nato air strike that killed twenty four pakistani soldiers in the air raid it brought already tense relations between the u.s. and pakistan to a new low nato supply routes through the country were shut off an islamic art official said there can be no business as usual with washington until it makes a men's and women's back the people's trust terrorism analyst phil reese says it's just the beginning and we'll see a full scale clash between u.s. and pakistani interests in the near future. i think that both the united states and

pakistan have this very strange relationship that they need each other and that probably before it absolutely ruptures there will be some concessions but you know the the united states it's 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 that actually pakistan wants to support it in other words for similar to the taliban that is pressure to base this is quite opposed to anything that the west wants so i think that the next two years are going to be fascinating when you've got to totally different dynamics unfolding there you're watching from moscow painting a public protest a message on their naked bodies has become the trademark for one ukrainian group of activists having made headlines at home for several years with extravagant and revealing demonstrations that are set to expose their grievances across europe r.t.

this election went to meet the ladies who are far from shy when it comes to making a point. oh yes. on a chilly morning in key of 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 move even we had staged a lot of protests against berlusconi and his sexual adventures here in kiev and we are really happy his political career has finished this inhibition interrupted the landscape of 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 have 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. but. 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 their 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 to exposing flaws in ukraine's politics now they're looking even further afield both of them were doing

what in your could 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. really good we received lots of letters telling us to continue fighting against religious unjust us 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 campaigners now they're talking this broadcast 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. ski reporting from kiev in ukraine all right a special interview on the sports news are still ahead for you here. after a quick look at the week's top headlines so you sam.