video for your media. crowds of up to fifty thousand people expected to descend on central moscow as they gather for the second major protest against the results of this month's parliamentary poll. no christmas cheer for syrians as the country struggles against waves of violence with the arab league searching for ways to help restore peace and find out what's behind the crisis. and turning from libya to somalia london names that a failed state and a terror training have leading to speculation that invasion could be the next step .

three pm in moscow i'm mad trezeguet good to have you with us here on r t our top story thousands are expected to take part in other protest against the results of russia's parliamentary election or earlier this month the mass rally in central moscow is being organized by various opposition groups who claim the voting was rigged says live video we're looking at here from the scene in central moscow all right now the official estimate is that twenty eight thousand people have gathered protesting the outcome of the election will have are to use any so now way live for us there in a little bit. but first as much of the christian world gets ready for christmas there's a little festive spirit in syria the capital damascus is recovering from two suicide blasts that left more than forty people dead more than one hundred injured the arab league is searching for a solution to the crisis trying to find out the truth behind me and arrest syrians say they just want the bloodshed to end or to sarah for more from damascus.

chaos and confusion in damascus as the capital which until now has remained largely spared from the violence starts to feel the effects of an escalating conflicts. on . the first day of the league's work was a bloody tragic day the people of syria will never forget these terrorists this time live here the capsule is usually brightly lit as christians here count the ten percent of the population get ready to celebrate christmas but these scenes of devastation are a harsh contrast and a stark reminder of just how much the country has changed in the past nine months. last year to christmas we used to wish health and pray for people in other countries that were going through hard times with war we never thought that this year it would be us. this year is totally different because of the situation in our country. the priests here planning their own mark of respect but.

we. ask our people to avoid the external. festivities but to go. there when really feels like celebrating anyway when the country's hospitals are full of casualties the government claims it's fighting arms militant groups sponsored from abroad meanwhile the opposition originally marked by its insistence on peaceful protests it's now been joined by growing numbers of army defectors and has become increasingly arms on the months quite downs by the government and this violence spreads its prevailing extremely hard to know exactly who is responsible for what. you have for instance. from somebody who is not. the government's. position the.

government. taxing killings to be met repeatedly with claim counts a claim and accusation. have. two different views to the. war. from the. arab league team will be attempting to cut through the rhetoric and discover his version of events is most accurate they many remain skeptical about how much they'll be able to achieve but there's one thing that everyone here is taping food and that's for the violence to be stopped. the christmas celebrations going down this religious services will be happening people so. again for being with their country. oh.

turning back now to the hour's top story thousands gathering in central moscow to protest the outcome of the parliamentary vote earlier of a small authorities in eastern our way live for us there in central moscow. so what looks like a massive gathering already deficient estimate twenty thousand people there where you are tell us what's going on. that's right it's fair to say tens of thousands of people have come out of there are conflicting reports as to how many people exactly reuters reporting twenty eight hours on the up was a simulator some sundry hours and i think it's fair to say that was not the reason but it's certainly tens of thousands of people have come out onto the streets of central moscow to call for free and fair election day model there were groups here you can see that a vast number of different flags nationalists in the crimea suited to solitary urbanisation. are lots of different groups out in moscow this afternoon for a second protest since the early december parliamentary election. of course the

similar protests happened two weeks ago about local mayors where there are still fifteen thousand people showed up but it's a thousand people didn't fly not just today's protests through was social networks on facebook certainly with the so far it doesn't look like that number has been raised but more and more people are making their way through this motel in the room we are hearing from both protesters and i've already said they're hoping that this rally goes as smoothly and without incident as we saw two weeks ago go on because russia as well from blighty of astarte through central russia there were some old rallies around the country by and again no reports of any arrests are in the business about many countries a lot of people hoping that will be the case here in moscow we're already hearing that they're going to plan another protest at the end of a ten year very and this is the second protest on the scale socio lecture in the first happening two weeks ago what's been the government response so far. almost immediately when we started to see people come out onto the streets of moscow we heard both from the president and prime minister putin it's people's rights of

course to come out and voice their demands complain about google my rebuttal titrate in fact by some what it was her is about is an important good heart of russians a bell and a growth about people being more politically active in just two days before this protest we heard from president medvedev him proposing massive reforms to russia's political system which is a lot of what you're hearing these protesters complain about according to some of his written word is basically it would be a move to d.c. centralized power from moscow that would allow regional elections for people to directly elect regional hads it would call for no or glass numbers of signatures in order to register political parties many less signatures in order to run in the presidential election right now there's a lot of criticism that's wary complicated process and it would also create more of a represent a representational proportional state duma the protesters here are saying that those reforms proposed by president medvedev aren't enough and they will keep coming out intil their demands. and tell us about the opposition leaders please.

there are several opposition leaders if you were to call them that it seems like there's really more in the faces of the opposition some of them have been in politics for years including we're told was already addressed in the rallies here is what was the former deputy prime minister back in the ninety's and he's been in politics oh it's fair to say promos you jack it was very early ninety's is no no really for his connections to washington it's not something that he hides he's a very or strongly supported by washington's national endowment of course democracy often makes trips to washington to meet with was hungry cement and recently was amaldina in a phone recording scandal which it was very clear that he had some very rude things to say about other opposition members and leaders who were in fact taking part in saturday's rallies to it there are signs that there are some grips with three in the opposition of course they do tend to put on

a face of solidarity and being together but just by the number of flags you can tell that there's certainly a lot of different movements of political parties that are coming out to take part in these rallies with another face of the opposition a new face is the next in the wild and he is very well known here in russia as an anti-corruption activist basically through his wagon he is not so well known for in the west is his nationalists tendencies and if you read his blog you can see he talks about russia waiting for russians as opposed involved in a movement that's about stop feeding the caucuses which is where they are was strong anti immigration no that's not something you hear less about he's expected to address the crowd not a resident of the first sidesaddle detained for fifteen days a lot of his supporters coming out to hear him signing today and others are getting out there are armed with rather to be known to be the world as he did come out tomorrow night to my dad i was criticized for that i suppose most of his time in the states around here we're hearing has bashfully flown out. from new york this

week today about you does rally really all the rumors that former president goes or is this week we're now a very bad guy that might not be the case and there are conflicting reports as to whether presidential candidate was held in or grow this year but some people are saying that they've seen him in the crowd but we are so we keep hearing that he might not be addressing those now was some extras and that i will agree with you but if you're out the data already you keep you out of it i'm going to add to that that comes out of that i'm going to come on the streets of the crowd in terms of the opposition all right we'll stay with you for that artie's amusin our live for us in central moscow thanks for about a. year is drawing to a close we're taking a look back at some of the major events in the stories that shape two thousand and eleven focusing today on the crisis in syria artie's tests are so we are sharing her thoughts about what she saw firsthand during a visit to the war torn country. well

when we went to syria it was sometime in october and the situation was getting very tense there so our flight arrived at around three in the morning so you can imagine the surprise and the shock of security forces when three foreign journalists arrive at a time when there was a media ban international journalists there we're here in the center of the syrian capital you can see behind me traffic is just about starting to flow again going into the city damascus was rather peaceful it was quiet although very tense still because everybody knows what was going on in the country. and what's interesting i think mostly for us is that we saw the kind of. diverse opinions on what was going on there was no clear to sightsee when there were more than two sides it was not i want the regime or i don't want to be seen.

and there was one time you were interviewing a young man and he was rather critical of the government gave his point of view and what you didn't see on the camera is that there was a group of men around him and us listening to what he was saying. and afterwards after the interview was finished they all came up to us and said get us on camera we want to see what we feel. and then we also spoke to those people who were protesting specifically those who were on the streets in how to stop that's about twenty minutes outside of damascus one of the guys that we interviewed he actually disappeared for two days and he said he was held by security forces he was beaten up after forty eight hours of detention and torture they took all of my money and belongings and threw me out into the street. we also spoke with soldiers' families those who had been killed and you can't wholesome feel that they are angry at the

protestors because their sons have been lost fathers have been lost husbands have been lost and you can understand the point of view that they're coming from how console jer's killed their soldiers this is impossible whatever media says this is plainly lawyer. speaking about fear ok i'll tell you one incident we were supposed to interview one of the leaders of the. national coordination council the local opposition. the interview was sets and he when we called him he said i might have to cancel because we there were security forces we think who were at the office and they wrote some threats on the wall. we had to our fixer who translated what it meant. it said you're working for israel and the us we're going to kill you. and. so they were there

were threats at the members of the f.c.c. particularly the leader. that was a scary time because we were just outside we didn't know whether they would come in and we asked there are interview are you scared he said you only die once. so the syrians are very i felt hospitable people but when when it comes to political talk when it comes to expressing a political view in a crowd it can really get heated they would. jostle at the rally that we went to it got pretty rough. our camera was proclaimed and so point. do you know but that is your job you go in there she try to get you try to do what you can to try to film as much as you can try to put it in as much context and we had to tell sometimes to tell people please calm down otherwise you can't get anything on film where you're on the fact that the period after it was gathered

show their support for the government how did it get up far cry from the images we've been seeing in other cities that the country where there have been reporting process between security forces and government protests those however what they. where in this country whenever they would be to use about syria whenever we be everything do you suppose syria i would really pay attention to everybody here say i think that's correct i don't think that's or got stopped as precise as i think it was so i'd like to think that because of my trip there and my experience there. that when i see something about syria i don't take it at face value i remember everything that i had gathered and would look through it through that perspective rather than just what i see. r t looking back at the ten most significant events of two thousand and eleven as seen through the eyes of our correspondents in case you missed any of your own sketch them all online again

at r t dot com. with a campaign in libya now seen as mission accomplished the british prime minister is turning his attention to somalia david cameron plans a summit in february to discuss what to do about what he calls a failed state britain secret services have now named it a new training ground for terrorists artie's laura smith explains why london sees somalia as a threat. in the words of prime minister david cameron somalia is a failed state that directly threatens british interests his solution options ranging from humanitarian aid right through to military intervention and reports suggest that in the new year following the perceived success of the libyan campaign in government circles somalia could be the next target for u.k. forces newspapers as saying that the royal air force could be sent to help african union troops to support the weak u.s.

backs transitional government equipment and money other main nations despite a tough economic situation. there are around one hundred thousand somalis living in the u.k. making up one of the largest muslim groups according to m i five somalia is the latest terrorist training ground where british residents from a variety of backgrounds pakistan bag that dash yemen go to study jihad the risk is that they then come back to the u.k. and carry out terrorist attacks there's also the threats of piracy and the kidnapping of aid workers and tourists but crucially somalia has boston gas reserves and other natural resources including which the u.s. and other countries have had their eye on for years is many points also to somalia is to t.j. position presiding over a large parts of oil transport routes through the gulf of aden you usually find

military strategist to planning long term intervention somewhere. one of the biggest is a huge somali community around here. most of whom are from. saying to me. have support to get a functioning system of government and. since somalia some see this as a direct result of the perceived success by the government of the campaign in libya operation to oust gadhafi successful next stop somalia. stay with us here on r t still to come what do you look for. do you think you were it would be appealing in a world leader think it's an international way of speaking you know everybody gets it and everybody likes it our own resident in new york asked people on the streets about what must have qualities for the world leaders of today. but for

some of the drawl of u.s. troops from iraq has left a wave of sectarian violence in its wake america says it's leaving behind a stable country but even the largest oil reserves in the world won't be enough to pay for the peace erakat want artie's sean thomas investigates what that means for the reputation of the u.s. in the region and beyond. packing up to head home it may be easy to overlook the total costs of war at least one hundred fourteen thousand iraqi civilians killed as well as four and a half thousand american soldiers millions displaced from their homes not to mention a one trillion dollars financial burden still the former occupiers leave behind some words of encouragement i can say it with confidence that in the next twenty or fifty years iraq will be a leader here in the gulf region that rivals any country in sizable region i think iraq now is a safe and secure environment it's not

a safe and secure is as it should be or it will be but it's it's progressing very well the american occupation of iraq's on the fall of the baathist regime the capture and execution of deposed leader saddam hussein and the implementation of a democratic government but now nearly nine years later is the country better off well it is or that the below i'm also a u.s. troop invasion of iraq in two thousand. than three and the grave mistake he committed made the situation here worse there are so many mistakes committed by the us military leadership especially in managing the civilian aspects here this had a negative effect because i said that in fact many here say it was the american mismanagement of iraq and that led to the rise of sectarian violence in the country all people if you ask them who brings the threat of us to iraq he said usa. damage to the infrastructure of iraq he said. so i think.

we on american must cooperate in order to. put up this. culture that hate. between two peoples the timeline for u.s. troop withdrawal was set in two thousand and eight and while the obama administration initially tried to extend the deadline the official transfer of power came sixteen days ahead of schedule on december sixteenth two thousand and eleven but we hope that the future. will bring. many good things if the american look to the iraqis in equal a balanced not by their view with see. iraqi follow america must have been in everything on an american it out of good subsidies sources on also mind. many people who.

love. our country right now the u.s. and iraqi governments are working on a new type of diplomatic relations building a new type of trust if you will but now the next step is in the hands of the iraqi government to move the country forward as america's influence waned political infighting and sectarian divisions in the iraqi parliament have diminished as well giving iraqis hope for a strong future i'm overjoyed a bit of fun with it as regards other aspects civil life political and parliamentarians as well as the economic aspects to convince me see that iraq has good capabilities that were to be able to become one of the developed states but as iraq prepares to move past this dark chapter they have a message for their former occupiers to our friends america. don't be another it was. because you it was dick is a great. fic. but it's teach. you

to be sure and friends are few right now in a region in which america's reputation lies and friends in the eyes of many in iraq sean thomas on t.v. . were exploring the impact of the long wars on returning soldiers at our web site r t v dot com u.s. troops returning home from conflict zones could face the toughest battle yet with suicide now claiming more lives of servicemen and women than any bullets plus. three cars when i was completed journey to the stars as a russian soyuz rocket successfully docks with the international space station bringing in new crew members all the details a click away r t v dot com. turning now to some other stories making headlines across the globe a suicide bomb attack on a paramilitary camp has left at least six pakistani soldiers dead in the northwest of the country the bomber drove an explosive filled vehicle into the camp's office

in the town of balad knew the taliban claim the attack was revenge for a u.s. drone strike that killed one of its commanders. cuba's government set to release nearly three thousand prisoners including many convicted of political crimes those accused of more serious offenses including murder espionage and drug trafficking won't be granted amnesty president castro said the humanitarian gesture would show cuba's strength head of an upcoming visit by the pope to the country. rock obama has agreed to the approval of a short term tax cut extension by congress by calling for another extension the president said the move was a make or break moment for the american middle class after he managed to overcome republican opposition and gain a landmark victory a conference committee will try to sew up a year long deal after the holiday season the bill will extend payroll tax cuts and jobless benefits for millions. unemployed americans into the new year. of presidential elections in the u.s. russia france south korea and many other countries in two thousand and twelve the

question on many lips is what does a modern leader look like today r t's a big apple resident laurie harshness asked people on the streets of new york what they expect from a candidate. important elections will be held in many countries in two thousand and twelve what's it going to take to be a good leader in today's world this week let's talk about that what do you think is the most important quality for a world leader to have right now just empathy for what's going on right now just an ability be able to be flexible just with the american people and the people the world and a lot of patience i equate intelligence with humor. i mean say oh yeah a quick mind so you think that sense of humor would be appealing in a world leader think it's an international way of speaking you know everybody gets

it and everybody likes it that circumstances are controlling all the countries right now so somebody step up and take the reins you know would you follow someone that was strong like that even if you didn't necessarily believe yes yes their true leader know were honest with people is having the ability to lead people more important than having the intelligence or the right kind of policies. yeah i would say it is because you have to have a whole team of people that are actually implementing your work so you have to be able to provide that process for them you know is it important for them to have money so that they understand how it works or is it important for them to not have so much money so they're in touch with people i think it's probably important for them to have come up having no money i mean look at great leaders nelson mandela i mean you look at mary came from larry ended up i mean he understood what it was what it was like to have nothing i think that's probably what made him such a good leader of course for me it was a new

a positive. kennedy was was of one the leader of my mind because you had this really man who was my vision was and he's not what he was a man who really wants to lead from. nations have a future do you think it's possible in today's world or is it too different a time now than it was in the path of sort of this totally different because a global war does that. very complex and not easy to manage included but of a so shows so show. it started to change your mind over how to be the people no matter what qualities we'd like to see in the new world leaders of two thousand and twelve let's just hope we aren't too disappointed in who they turn out to be. and coming up r.t. speaks with those who took part in a unique russian space experiment spending a year and a half in an earthbound capsule to simulate a mission to mars but first the headlines stay with us.

most of. these are. a little bit.