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 it 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 we'll have our to use any 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 has more from damascus. chaos and confusion in damascus as the capital which until now has remained largely spared from violence starts to feel the effects of an escalating conflict. 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 can succumb to scent 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 at 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. this year is totally different because of the situation in our country. the police here at planning their own mark of respect for the coast. of syria 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 armed 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 armed after months of 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 claims that it is a position that the opposition claims that this is a government. taxing killings have been met repeatedly with claim counter-claim an accusation. you know we have to use two different. we don't tell me. more. from. the arab league team will be attempting to cut through the rhetoric and discover his vision of events his most accurate they many remain skeptical about how much they'll be able to achieve but there's one thing that everyone here is heaping full 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 this month in our way of life for us there in central moscow good person nice and so it 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 were reporting twenty eight hours of the op was a student i hear so much wondering now is and i think it's fair to say that that's not the reason but 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 is suited to solitary

organization. lots of different groups out in moscow this afternoon for a second protest since the early december parliamentary elections of course the similar protests happened two weeks ago about local mayors where there are still fifteen thousand people showed up by weekly thousand people didn't fly not just raised three was social networks on facebook certainly so far it doesn't look like that number has. and raised more and more people are making their way through this motel in the room we are hearing from both protesters and a guard is that they're hoping that this rally goes as smoothly and without incident as we saw two weeks ago. cross here i says well from bloody talk through central russia there were some old rallies around the country but again no reports of any arrests or in the is about many countries a lot of people hoping that that will be the case here in moscow were already going to break that they're going to plan another protest and the animals are enduring 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 is revealed by some what it was her is about is an important good part of russia's development or 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 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 was wary complicated process and it would also create more of a represent a representational proportional state duma the protesters here saying that those

reforms proposed by president medvedev aren't enough and they will keep coming out in till their demands are met. 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 number. so it was already i dressed in the rally here is was the former deputy prime minister back in the ninety's and he's been in politics oh it's fair to say for almost three decades very early ninety's he 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 out a little going to 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 walk 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 being for russians he has a was involved in a movement that's all stopped feeding the caucuses which is where they are the west wrong anti immigration hold it's not something you hear less about he's expected to address the crowd was arrested at one of the first high tide was attained for fifteen days a lot of his supporters coming out to hear him signing today and others are getting closer and was rather be known to be the world as he did come out tomorrow night

are two parts that i was criticized for that about most of his time in the states around here we're hearing has best silly flown out from new york streets today about you this rally and there was also rumors that former president mikhail gorbachev was or is this week we're now hearing that that might not be the case and there are conflicting reports as to whether a presidential candidate were held in order of this year. 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 it now it was some extra i was into that will be with you throughout the day joining you keep you out as you know you are just exactly comes out of i mean the calmest weeks of the crowd in terms of the opposition all right we'll stay with you for that artie's and use in our life for us in central moscow thanks about . the year is drawing to a close we're taking a look back at some of the major events and stories that shape two thousand and eleven focusing today on the crisis in syria artie's tests are cilia 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 the 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 bad international journalists there but we're here in the center of the assyrian capital you can see behind me traffic is just about started 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 two sides even there were more than two sides it was not i want the regime or i don't want the regime. and there was one time you were interviewing a young man and he was rather critical of the government so he 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. st. we also spoke with soldiers' families those who have been killed and you can't wholesome feel that they are angry at the protesters because their sons have been lost fathers have been lost husbands have been lost so you can understand the point of view that they're coming from you from how console jer's kill other soldiers this is impossible whatever media says this is plainly lonely. and speaking about fear look out 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 or the

u.s. we're going to kill you. and so they were there wreck threats at the members of the f.c.c. particularly the leader. that was a scary time because we they 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 procured and so forth. and they're do you know but that is your job you go in there he 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 listening to the period after the. show their support for the government is the far cry from the images we've been seeing in other cities around the country where there have been reporting of security forces and government protests those elaborate one think about where this country whenever they'd be use about syria would be everything you suppose syria i would really pay attention to everybody here say that's correct i don't think that's or that's not 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 have gathered and good looks through it through that perspective rather than just what i see.

a party 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 you can catch them all online again at our teeth dot com. with the 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 in the secret services have now named it a new training ground for terrorists are to use 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 six acts 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. backed transitional government equipment and money other main donations despite a tough economic situation at home 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 baghdad dash and yemen go to study jihads 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 also has boston gas reserves and other natural resources including the rainy of which the u.s. and other countries have had their eye on for years is many points also to somalia

is to teach position presiding over a large part of oil transport routes through the gulf of aden you usually find when the military strategists are planning long term intervention somewhere. i'm looking at political map second the oil to gas is one of the big issues because a huge somali community around here. most of whom are from the south but not all and they're not saying to me. they are saying can we please have support to get a functioning system of government can pay. and some money 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 sense of humor 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 us the withdrawal 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 or two thousand iraqi civilians killed as well as 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 that with confidence that in the next twenty

or fifty years iraq will leader here in the in the gulf region that rivals any country inside of the gulf region i think that 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 progressing very well the american occupation of iraq saw 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 these are the country better off well it is our that they below and also the us troop invasion of iraq in two thousand and three and the grievance think he committed made the situation here worse there are so many mistakes committed by the us military leadership especially in managing a civilian us banks here this how to negative effect because as a fact many here say it was the american mismanagement from iraq that led to the rise of sectarian violence in the country all people if you us then who brings the

threat of us to iraq he said us a. damage to the infrastructure of iraq he said usa so i think. we on american must cooperate in order to. 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. want to bring. in many good things if. and then he can look to the equal a balanced view with see. iraq he follow america must

have been in everything on an american. subsidies and that's our sources 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. and with as regards other aspects civil life the political and parliamentarian aspects as well as the economic aspects to convince me see that iraq has good capabilities that the need 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 defend america that the

police don't another mistake. because your mistake is a great mistake. effects. but it's teach and also your future relations 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 r.t. . we're 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 minot's 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 our team 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 bad new 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 and 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 of 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 who were honest with people absolutely 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 the work so you have to be able to provide that process for them so 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 malaria ended up. i mean he understood what it was what it was like to have nothing oh i think that's probably what made him such a good leader of course for me it was a new apostles the kennedy was because of one the leader of my mind because you had to really man. my vision was and what he was a man who really wants to lead the nations of 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 of global war it is a. very complex and not easy to manage metis included by have a social or social networking is starting to change your mind over how to leave 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. russian space experiments spending a year and a half in an earthbound capsule to simulate a mission to mars but first the headlines stay with us.

oh.

three thirty pm in moscow these iraqi headlines up to fifty thousand people expected to descend on central moscow gathering for the second major protest against the result of this month's parliamentary poll the opposition claims the vote was rigged and call for a real election by the russian leadership has promised political reforms. no merry christmas in syria where a spiral of violence continues with two suicide blasts in damascus leaving more than forty dead and the arab league is in the country searching for ways.