lolol. another rally in the russian capital with a second mass protest against the parliamentary poll results this is live video you're looking at problem central moscow. you can see thousands of people have gathered behind me believing the parliamentary vote here is rangers and they are really brought joy i mean you know i live in moscow around the. world in syria all people want for christmas is peace and there is no festive mood in the air as the latest round of violence leaves dozen dead. a new mission for a new year fueled by successes in libya david cameron reveals plans for involvement in the oil rich somalia describing the country as a threat to british security. four

pm in moscow why matras are good to have you with us here at r.t. our top story thousands of protesters have gathered again in central moscow protesting against this month's parliamentary election results mass rallies being organized by various opposition groups claiming the vote was rigged for more on this we go live to our correspondent in isa now at the heart of the demonstrations good to have you again with us and nice oh so fifty thousand people expected to turn out of the protest you're there on the scene how many so far. while it's hard to count i'm bad with numbers we're hearing very conflicting reports as to how many people have so not let you take a look for yourself you can see a stage has been set up the official figure we're hearing is around thirty thousand the opposition is saying of five hundred that it's one hundred twenty thousand you can see this is a street in knoxville a very wide street it's completely packed as you can certainly there are tens of

thousands of people i think saying a hundred thousand is exaggerating a bit. but as the afternoon goes on more and more people are joining the rally where opposition leaders are taking turns coming up and i dress in the crowd you can see it was a dear friend of my ex lots of different political parties here from the nationalists the communists to the national goals of x. party which is actually a man or dared us to certainly a lot of different political parties earn a lot of people aren't affiliated parties coming out to call for free had their own mind since various of them are trying to start to weeks ago at a mass protest on below my where there the number was fifty thousand and it is looking like the numbers are going to be that bloodless where protests which happened two weeks ago to correctly after the results are there mentoring about the people here claiming they will continue to come out onto the streets and hold until their demands are met marty hearing another date has been set for the end of january or the next rally. for the government's part here is what's their response

so far they ready to meet the people of the well. we're going to have people come out onto the streets almost immediately after the vote and start both president medvedev and prime minister they don't have their votes and so that as long as protests are within the law can i don't hate anyone ok either they encouraged to come out at all have their voices heard and make demands if it gets to hold you over for the developments and political life in russia to have people more medically active and it's very exist that is what's happening people are getting more involved that. that's not something that we can swear i'd have said just a couple of years ago people really care about what's happening out there where they go as we can see to come out onto the streets but really just today's before those protests we had a huge announcement from president said i'm about to propose a political reform of the country a system which i'm sure some of the exact things that people here are making demands for which is basically decentralized power by moscow including having

regional elections or people interacting be able to elect regional heads knowing the amounts of. signatures to turn fired. a little bit hard is it our have parties we have to be on the run for the parliamentary election and also to number the amount of signatures needed to run his her presidential you know that's something that people have been demanding this for years to follow though it seems that the protesters are saying that that is not enough that they will continue coming out in the streets until they see some kind of alchemy rotten. who are the main opposition leaders and just how much political leverage they have. one more time and he said if you can hear me who are the main opposition leaders and how much political leverage they have. parent we've lost our connection with a nice we'll check back in with her in future hours and keep you updated on the situation. we're constantly bringing you live updates on the developments in the

rallies in the russian capital for all the latest you can also check out our our online page artie's an isa now reporting from the heart of the protest log on to our twitter feed to get fresh news from her as well as the latest pictures from the scene you can also see the opposition rally in moscow live right now by clicking on our team dot com. and coming away later this hour behind the scenes of the big news. yes there are interview we are you scared he said you only die once artie's tessera so you're one of the few foreign correspondents allowed to report from syria she looks back from the fear and anguish she witnessed while she was there. but first it is not the season to be jolly in syria which is mourning the victims of friday's terror attacks forty four people killed more than one hundred fifty wounded in two suicide bombings in

damascus syria's muslim brotherhood has claimed responsibility for the attacks this is the arab league begins its mission to put a peace plan into action r.t. sara for reports. 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 conflict. the first day of the league's work was a bloody tragic day the people of syria will never forget these terrorists and this time of year the capsule is usually brightly lit is christy and here comes 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 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 us. this year is totally different because of the situation in our country. the priests here are planning their own mark of respect for the. we. of syria our people to avoid the external signs of history beauties but to go. no one 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 armed on the 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 continues. to position the truth and do oppose and claims a zoo government. taxing killings to be met repeatedly with claim counter-claim an accusation. have to use two different views to use the. we don't turn as a means to see who is more. to the truth 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 for and that's for the violence to be stopped

the christmas celebrations going down this religious services will be happening. again for the with their country there are. so permanent members of the un security council still at odds over how to act on the syria russia was a balanced resolution calling on all sides to lay down arms the u.s. and its allies committed to putting all the blame on the assad regime political analyst eva golinger thinks the west has a specific agenda for the country's future. the reason they would want to provoke regime change is to put in place a government that would be friendly to us and its allies interests and of course to enable those interests to control the strategic resources in syria and throughout the region which is the same case that we saw in libya i mean that the whole justification of protecting the population was really just a front to be able to overthrow and assassinate william lamarck out cut off the and

put in place a government that would be friendly to the u.s. they have to remember that right after the obama administration with drew troops from iraq to some of those were relocated to the border of syria from jordan and in preparation of arming this conflict and possibly engaging in it as well and i think that these terrorist attacks are part of that or part of maybe a justification to say hey there needs to be a stronger military presence from abroad in order to prevent further military conflict internally in the country that could result in the deaths of so called innocent civilians. in syria has dominated world headlines since march and it's one of the top ten events shaved almost a whole year of news broadcasting for our team our correspondent spent a lot of time reporting from the country here is her testimony.

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 where 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 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 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 stock 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. streets. we all spoke at soldiers' families those who had been killed and you can't wholesale 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 how console jer's killed their soldiers this is impossible whatever media says this is plainly lawyer. 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 he wrote some threats on the wall. we had to our fixer who translated what it meant. it said you're working for the u.s. we're going to kill you. and so they were threats at the members of the n.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 their our 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. and so forth. every detail 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 cat 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

a far cry from the images we've been seeing in other cities of the country where there have been reporting of. government protests those elaborate what they get. nowhere and this country whenever they did use about syria when the term we. use about syria i would really pay attention. to here say i think that's correct i don't think that's. 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've gathered and look through it through that perspective rather than just what i see. each day right up to the new year will bring you more personal reflections from our correspondents who experience the biggest stories of the year first head and if you can't wait for them to air here on our child you can watch them on our web site r t

v dot com there is where is a plenty more waiting for you there are a click away including this know your rights the city of los angeles pushing people detained in the occupy l.a. protests to take classes on the first amendment to learn the proper way to exercise free speech and. bioterror scare the worst pandemic humanity's ever faced could be unleashed as one so recently developed a recipe for creating a virulent manmade flu was published. still high on its apparent success for the intervention campaign in. libya britain now turns a size to another oil rich african state somalia is seen as a training ground for terrorists with a potential to incite extremism among british muslims and its fate could be decided

at a summit in london in february artie's laura smith has more. 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 it's a military intervention report suggests 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. backs transitional government equipment and money other main nations despite a tough economic situation. there are around a hundred thousand somalis living in the u.k. making up one of the largest muslim groups according to m i five somalia is the native terrorists training ground where british residents from

a variety of backgrounds pakistan baghdad dash and yemen go to study jihad the risk is that they then come back to the u.k. and carry out terrorist attacks there's all say the threats of piracy out of the kidnapping of aid workers and tourists but crucially somalia also 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 teach position presiding over a large parts of oil transport routes through the gulf of aden and usually following military strategist to planning long term intervention somewhere. looking at. the oil gas one of the biggest has a huge somali community around here. most of whom are from the north pole and they're not saying to me. have support to get

a functioning system of government and. since the money some see this as a direct result of the perceived success by the government of the campaign in libya operation me to oust gadhafi successful next stop somalia. well stay with us here on our he's still to come this hour a controversial farewell just days the u.s. troops draw from iraq some say they've left people thinking of them as terrorists. but first a look at what's happening around the world turning to pakistan where a suicide car bomb has killed six soldiers wounded at least twelve others the bomber drove a car packed with explosives into a paramilitary camp in the northwest of the country a taliban spokesman has claimed responsibility for the attack saying it was in revenge for the recent killing by u.s. drones of its commander in the area just one day after a similar taliban attack led to one person being killed and fifteen kidnapped.

cuba set to release almost three thousand prisoners including some convicted of political crimes those accused of serious offenses including murder drug trafficking and treason would not be granted such amnesty president castro said eighty six foreign prisoners from twenty five countries would also be freed he added the gesture would show cuba's strength and unity ahead of the upcoming papel visit. at least sixty one people have been killed during several days of fighting in the north west nigeria clashes between members of a suspected members of a radical muslim sect boko haram city and security forces began thursday with gunfire and explosions throughout the region violence has left at least two police officers dead and three churches bombed residents living near the central mosque of the city were asked to evacuate before soldiers and tanks drove through the neighborhood shooting. iraq's vice president has said the government was behind

thursday's series of bombings that killed dozens of people in baghdad terry hashmi claim that such and the attack was on such a scale impossible without some kind of help from authorities he fled to iraq's kurdish region after an arrest warrant was issued against the show charges at least sixty eight people were killed in baghdad thursday multiple car and roadside bomb. the violence in iraq just comes days after u.s. troops say goodbye to the country nine years after the invasion started more than one hundred thousand iraqi civilians and thousands of american soldiers lost their lives in the war that cost the u.s. a trillion dollars now many iraqis say the war was a mistake and they're sending that message very clearly to the u.s. our correspondent sean thomas reports. 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 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 it's progressing very well the american occupation of iraq saw the fall of the baddest 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 a little. the u.s. troop invasion of iraq can three thousand and three hundred grave mistake be committed made the situation here worse there are so many mistakes committed by the u.s. military leadership especially in managing civilian aspects here this had

a negative effect because. 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 us then who brings the threat of us to iraq he said us. who are willing to give them each to the infrastructure of iraq he said yes and so i think. we on american must cooperate in order to. this. culture that hey it's. between two peoples the timeline for u.s. troop withdrawal was set in two thousand and eight and while the obama administration an issue. he tried to extend the deadline the official transfer of power came sixteen days ahead of schedule on december sixteenth two thousand and eleven 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 has diminished as well giving iraqis hope for a strong future but as iraq prepares to move past this dark chapter they have a message for their former occupiers to defend america and the police don't another atomistic in though because it will stick is a grave mistake and it affects you. but is teach. you the future of relations and friends are few right now in a region in which america's reputation lies in shreds in the eyes of many in iraq sean thomas r t. twenty twelve is almost here and it's said to be the year of the presidential election as the us russia france and south korea all go to the polls with millions yet to make their choice the question is what makes a good body and

a leader new york resident laurie harkness gauged opinion on the streets of the big . 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 the inability to be able to be flexible just with the american people the people the world and a lot of patience i equate intelligence with humor. i mean say oh yeah a quick mind do you think that any sense of humor it would be appealing in a world leader i think it's an international way of speaking you know everybody gets it and everybody likes it circumstances are controlled all the countries 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 they're true leader no we're 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 that they're in touch with people who is probably important for them to have come up having no money i mean. i mean you look at where he came from malaria ended up. i mean he understood what it was what it was like to have nothing thing though is probably what made him such a good leader of course for me it was a new a positive. you know kennedy was was one of the lead of my mind because you had

this really man who was my vision was an easy but 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 that very complex than the management this included but of a social. it's totally changed my 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. turning back now to our top story the ongoing mass demonstration in central moscow thousands have turned out to protest against the results of this month's parliamentary election this is a live video you're looking at from the rally of various opposition groups taking part and addressing the crowd calling for

a rerun of the election to the state duma which they claim was rigged it's the second such protest two weeks ago tens of thousands took to the streets also to have their say stay with us here on r.t. for the latest on this developing story a correspondent and use in our ways covering it all with the latest updates. soon in our special on the money program how good are russians at saving their cash and how far will the russian consumer market expand in the coming years but first the headlines stay with us.

the least explain areas. untouched by. surrounded by steep long. case paintings on display for thousands of years. the eastern sun and beyond the tiger. come on chief. among the money with the business over russia visibly.