the second mass protest in the russian capital against the parliamentary poll results. recent history has come and gone without incident as thousands come onto the streets of the capital to claim to call for a rerun of the parliamentary vote that took place early december joining me now away from party towns. in syria all the people want for the holidays is peace but 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 the british security. six

pm in moscow i'm good to have you with us here on r.t. our top story thousands gathered in central moscow protesting against this month's parliamentary election results the mass rally was organized by opposition groups who claim the vote had been rigged for more on this we go live to our he's an isa now a live for us at the scene of the demonstration hello a nice oh so fifty thousand people were expected to show up in protest today what was the result. it's certainly fair to say that the head count of this saturday's rally beats that we saw it two weeks ago at below plans square official figures we're hearing from the interior ministry is that thirty thousand opposition is saying some hundred thousands but certainly tens of thousands of people came onto the streets of moscow today to call for free and fair elections you have lots of

different political groups here people that just came out and say they're not part of any political group that in fact they don't want this to be politicized they want to just come out and have their demands made and what they're demanding is a rerun of december as part of the meant to revote we saw several different faces of the opposition but also some celebrities it's fair to say refill procurer of who of course is a relatively new politician who's running for president in march showed up he didn't speak to the crowd like was expected but he did go around and really talk to people it looked a little bit from afar like some kind of campaigning really and what he did say was that if he becomes president he would dissolve this this state duma and call for new elections we also saw former finance minister alexei couture in speak to the crowd he spoke officially on stage and he called for people who were involved in the so-called of vote rigging to be brought to justice and calls for a snap elections in terms of the parliament but really the most common thing we're hearing today is that people will continue to come out onto the streets until their

demands are met and the next protest is already being there are rumors circulating around that it's already been planned for the end of january. but what about the government is it ready to meet the people's demands what's been the kremlin response so far. well as soon as we saw a protest which happened almost immediately after the vote some of them sanctions others unsanctioned we heard reaction from both president medvedev and prime minister putin saying that protests are encouraged in terms of people coming out and voicing their demands and that's important for russia's political development and important that people are politically active as long as it stays within the law but we also just two days before this rally heard from president means verge of a proposal about some mass reforms to russia's political system most specifically and importantly i think experts would say is as decentralizing basically power from moscow spreading it out across the country for instance by having people directly

vote for regional has having less signatures required to register political parties or to register to run in parliamentary elections lessening the number of signatures needed to run in the presidential election this is something that protesters in opposition have criticized is a very complex system to really to put it in short what madrid his main proposal was was like i said to seize centralized power from moscow but also to create more of a representative for a proportional system in the russian parliament and who are the main opposition leaders and just how much political leverage do they really have. there are a lot of different political parties and organizations that have been coming out to these protests and there's not really leaders there are faces of the opposition some of them more well known than others one of the most well known is pretty slim solve ai he is supported by washington's national endowment for democracy and he spoke to the crowd today he wasn't as well received as two weeks ago of course that

might have something to do with the recent phone recording scandal in which conversations he had on his phone were leaked to life news and there you could plainly hear him rudely speaking about other opposition leaders in fact he was booed a bit by some of the people standing in the crowds perhaps because he called some of the protesters hamsters so he wasn't as well received today as as the previous rallies we saw garry kasparov who is well known of course as world chess champion he flew in especially from new york for this protest he wasn't here two weeks ago was criticized for that probably the biggest speaker of the day was next in the bar and he's the really the rising star of the opposition he's an anti-corruption activist well known for his russian blogging very well known here in russia and becoming more and more well known in the west you certainly become a star of the media i think it's fair to say he was detained at one of the earlier protests after the elections and stayed in detention for fifteen days so this was the first time he spoke publicly after being released and he was very well received well you don't hear

a lot about never know is his nationalist trends if you ever go and read his wife you can read about some of his movements like russia is for russians which is sort of an anti immigration nationalist policy and he also is involved with a movement that's called stop feeding the caucuses so this is something you hear less and less you hear not so much about i should say when you are is in the barn and in western media but it is something that most russians do you know because they can go and read his blog but he certainly becoming one of the stars of this movement in his words what he's calling for is for more and more people to come out to these next protests that are being planned today he called for a million. people to come out on the streets and certainly their feeling that crowds will continue to come out until their demands are met all right thanks very much for that update art he's an isa now i live for us in central moscow. remember we're bringing you the latest live updates on the developing situation in the russian capital and beyond go online for all the latest and he says reporting from the heart of today's protests you can log on to our twitter feed for her updates as

well as the day's pictures from the scene you can get all the background augie moscow rallies along with the video by heading over to our dot com. and stay with us here on our t.v. still to come later this hour behind the scenes of the big news. yes there are interview we are you scared he said. artie's tessera syria one of the few foreign correspondents allowed to report from syria she looks back at the fear anguish she witnessed all reporting there. but first it may be the season to be jolly for many around the world but not in syria which is warning the victims of friday's terror attacks forty four people were killed more than one hundred fifty wounded in two suicide bombings in damascus syria's muslim brotherhood has claimed responsibility for the attack this is the

arab league begins its mission to put up peace plan into effect there are key sara first reports 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 conflict. 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 if here the capsule is usually brightly lit as christians here cancer 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 hope 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 for the coast. of syria our people to avoid the external signs of festivities but to go. there one really feels like celebrating anyway when the country's hospitals are full of casualties the government claims it's fighting militant groups sponsored from abroad the while the opposition regionally 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. going to clean. the. government. taxing killings have been met repeatedly with claim counter-claim an accusation. the you know we have to use two different movies to use the. don't have the. we don't turn as a means to see who is more crew served through the truth of 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 shaping food and that's for the violence to be stopped it's the christmas celebration going down this religious

services will be happening people. against the with their country their. interest in syria has dominated world headlines since march and it's one of the top ten events that shaped nearly a whole year of news on our t.v. our correspondent tess are so he has spent a lot of time reporting from the country hears her thoughts on the crisis in syria . 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 journalist there will. be a syrian 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 mostly for us is that we saw a kind of. diverse opinions on what was going on there was no clear. 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 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 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. 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 hulse of feel that they are angry at the protesters because their sons have been lost fathers have been lost husbands have been lost and you can't 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 with sets and he when we called him he said i might have to cancel because. 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 the u.s. we're going to kill you. and so they 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. and so forth. 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 we can't get anything on film heard here on the steps of the syrian capital where the outlook gathered show their support for the government it ended up far cry from the images we've been seeing in all those cities that a country where there have been reporting a lot of the great force i don't see a government protesters cooperate once they get. to where in this country whenever they'd be the news about syria would never really be everything you suppose syria i would really pay attention and although 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 remembered everything that i had gathered and would look through it through that perspective rather than just what i see. and every day right up to the new year we'll bring you more personal reflections from the correspondents covering the biggest stories of the year and you can see them all on our web site right now at r.t. dot com here's what else is a click away. know your rights the city of los angeles pushing people detained at the occupy l.a. protests to take classes on the fourth amendment to learn the proper way to exercise free speech and lots. bioterrorist scare the worst pandemic humanity's ever faced could be unleashed was a recently developed recipe for creating a very early and made blue public. still

high in the apparent success of its intervention campaign in libya britain now turning its eyes to another oil rich african state somalia seen as a training ground for terrorists with the potential to incite extremism along young british muslims and its fate to be decided at a summit in london in february artie's laura smith reports. 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. backed transitional government's equipment and money other main donations despite a tough economic situation. there 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 latest terrorist 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 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 rainier which the u.s. and other countries have had their eye on for years is many points also to somalia

as to t.j. 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. i'm looking at political second. oil gas one of the biggest because a huge somali community around here. most of whom are from the north pole and saying to me. have support to get a functioning system of government and. and some money some see this as a direct result of that perceived six theft by the government of the campaign in libya operation and oust gadhafi thick festival next stop somalia. stay with us here on r t still ahead a controversial farewell just days after u.s. troops withdrew from iraq already takes a look at the legacy some say they have left behind. but first let's take

a look at some other stories making headlines across the globe beginning in nigeria where at least in the northeast sixty one people have been killed during several days of fighting clashes between suspected members of the radical muslim sect boko haram and security forces began on thursday with gunfire and explosions throughout the area violence has left at least two police dead and three churches bombed boko haram has launched a series of bombings against nigeria's weak central government in the last year hoping to implement strict sharia law across the nation. a suicide car bomb was killed six soldiers wounded at least twelve others in pakistan 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 retaliation 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 dead and fifteen kidnapped.

iraq's vice president says the government was behind thursday's series of bombings that killed dozens of people in baghdad to recall hashmi claim that such a large attack was impossible without some kind of help from authorities he fled to iraq's kurdish region after an arrest warrant was issued against him for a terrorist charges at least sixty eight people were killed in baghdad to this day by multiple car and roadside bombs. the violence comes just days after u.s. troops said goodbye to iraq nine years after the invasion and occupation started more than one hundred thousand iraqi civilians and thousands of u.s. service men and women 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 clear and clearly to u.s. leaders artie's sean thomas has more from baghdad. 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 that iraq now is a safe and secure environments 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 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 live these are the below i'm also the u.s. troop invasion of iraq in two thousand and three and the grievance the committed made the situation here worse there are so many mistakes committed by the u.s.

military leadership especially in managing the civilian speaks here for this kind of negative effect because 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 us who brings the threat of us to iraq he said usa. who could be damage to the infrastructure of iraq he said. so i think. we on american must cooperate in order to. put up 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 initially 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 have 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 that the police don't another atomistic and because you want to stick is a great mistake and it affects you. but as teach and also your future relations and friends are few right now in a region in which america's reputation lies in friends in the eyes of many in iraq sean thomas on t.v. . finally in his news block two thousand and twelve just around the corner and it's

said to be a year of the presidential election as the u.s. russia france and south korea and plenty more all head to the polls with millions yet to make their choice the question is what makes a good modern day leader new york resident laurie harkness to gauge opinion for us on the streets of times square. 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 sense of humor 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 or control and all the countries. take the reins you know would you follow someone that was strong like that even if you didn't necessarily believe. their true leader no were honest with people is having the ability to lead people more important than having the intelligence or the right kind of policy. 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 is probably important for them to have come up having. i mean. i mean you look from. i mean he understood what it was what it was like to have nothing else probably

what made him such a good leader of course for me it was a new. york kennedy was the leader of my mind because you had this really man who was my vision was and what he was a man who really wants to lead nations to. the 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 does a lot of the very complex and not easy to manage meadows included by a so shows so show. is starting to change your mind over how to leave a people no matter what qualities we'd like to be 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. latest edition of technology update coming your way in a few moments after the hour's top stories stay with us.

welcome to the future new year's wishes on technology update next generation places made from super strong cultural elites building materials with

a host of nuclear isotopes a cleaner planet thanks to the revolutionary ways to get rid of our growing man fields and along with the russian invaders. he's got the central. wealthy british stock. market. can. find out what's really happening to the global economy with. no holds barred the global financial headlines kaiser reports.