fueled by successes in libya david cameron reveals plans for involvement in the oil rich somalia at this drive in the country as a for 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 a 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 two weeks ago at below plan 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 had 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 will procure 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 a far 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 accouterments 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 snap elections in

terms of the parliament 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 very different 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 heads 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 or 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 reporting 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 a 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 garden and he's 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 of our name 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 the 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 you know martin 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 and 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 counts will continue to come out until their demands are met all right thanks very much for that update 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 on moscow rallies along with 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 cilia one of the few foreign correspondents allowed to report from syria and 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 mourning 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 three sarah 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. the first day of the league's work was a bloody tragic day the people of syria will never forget these terrorists. this kind of here the capsule is usually brightly lit as christians here can succumb to send to 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 planning their own mark of respect for the coast. of syria our people to. avoid the external signs of 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 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 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. it is your position the. government. taxing killings have been met repeatedly with claim counter-claim an accusation. you know we have to use two different movies to use the. don't have the. we don't time as a means to see who is more inclusive to the to one of the p.r.b. team will be attempting to cut through the rhetoric and discover his patient 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 for and that's for

the violence to be stopped the christmas celebrations my having down this religious services will be happening people. against the with a country where the the. unrest 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 serious spent a lot of time reporting from the country here's 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 ban 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 wholesale 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 understand the point of view that they're coming from how console gers kill other 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 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 wrecked 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 their our interview we are you scared he said you only die once. so the syrians are very i felt hospitable people but 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. ever 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 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 was a far cry from the images we've been seeing in other cities that the country where there have been reporting a lot of it makes it very fortunate that i don't see a government that's out of those however what they get about 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 that they gots 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 with 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 face could be unleashed once a recently developed recipe for creating of varilux 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 a 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 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 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 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 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 part of oil transport routes through the gulf of aden and usually following when the military strategists are planning long term intervention somewhere. i'm looking at a political map second the oil to gas one of the biggest huge has a huge somali community around here that i represent most of whom are from the south but not all and they're not saying to me he's in to free they're saying can we please have support to get a functioning system of government and. so you see this as a direct result of the perceived six by the government itself the campaign in libya operation and oust gadhafi that 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 tirico 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 thursday 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 one or at least one hundred or two 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 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 odd that they below him also the u.s. troop invasion of iraq in two thousand and three and their grievance they could commit to meet 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 they said the fact many here say it was the american mismanagement from 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. damage to the infrastructure of iraq he said. so i think. we 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 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 and the police don't another atomistic in though because you are a mystic is a great mistake and it affects you. 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 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 and the people the world and a lot of patience and 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 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 who is probably important for them to

have come up having no money i mean the latest 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 else probably what made him such a good leader of course for me i was a new apostle. kennedy was was of one the leader of my mind as you were just really man. my vision was and he was a man who really wants to lead the nation 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 avoid is a totally very complex and not easy to manage matters including by have a 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.

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 updates. next generation placings made from super strong cultural elite building materials good health with a host of nuclear isotopes a cleaner planet seems to the revolutionary way to get rid of or growing landfills and a long list of russian innovators. wealthy british scientists on some time to write. market why not. find out what's really happening to the global economy with mike stronger for a no holds barred look at the global financial headlines tune into cars

a report. on six thirty pm in moscow the zero g. headlines thousands turn out to rally you know russian capital and a second mass protest against the parliamentary poll result the opposition claim the vote was rigged then they want a rerun while the government has promised political reform. in syria all people want for christmas is peace but there is no festive mood in the air as the latest round of violence seems dozens dead maybe escalation the arab league the poison service to try and mediate a peace deal.