excesses in libya david cameron reveals plans for involvement in oil rich somalia describing the country as a threat to the british security. it's ten pm here in moscow this is r t thanks for being with us my name is kevin owen and first tonight thousands gathered in central moscow to protest against this month's parliamentary election results the mass rally was organized by opposition groups who planned the vote was rigged he's innocent now i was at the scene of the demonstration. it's certainly fair to say that the head count of the saturday's rally beats that we saw two weeks ago at below the a 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's parliamentary vote we saw several different faces of the opposition but also some celebrities it's fair to say broker 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 in 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 gudrid speak to the power and he spoke officially on stage and he called for people who were involved in the so-called vote rigging to be brought to justice and called for a snap elections in terms of the parliament well as soon as we saw protests which happened in almost immediately after the vote some of them sanctions others

unsanctioned we heard reaction from both president ms vader 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 medvedev a proposal about some mass reforms to russia's political system disease centralized power from moscow but also to create more of a representative proportional system in the russian parliament there are a lot of different political parties and organizations that have been coming out. these protesters not really leaders there are faces of the opposition some of them more well known than others one of the most well known as parties themselves he is supported by washington's national endowment for democracy and he spoke to the crowd today he wasn't as well received as to reach the goal of course that might have something to do with the reason our phone reporting scandal in which

a conversations you had on his phone were leaked to life news and there you could blatantly 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 hampsters probably the biggest speaker of the day was next in the bar 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 he was very well received well you don't hear a lot about nirvana is his nationalist trends if you ever go and read his walk you can read about some of his movements 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 onto the streets certainly there is a feeling that crowds will continue to come out until their demands are met. and

said this is now reporting for us now are closely following developments in the russian capital online to you go to our you tube channel for the latest video footage from the site of the rallies earlier on today calling for those new transponder lecture and you can also get all the background to a moscow's protest on the web site all to see go home. more news today violence is once again flared up. in these are the images the world has been seeing from the streets of canada. giant corporations rule the day. coming up on r t behind the scenes of the big news. after the interview was finished they all came up to us and said get us on camera we want to see what we

feel artie's tests are a silly it was one of the few foreign correspondents allowed to report from syria he looks back of the anger and fear that she encountered them. but before that staying with syria the country mourns the victims of friday's terror attacks forty four were killed and more than one hundred fifty wounded in twin suicide bombings in damascus syria's muslim brotherhood claimed responsibility while the arab league works to put a peace plan into action r.t. sarah firth 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. on. the first day of the league's work was a bloody tragic day the people of syria will never forget. this kind of here the capsule is usually brightly lit as christians here count the ten percent of the population get ready to celebrate christmas but these scenes of devastation are

a harsh contrast and a stark reminder of just how much the country has changed in the past nine months. last year at christmas we used to wish 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 priests here planning their own mark of respect for the cause. of syria our people to avoid the external. 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. the government claims it is your position. and you oppose and claims the government. taxing killings it be 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 turn as a means to see who is more. to the truth one of the yeah big 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 heaping for and that's for the violence to be stopped the christmas celebration thing down this religious services will be happening people. against the with their country. are the. well the permanent members of the u.n. security council are still of ordering time of our act on syria russia wants a balanced resolution calling on all sides to lay down arms but the u.s. and its allies seem committed to putting the blame on president assad's regime political analyst over gallager thinks the west has a very specific agenda for syria'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 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 really cut off the and put in place a government that would be friendly to the u.s. we have to remember that right after the obama administration withdrew 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 you know rest in syria's dominated will had long since march that is one of the top ten events in nearly a whole year of news here. but

a lot of time reporting from syria. thoughts about the crisis that. 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 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 most before 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 at 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 and you can't 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 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 set 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 us 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. everywhere 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 in islamabad the syrian capital well our lives have gathered show their support for the government how did they get up far cry from the images we've been seeing in other cities that a country where there have been reporting a lot of the great war says that at least government protests those however what they get. nowhere and this country whenever they'd be news about syria would never really be everything you suppose syria i would really pay attention and bother everybody here and 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 have gathered and looked through with

through that perspective rather than just what i see. well color test for a seller there just like you know every day right up to the new year will bring you more personal reflections more correspondents who covered the biggest stories of the year you can see the most as well of course on the web site r t dot com if you get a chance to go online we've got the stories waiting for you as well tonight in our team gold com now you write the city of los angeles is pushing people detained in the occupy l.a. protests to take classes about the first amendment to learn the proper way to size free speech that story interests you want to check it out. we've called life footage straight from bethlehem we're still streaming it now hosting the biggest catholic event celebrate christmas in palestine the latest pictures to on our web site are.

spurred on by the apparent success of his intervention in libya britain now turns inside to another oil rich african state somalia is seen as a training ground for terrorists with the potential to incite extremism among young british muslims and its fate is going to be decided indeed at a summit in london in february our correspondent 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 it's a military intervention 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 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 native terrorist training ground where british residents from a variety of backgrounds pakistan baghdad 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 of the kidnapping of aid workers and tourists but crucially somalia also has boston gas reserves and other natural resources including uranium which the u.s. and other countries have had their eye on for years many points also to somalia's to teaching position presiding over a large parts of oil transport routes through the gulf of aden usually fine when the military strategists are planning long term intervention somewhere. i'm looking

at political march second the oil and gas one of the biggest used as 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 please intervene they're saying can we please have support to get a functioning system of government and. since somali 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. coming up her controversial goodbye just days after u.s. troops withdrew from iraq r.t. takes a look at the legacy that some say they've left behind. will be using briefly fall that first nigeria at least sixty one people have been killed in days of unrest in the northeastern part of the country members of the radical muslim group boko haram

clashed with security forces in a fierce gun battle people living near the city's central mosque were asked to leave before armed soldiers moved tanks into the neighborhood the recent string of clashes began on thursday with boko haram campaigning to implement strict sharia law across the country. middle east yemen is being shaken by unrest the security forces fire all massed crowds killing ten injuring dozens of officers used guns tear gas and water cannons against demonstrators in the capital there was a man in the former president ali abdullah saleh be tried for his long and violent crackdown on anti-government protests when we were still in power thirty three year rule ended last month when he handed over power to his vice president and exchange for complete immunity from prosecution. iraq's vice president said the government was behind thursday's series of warnings that killed dozens of people in baghdad tariq al hashimi claimed such a large attack was impossible without some kind of help from an authority he fled

to iraq's kurdish region after an arrest warrant was issued against him for terrorist charges at least sixty eight were killed in baghdad on thursday by multiple groups. and the violence comes just days after u.s. troops say goodbye of course to iraq nine years after the invasion began over one hundred thousand iraqi civilians and thousands of american soldiers lost their lives in the war that cost america a trillion dollars now many iraqis say the war was a mistake and they're sending that message very clearly to u.s. leaders 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 we do here in the gulf region that rivals any country in sizable 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's on the fall of the balance regime the capture and execution of deposed leader saddam hussein and the implementation of a democratic government but now nearly nine years later is the country better off well it is or that they were below and also the u.s. troop invasion of iraq in two thousand and three and their 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 aspects here for this kind of negative effect because i said the fact many here say it was the american mismanagement of iraq and that led to the rise of sectarian violence in the country people if you ask 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 feel for a strong future but as iraq appears to move past this dark chapter they have a message for their former occupiers to defend america that the police another amnesty. because you are a mystic is a great mistake. affects. each 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. twenty twelve is almost here then they were set to be the year of the presidential election as the u.s. russia from south korea all go to the polls with millions yet to make that choice the question is what makes a good modern day leader new york resident laurie oftenest gauge depending on the streets of the big apple that.

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 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 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 yes they're true leader and 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 though 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 america came from malaria ended up. i mean he understood what it was but it was. probably what made him such a good leader of course for me i was. looking at it was was of one the leader of my mind really man. my vision was and he would 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 war it is a. very complex and not easy to manage met us. it's totally 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. twenty seven it's past midnight here in moscow looking ahead to programs coming in the next. technology update we bring in the new. way into our everyday lives.

well going into the future. years wishes on technology updates next generation playthings made from super strong cultural lightweight building materials good health a little help the nuclear isotopes a cleaner planet thanks to the revolutionary way to get rid of our growing

landfills and a long list of the russian innovators. please listen shirt. among the least exploding areas. pure and untouched by money. surrounded by steep law. case paintings on display for thousands of years. eastham science beyond the taiga. on oxy.

live from central moscow this is r.t. and these are our top stories tonight thousands of turned to rally in the russian capital in the second mass protest the largest yet against last month's parliamentary polls told the opposition claim a vote was rigged and they want to run while the governments are promised political reform according to police no one was detained during the moscow protests. in syria old people want for christmas and the new year is paced and there's no festive mood in the area the latest round of violence really does that amid the esc.