reveals plans for involvement in all ridged somalia now describing the country as a threat to british security. hello live from moscow this is r t a warm welcome to you it's just after midnight here now this early morning the twenty fifth of december there for our very best wishes to you at this time for me kevin zero in on the rest of the r.t.e. news team on duty now if you're celebrating christmas around the world to our top story thousands gathered in central moscow this saturday to protest against this month's parliamentary election results the mass rally was organized by opposition groups who claim the vote was rigged in this and now i was at the scene of the demonstration earlier. it's certainly fair to say that the head count of the 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 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 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 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 alexey gudrid speak to the crowd he spoke officially on the 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 for a proportional system in the russian parliament there are a lot of different political parties and organizations that have been coming out to 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 he wasn't as well received as you two leaks ago of course that might have something to do with the reason our phone reporting scandal in which the conversations you had on the 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 is 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 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 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 a correspondent on the scene in a tsunami there will continue to closely follow developments in the russian capital online as well on what you tube channel to see the latest video footage from the site of the rallies calling for those new transparent elections anyone feels good about ground common term reports about moscow's protest by having on her web site as well r t don't call him one of the as well because of the stories tell me about that later in the program. more news today violence is one sick. and flared up. these are the images the world has been seeing from the streets of canada. operation today.

this is our team and ahead we're behind the scenes of the big news. after the t.v. was finished they all came up to us and said get us on camera we want to see what we feel. was one of the few foreign correspondents allowed to report from syria she looks back at the anger indeed the fear she encountered there. before i was staying in syria the country's mourning the victims of friday's terror attacks forty four were killed more than one hundred fifty wounded in twin suicide bombings in damascus syria's muslim brotherhood claimed responsibility while the arab league is working to try to put a peace plan into action against it all sort of first 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 war it was a bloody tragic day the people of syria will never forget. this kind of here the capsule is usually brightly lit it is christians who can succumb to center of the population get ready to celebrate christmas but these scenes of devastation are a harsh contrast and the stark reminder of just how much the country has changed in the past nine months. last year to christmas we used to wish health and pray for people in other countries that were going through hard times with war we never thought that this year it would be. this year is totally different because of the situation in our country. the police here finding their own mark of respect for the coast. we. of syria you know our people to avoid the external signs of festivities but to go

inside 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 originally 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. it is your position that. 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 t.v. . we don't turn as a means to see who is more. for the truth one of the people you know a 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 hoping for and that's for the violence to be stopped the christmas celebration. down this religious services will be happening people. against the with their country there are the. the permanent members of the u.n. security council still and odds over how to work toward syria russia wants a balanced resolution calling on all sides to lay down arms but the u.s. and its allies seem committed to pinning the blame on president assad's regime

political analyst david gallo injured told us 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 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 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 if you go and you will them rest in serious dominated world headlines and indeed one of the top ten the vendors that show you nearly a whole year of all coverage you want to use well the news. spent a lot of time reporting from syria these are some of her thoughts about the ongoing crisis. 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 with soldiers' families those who have been killed and you can't haul so feel that they are angry at the protesters because their sons have been lost or 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 felt 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 there were threats at the members of the f.c.c. particularly 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 we've got pretty rough. our counter-offer 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 period after a lot of gathered show their support for the government it ended 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 force i don't see a government photo 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 bother everybody here to 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 remember everything that i had gathered and would look through with through that perspective rather than just what i see. artie's test for a center there just to let you know is what every day right up to the new year we're going to bring you more personal reflections from our correspondents who cover the biggest stories of the year for you you can also on line as well on our website altie dot com if you get a minute to check it out some of these stories as well that they're online right now if you want to take a look no you're right the city of los angeles is pushing people detained in the occupy l.a. protests to take classes now about the first amendment to the proper way to exercise free speech so mine from us and we've got live pictures we're showing for

most people coming to straight from jerusalem still a couple of hours away from celebrating christmas this latest beadle for streaming on a web site as well r t v dot com as you mentioned off your celebrated christmas a very happy christmas to you for all the table here at our t.v. this. spurred on by the apparent success of its 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 his fate is going to therefore be decided at this 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 to military intervention 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 jihads the risk is that they then come back to the u.k. and carry out terrorist attacks there's also the threats of piracy and the

kidnapping of aid workers and tourists but crucially somalia also has boston gas reserves and other natural resources including the rainier which the u.s. and other countries have had their eye on for years many points also to somalia as to t.j. position presiding over a large parts of oil transport routes through the gulf of aden new usually fine when the military strategists are planning long term intervention somewhere. i'm looking at political march second the oil to gas one of the biggest. 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. so you see this as a direct result of the perceived success by the government of the campaign in libya

operation me to oust gadhafi six festival next stop somalia. going up a controversial goodbye just days after u.s. troops withdrew from iraq takes a look at the legacy that they've left behind now. let's take a look at some news making headlines around the world first in nigeria where at least sixty one 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 complaining to implement strict sharia law or across the country. and in the middle east yemen's been shaken by unrest a security forces firing massed killing ten injuring dozens of officers used guns tear gas and water cannons against demonstrators in the capital sanaa they were

demanding the former president. be tried for his long and violent crackdowns on anti-government protests when he was still in power is thirty three year rule ended last month when he handed over power to his vice president in exchange for complete immunity from prosecution. iraq's vice president has said the government was behind a series of bombings that killed dozens of people in baghdad telling me claimed that such a large attack was not impossible without some kind of help and thought from the authorities he fled to iraq's kurdish region after an arrest warrant was issued against him should tell you at least sixty eight were killed in. car and roadside bombs. and that violence comes just days after u.s. troops of course said goodbye to iraq nine years after the invasion began over one hundred thousand iraqi civilians and thousands of american soldiers lost their lives in a war that cost america a trillion dollars now many iraqis say the war was

a mistake and they are sending that message very clearly to u.s. leaders 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 that with confidence in the next twenty or fifty years iraq will we do here 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 is the country better off the ladies are that they below him also the u.s. troop invasion of iraq in two thousand and three and the grief mystique he 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 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 or 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 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 feel for a strong future but as iraq appears to move past this dark chapter they have a message for their former occupiers to our friends america that the police another amnesty. because you are a mystic is a great mistake. affects you. based 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 john thomas. twenty twelve is almost here it is said to be the year indeed of the presidential election as the us russia france and south korea all go to the polls with millions than yet to make that choice the question is what makes a good modern day leader new york resident laurie half an escaped opinion all about that on the streets of the big apple. 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 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 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 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 i think it's probably important for

them to have come up having. i mean look. 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 in your past. or kennedy was the leader of my mind because you had to really man. my vision was and he was a man who really wants to lead the 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 it is a totally very complex and not easy to manage matters. 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.

small hours this very early december twenty fifth or moscow is coming up. shortly and santa claus is coming to town the take an inside look at the final preparations for festive celebrations in the russian capital as well that's right after a recap of our top stories in just a couple of. all .

year in bygone days dog sleds were vital to get around. but today they're more leisure than life line. one drives people to quit their modern lives and settle in remote woods. one finds them up to survive in the freezing cold. a new beginning in russia's nals discover the arctic circle on r.t.e. . among the least explored areas. and untouched by months. surrounded by steep book. case paintings on display for thousands of years.

eastern science and beyond the tiger. on our teeth. this is our to moscow these are all top stories thousands of turned out to rally in the russian capital in a second mass protest the largest yet against last month's paul. entry poll result the opposition claimed the vote was rigged and they want to rerun while the governments promise political reform according to police no one was detained during the moscow protests. in syria will people want for christmas in the new year now is peace and there is no festive mood as the latest round of violence leaves dozens dead.