morning in the russian capital a second mass protest took place saturday against the parliamentary poll result. in recent history has come and gone without incident thousand came onto the streets of the capital to protest against what they call a rigged vote and they want to join me now wait for more details. in syria the first of all of a season is interrupted by a new round of violence in damascus that left dozens dead. and a christmas resolution david cameron reveals plans for involvement in the oil rich . country a threat to british security. over

a good morning from the top stories of thousands gathered in central moscow to protest against this month's parliamentary election results the rally was organized by opposition groups who said the poll was rigged. 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 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 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 talked 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 allegedly 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 calls for a snap elections in terms of the parliament 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 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 to these. rochester's 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 to reach the goal of course that might have something to do with the reason our phone reporting scandal in which 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 hamsters probably the biggest speaker of the day was next in the biden he's really the rising star of the opposition he is an anti-corruption

activist and 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 coach us 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 we've got much more russian capital for you two on one lot more coverage that will go on for you tube channel for video from other saturday's rally you can also get a little background a lot more comment on moscow's protest by adding twelve website as well to call.

the news today violence is once again flared up. police are the images the world has been seeing from the streets of canada. trying to. syria mourns the victims of friday's twin terror attacks where forty four people were killed and more than one hundred fifty wounded series muslim brotherhoods claimed responsibility will the arab league meantime works to put a peace plan still into action r.t. sarah firth looks at how the tragedies dampen the people's holiday spirit. 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. this time live here the capsule is usually brightly lit as christians here camp attempt to censor 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 to 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 us. this year is totally different because of the situation in our country. the priests here at planning their own mark of respect for the cause. of. 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 the while the opposition originally marked by its emphasis and it's a peaceful protest it's now been joined by growing numbers of army defectors and has become increasingly arms on the months of crackdowns by the government and this violence spreads its prevailing extremely hard to know exactly who is responsible for what. you have. from somebody who is not. the government claims it is the position the president claims is a government. taxing killings have been met repeatedly with claim counter-claim an accusation. you know we have to use two different. teams.

don't have. we don't tell you is a means to see who is more. for the truth before you are 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 heaping for and that's for the violence to be stopped the christmas celebration the thing down this religious services will be happening people so. against the with their country there are the. the permanent members of the u.n. security council still and all over how to 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 gollum's or told her she thinks the west has a very specific agenda now 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 the strategic resources in syria and throughout the region which is the same case that we saw in libya i mean that the whole justification of protecting the population was really just a front to be able to overthrow and assassinate really a moammar gadhafi 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. rustam syria's dominated world headlines most since march has indeed been one of the top of the. vonn news coverage here on. of course one of. those but a lot of time reporting from syria these are some 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 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 the 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. streets. we also spoke with soldiers families those who had been killed and you can't haul so feel that they are angry at the protesters because their sons have been lost fathers have been lost husbands have been lost so you can understand the point of view that they're coming from you from how console gers kill other soldiers this is impossible whatever media says this is plainly lowly. 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 the u.s. we're going to kill you. and so they were there wreck 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 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. everywhere do you know but that is your job you go in there she 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 you can't get anything on film where you're on the steps of the syrian capital where the outlook out there to 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 specific areas or said to be a government protest those however what they do about it where in this country whenever they'd be the news about syria we're never going to be everything do you suppose syria i would really pay attention and although everybody here say 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 it through that perspective rather than just what i see. one of our correspondents here in r.t. this brought you the news nearly every day on this channel and every day up to the new year will bring you more personal reflections on the correspondents who cover the biggest stories of the year you can also see them as well on our website dot com one of their if you get a minute to check. the stories you might be interested in as well know your rights the city of los angeles is pushing people now detained in the occupy l.a. protests to take classes about the first amendment the proper way to exercise free speech also a live event we're streaming. live pictures straight from the vatican this is the

latest you're seeing there's a couple of hours where of course from celebrating christmas this latest on a website or. a very special time of course if you are celebrating christmas anywhere around the world right now very best wishes for me kevin owen and the rest of the our team thanks for being with us and hope you have a very good day. spurred on by the apparent success of this intervention in libya britain and other oil rich african states somalia it's seen as a training ground for terrorists with the potential to incite extremism among young british muslims and it's face going to be decided indeed at the 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 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. backs transitional government equipment and money other main nations despite a tough economic situation. there are around one 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 british residents from a variety of backgrounds pakistan baghdad dash yemen. 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 a tourist but crucially somalia has boston gas reserves and other natural resources including which the u.s. and other countries have had their eye on for years many points to somalia is to teach position presiding over a large parts of oil transport through the gulf of aden you usually find when the military strategists are planning long term intervention somewhere. i'm looking at political much second. oil gas one of the biggest. community around here. most of whom are from the north pole and then saying to me. 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. coming up a controversial goodbye just days after u.s. troops drew from iraq r t takes a look at the legacy that some say they've left behind. some told me stories right now the first go to nigeria there 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 come paining to implement strict sharia law across the country. in the middle east yemen's been shaken by the rest of security forces fire on massed crowds killing ten injuring dozens officers use guns tear gas and water cannon against demonstrators in the capital sanaa demanding that

former president ali abdullah saleh 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. rocks vice president has said the government was behind it first a series of bombings that killed dozens of people in baghdad tell me claim that such a large attack was impossible without some kind of help from the thora he thought he fled to iraq's kurdish region after an arrest warrant was issued against him for terror charges the sixty eight were killed in baghdad there are multiple car and roadside bombs. and the 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're sending that message very clearly to u.s.

leaders now correspondent sean thomas reports. packing up to head home it may be easy to overlook the total costs of war at least one hundred fourteen thousand iraqi civilians killed as well as four and a half thousand american soldiers millions displaced from their homes not to mention a one trillion dollars financial burden still the former occupiers leave behind some words of encouragement i can say it with confidence that in the next twenty or fifty years iraq will be a leader here in the 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

well it is or that they below and also the u.s. troop invasion of iraq can through thousand and three and the grievance think he committed made the situation here worse there are so many mistakes committed by the u.s. military leadership especially in managing a civilian us banks here this how to 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 people if you us who brings the threat of us to iraq he said usa. who bring 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 going 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 our friends america the police don't another amnesty. because you will stick is a grave mistake it affects you. but it's teach. 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 r t. twenty twelve is almost here it's set to be the year of the presidential election as the u.s. russia france and south korea all go to the polls with millions yet to make their choice the question is what makes a good modern day leader new york resident laurie hof an escaped opinion 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 an ability 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 think it's an international way of speaking you know everybody gets it and everybody likes it circumstances are controlled all the countries so somebody step up and take the reins you know would you follow someone that was strong like that even if you didn't necessarily believe yes yes they're true leader who were honest with people is having the ability to lead people more important than having the intelligence or the right kind of policies. yeah i would say it is because you have to have a whole team of people that are actually implementing your work so you have to be able to provide that process for them you know is it important for them to have money so that they understand how it works or is it important for them to not have so much money so they're in touch with people who is probably important for them to have come up having no money i mean look. i mean you look at america 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 it was. kennedy was. my mind really man. my vision was an easy but 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 this totally different because of global war it is a. very complex and not easy to manage. to leave a 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.

looking for ways to continue to. thank you for watching.

this was the plant that was responsible for causing the world's worst industrial disaster and now it had been abandoned in a condition where it had become a source of pollution or the most recent study that was done shows that this water pollution and spreading. more than hundred thousand people in. groups walking and. ten times more likely to be born with birth defects in children in the rest of the

country. in the sea as little as five hundred dollars. unpunished.