to british security. thank you for joining us four o'clock here in moscow we go now to your top story thousands gathered in central moscow to protest against this month's parliamentary election results the rally was organized by opposition groups who say the poll was raked artes and he said now i was at the scene. 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 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 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 khujand speak to the crowd 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 almost immediately after the vote some of them sanctions others unsanctioned we heard reaction from both president ms vega 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. 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 birdies themselves he is supported by washington's national endowment for democracy he wasn't as well received as two weeks ago of course that might have something to do with the recent phone recording scandal in which 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 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 environment 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. and we have more from the russian capital for you online along on tour you tube channel for video from the heart of saturday's rally and you can get all the background on

moscow's protest by heading to our web site that's our to calm. the news today. these are the images the world has been seeing from the streets of canada. operations throughout the day. syria mourns the victims of friday's twin tower attacks where forty four people were killed and more than one hundred fifty wounded syria's muslim brotherhood has claimed responsibility while the arab league works to put a peaceful plan into action sara first looks at how the tragedy has dampened 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 these terrorists this time of year the capsule is usually brightly lit as christiane's who account for 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 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 planning their own mark of respect for the coast. of syria our people to. avoid the external.

but. no one really feels like celebrating anyway when the country's hospitals are full of casualties the government claims it's fighting arms 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 armed after months of quite downs by the government and this violence spreads its prevailing extremely hard to know exactly who is responsible for what. for instance. from somebody who is not. the government claims it is the opposition that the opposition claims this is the government. taxing killings have been met

repeatedly with claim counter-claim an accusation. you know we have to use two different. we don't turn. to the two the arab league team will be attempting to cut through the rhetoric and discover his version of events is most accurate they many remain skeptical about how much they'll be able to achieve but there's one thing that everyone here is hating for and that's for the violence to be stopped. the christmas celebration having going down the religious services that will be happening people. are going to be with their country. and tense situation in syria has made world headlines for over nine months now we've been one of the few foreign media channels allowed to cover the an arrest in homes damascus and

other parts of the country in fact it's one of the top ten of them nearly a whole year of news on our t.v. our correspondent us are silly i was in syria for much of the crisis and these are her firsthand recollections. when we went to syria it was sometime in october and the situation was getting very tense there so our flight arrived at 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 baron international journalists there but we're here in the center of the syrian capital you can see behind me traffic is just about starting to flow again we're 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 a 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 we 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 are 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 street. 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 or fathers have been lost husbands have been lost and 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 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 our fixer who translated what it meant. it said you're working for israel in the us we're going to kill you. and so they were there wrecked 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. our camera was procured and so point.

everywhere do you know but that is your job you go in there she try to get it will 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 fact that the syrian capital where the outlook out there to show their support for the government how did they get up far cry from the images we've been seeing in other cities that the country where there have been reporting a lot of the great reports that i've seen government protests of those however what they get. 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 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 but look through it through that perspective rather than just what i see. and every day right up until the new year we'll bring you more personal reflections from the correspondents covering the biggest stories of two thousand and eleven still to come in the program a controversial. just days after u.s. troops withdrew from iraq r t takes a look at the legacy that some say they have left behind. and so glowing from the success of its intervention in libya britain now turns its eye 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 its fate is going to be decided at a summit in london in february here's our tease laura smith. in the words of prime minister david cameron somalia is a failed state that directly threatens british interests his solution options

ranging from humanitarian aid right through to military intervention and reports suggest that in the new year following the perceived success of the libyan campaign in government circles somalia could be the next target for u.k. forces newspapers as saying that the royal air force could be sent to help african union troops to support the weak u.s. backed transitional government equipment and money other main nations 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 terrorists 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 rainy of which the u.s. and other countries have had their eye on for years is many points also to somalia is to teach position presiding over a large part of oil transport routes through the gulf of aden and usually find when the military strategists are planning long term intervention somewhere. i'm looking at a political map second the oil or gas one of the biggest is 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. 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 oust gadhafi successful next stop somalia. and if you feel like hatching up on more news this christmas eve dot com is just liking it here's what else is waiting for you all the line social networking is reaching some pretty upscale places you wouldn't believe it but now the christmas tree in central kiev in ukraine has its own twitter account why you'll find out the answer online plus. during the holidays norad the north american aerospace defense command is on a mission to make sure all those christmas gifts reach their hopeful destinations by keeping santa and or closer valence. for seventeen year in moscow thank you for joining us the violence comes just days

after u.s. troops 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 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 our correspondent sean thomas reports. packing up to head home it may be easy to overlook the total cost of war at least one hundred fourteen thousand iraqi civilians killed as well as one hundred 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 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 a living these are that they below in the halls of the u.s. troop invasion of iraq in two thousand and three and their grievances think the committed made the situation here worse there are so many mistakes committed by the u.s. military leadership especially in managing civilian us banks here for this how to 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 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 on american 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 that the

police don't another mistake and because you are a mystic is a great mistake and it affects you. but it's teach. you the 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. . now let's take a look at some other news making headlines around the globe first off to 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 a recent string of clashes began on thursday with boko haram campaigning to implement strict sharia law across the country. yemen has been shaken by unrest as security forces spiraled last crowds killing ten and injuring others officers use

guns tear gas and water cannons against demonstrators in the capital sanaa they were demanding that former president saleh be tried for his long and violent crackdowns all in anti-government protests when he was in power thirty three year rule ended last month when he handed over power to his vice president in exchange for immunity from prosecution. also believers around the world are celebrating christmas in the biblical town of bethlehem over one hundred twenty thousand visitors have gathered for a midnight mass at the church of the native of the place where jesus is believed to have been born festivities are underway in the u.s. u.k. and europe but also in iran where the holidays very important to the christian minority and in time one thousands gathered in the capital to take part in the city's christmas eve parade with city officials in santa suits and big snow helping to spread the holiday spirit. in the vatican city pope benedict the sixteen pounds

led the celebrations with the traditional christmas service in st peter's basilica after mass of the eighty four year old home to have delivered his annual speech reflecting on the hardships facing the world and being with greetings delivered in dozens of languages. well we have a seasonal treat in store for you later as max keiser and stacy herbert give chris . solve their own unique treatment because a report is coming up stay with us. after a leveraged buyout a hostile raid by kohlberg kravis roberts that was white knight in the firms from warren buffett of santa claus the seven elves unfortunately who were working with him how to be sold into prostitution but santa was made whole and mrs claus unfortunately has debate cookies for the rest of her life in a gulag somewhere in the south pole things are still happening in centers workshop states you heard to just follow all the apparently santas stopped in at the kaiser

report in the break matt let me check it out let's see what you got well here's another one here is max's back something valuable. oh. god i remember. this is what santa gives really. a rubber chicken. this just was one of the goldman sachs last call if he walked into the office looking to gather money managed that's how they walked out of the office well. twenty twelve is set to be the year of the presidential election as people in the u.s. russia france and south korea will be going to the polls and with millions yet to make their choice the question is what makes a good modern day leader laurie harmfulness asked people 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 and i equate intelligence with humor. i mean say oh yeah a quick mind so you think this 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 or control of the country 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 we're honest with people is that 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 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 i think it's probably important for them to have come up having no money i mean. i mean you know from. i mean he understood what it was what it was like to have nothing of thing that's probably what made him such a good leader of course for me it was a new apostle. kennedy was was of one the leader of my mind because you had this really man who was my vision was and what he was a man who really wants to lead the nation's. 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 met us included by of a so shows so show. it's totally change your mind over how to be 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. shortly as santa claus is coming to town the moscow team takes an inside look at the final preparations for festive celebrations in russia's capital that's right after a recap of our top stories in just a couple of minutes time. welcome

to the future new year's wishes on technology updates next generation places made from super strong and for life with building materials good health with a host of nuclear isotopes a clear plan it seems to be a revolutionary way to get rid of or growing man fields and a long list of russian invaders. the central issue. year in bygone days dogsleds 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 fires them up to survive in the freezing cold. a new beginning in russia's nals discover the arctic circle on r.t. . among the least explored areas. good and untouched by months. surrounded by steep rock. case paintings on display for thousands of years. easton science and beyond the tiger. on oxy.

witnesses. to history in the making of. testimony. ten stories that shapes two thousand and eleven on our t.v. . thank you for joining us on karen tara with a quick recap of your headlines thousands have turned out to rally in the russian capital in a second mass protest against last month's parliamentary poll results the opposition claim the vote was rigged and they want a rerun while the government has promised political reform. in syria the festive holiday spirit is broken by a new round of violence in damascus that leaves dozens dead that follows the arab league deploying observers to try to mediate a peace deal.