five pm in moscow matras are bring you today's top stories in a look back at the week's news here on r t tens of thousands rallied in central moscow saturday in another peaceful protest over the result of or over the results of this month's parliamentary election thirty thousand turned out in the capital according to the interior ministry rally organizers said the true number was more than one hundred thousand protesters were calling for a rerun of the election that they claim was rigged the rally echoed in an earlier one two weeks ago when thousands took to the streets voicing their opinions president medvedev addressed the protesters in his annual state of the union speech promising widespread political reforms some of which are already under way in the newly elected state duma. has more. the time for change has come. people are tired of not being able to promptly solve

the most pressing issues people are tired of having their interests ignored speaking at his fourth and final state of the union address the president listed a set of proposals which have already been deemed to be sweeping political reform but he wants to change the rules for the registration of political parties as well as for taking part in elections in fact a total ground up rebuild of the whole electoral system today governors in russia are of pointed directly by the president they used to be elected in the ninety's but this was canceled thousands now they need to remove it if it wants to bring the vote back as part of the move to vertical eyes power in russia it took over a decade to build to the current vertical system of power but now russia's regions are told it's time to start gaining more independence from moscow the president's proposed reforms will also hit the stay duma which will include two hundred twenty

five deputies each independently elected within their own tutorial constituency and when it comes to new parties in order to register political parties need to gather at least ten thousand approval signatures and have representatives in over a half of the eighty nine regions the new initiative is to reduce this figure to five hundred which should give the green light for more political forces the president's speech followed the recent parliamentary election which caused widespread discontent among the public the biggest brutus rally since the collapse of the u.s.s.r. had been taking place across the country with tens of thousands of russians shouting out accusations of fraud and other violations over fifty criminal cases have been opened looking into the allegations while the results from more than twenty polling stations have been cancelled russia has enormous. enormous human capital norma's physical capital and has the potential to become a world leader and they would like the spirit of the educated people would like to

play a part in that the president praised the legal right to express opinion warned any attempts to manipulate and provoke the people will not be accepted up with him when you know it we won't allow extremists or probably caters to draw society into their shady enterprises we won't allow interference from outside in our internal affairs russia needs democracy not chaos but getting back to the reforms to the need to be another proposal concerning his own post as well in order to run for president independent candidates have to gather at least two million approval signatures from voters three hundred thousand has asked the new figure currently being proposed which will most likely widen competition for russia's top job even though the president doesn't plan to run for a second term in office it doesn't mean the reforms will be forgotten the meeting needed if he's aiming for the prime minister's seat if he wins the upcoming

presidential vote in mark he is going to have already moscow. remember you can go online to get more coverage of the mass protest in russia's capital for video direct from the site of the rally you can always check out our youtube channel while you're online you can also see our twitter page for the latest feed and first ten impressions from our correspondents and of course you can get the full background on the protests and more on our website parties dot com. more news today violence has once again flared up. these are the images the world seen from the streets of canada. showing up for asians to rule today. activists in syria say the opposition held city of homs is under heavy fire from

thousands of government troops and tanks there calling on the arab league to dispatch observers to the area at once and advance party of monitors to damascus this week to prepare for the arrival of primary arab observers the mission is to oversee a peace plan that guarantees the regime and its crackdown activists claim hundreds of civilians have been the undoubtedly recent days twin suicide blasts in damascus targeting government buildings also killed forty four people friday when the regime is under a set of heavy sanctions from the u.s. and the e.u. is already sour for ports it's the syrian people who are feeling the pinch. it's been nearly ten months since syria's uprising began the capital of damascus has remained largely sheltered from the conflict. in the bustling sun so it seems like it's business as usual as one says sets in the winds of change have begun sublime a little stronger the arab league's imposed tough economic sanctions the effects of which have been felt even head in

a poor area in the damascus interests and her family struggling to make ends meet. has learning difficulties for the beans for a living but he barely makes a hundred and fifty syrian pounds a day three dollars to support him and he's white. now the fuel for his vending cart has become harder to get hold of with the economic sanctions driving the price up. their last products available and the prices are pushed higher there have been fights over gas we've been trying to manage by cutting back as much as we can but sometimes when we can't afford it which is don't eat the economic situation in syria was one of the areas president had been seen to be making progress be it. the for a population that it started seeing the results of economic opportunity look financial transactions. blackouts become the norm. that there could be even

the financial times ahead. because of the economic sanctions people rushed to stockpile fuel and gas just. people are a little bit afraid of the fact that water or gas might one out this is when you see these queues this in place by the arab league it was hate the sanctions which the government had and when it came to ending the violence in the country because inside syria at the moment many feel it every day people are looking punish economic sanctions still. thinking. that he she is the one hit that must have become part of the daily life of many people here in syria. from the arab league will be paving the way for an observer mission to at the end of the month much opposition they remain skeptical about whether that to bring about any change . in the west of the conflict areas change can come

a moment to seeing some parents of two three families like. finding life under the sanctions increasingly desperate search for. damascus. stay with us here on our team later this hour o. bring you the inside track on the year's most momentous events. need to use that suetonius. but we couldn't stop thinking. what if they make and the state later on our team or if an ocean a shares her first hand reflections on reporting from the nato strike zone in war torn libya. but first north korea is still mourning the death of its leader kim jong il who passed away saturday from a heart attack at age sixty nine his death was announced on state t.v. monday by a weeping newscaster and thousands of people were shown crying in the streets his youngest son kim jong un has already been named as supreme leader to keep the dynasty going the president's bodies lying in state in the capital pyongyang as

north koreans continue paying their final respects with a funeral planned for december twenty eighth news of his death put the country's neighbors on a high alert japan called a special security meeting fearing instability in the region south korea says its military stands ready tim bielat asia specialist who's written extensively in the korean region says it's still hard to predict the impact his death will have on events in the political. the americans i think at the moment not moving climate because they want to keep tension on the korean apple's way of contain china that so i would read the american response whether they will decide that it's they won't come back a negotiator we don't yet know if we have a smooth transfer of power in the in the north i think it's likely. it will. we will move forward perhaps not this year but to following you know when

there's a new government in seoul and we may get a return you like to the engagement of the of the previous five years ago. if on the other hand those some sort of turmoil and more if the. systems market to ninety. dollars a collapsed then we may get into don't shoot from the south and then show us who knows what. libyans are celebrating their liberation from colonial powers for the first time in more than four decades independence day was banned under colonel gadhafi and who was ousted with nato assistance and killed in october but the revolution has so far failed to bring peace with tribal violence on the rise our side of boyko reports in tripoli. this is what it's like to look death in the face a group of man the young and old captured after the needier propped rebels overran get off his hometown of sirte there was behind

a camera delivers the verdict did you work for gadhafi did you. and the captives themselves seem dats about what's coming next. scenes like these play now with a costly beer as the rebels assisted by western powers so to liberate the country from gadhafi i've been lodgings about he said district tendencies grow more and more outlandish by the day and that seems to justify any sort of treatment for his perceived loyalists in some places the violence is quite bad the town we looked out in was called. and the militias from the neighboring town of misrata are terrorizing the people of to where they accuse them of having fought for qaddafi of having committed atrocities in his name this is one of the liberated tripoli's new landmarks a prison where moammar gadhafi was set to hold his political opponents with no

access to lawyers and no chance for a fair trial. but while the prisons new guards have very elaborate in their rating gadhafi is ferocity he's here in hatred still reside in this neighborhood. obviously is a poor area in southern tripoli where more margot had strong support base prior to his fleeing the district also and his name to the tourists presents a scene of torture and arbitrary killings but while gadhafi is gone the human rights abuses still remain rather from this area still disappearing without a trace of their families are too scared to talk about. this is probably the only place in all the beer with families of a legit good office supporters can turn to for how mama to form peace and your earlier this year it's investigated the fate of those who disappeared in good office prisons he is now primarily dealing with people who went missing on daily

beast new leadership it's usually mothers who come here and at first they are scared to tell me that this son or husband was with the khadafi forces they usually say he was a civilian courts in the crossfire but i tell them that i don't care which side he was on all i need is accurate information so that we can start searching. mohammad and his friends have been taking photos of unidentified bodies that have been popping up across lee beer in recent months this naturists are probably the relatives the most realistic hope of finding closure but even after sifting through them many managed to retain hope like this man whose brother disappeared on the front lines of banter about. i hope he's in tunisia maybe he's in hospital maybe he's lost his memory or has no way of contacting us. they say hope dies last and leave it's still alive even if many people aren't going to boycott artsy tripoli.

the libyan uprising that began in february and ended tobar as one of the top ten events that shaped almost a whole year of broadcasting here on our team the civil war saw a nato led coalition intervene with thousands of deadly airstrikes which frequently cause civilian casualties artie's marie if an ocean to cover the revolution from inside the country that looks back on her experience in libya. we arrived in libya in the evening this is how you'd expect this kind of story to start but actually we crossed that unusual border when the sun was too high. our driver told us to be careful we all thought that was a little bit unnecessary. but he explained that they sway nato and qaddafi.

could both blame each other if the drone this got killed. when our first night in tripoli we got a very warm welcome rixos hotel we stayed was just a kilometer or two away from. his residence. and that was bombed that night as it had never been before and would never be our wards. it was literally shaking curtains in our rooms were moved even with the doors firmly closed my bed was just beside a glass wall i moved to pick her into the room because i was scared that an explosion could destroy literally. my western colleagues explaining that. rixos hotel at that time was the safest place in libya because major new tests were drawn

this morning but we couldn't stop thinking. what if they make and mistake the residents of secrecy with districts here in street for they have been woken up by a strike in the middle of the night and all summer long to learn that here this story as you can see behind me some world three story buildings. and there were no. professional rescuers at the scene only man who bare hands. and one after another they pulled out five dead bodies. wish we couldn't see that but. because they were just wrapped up a blanket. five live band. in the mall we heard that they were free little babies among the dead. they will line there. the cold metal tables

still in pampers. and next morning nato confirmed. it had made a mistake intended target during last night's fast track in tripoli was a military miss off site. from our initial assessment of it appears that one weapon did not strike intended target due to a weapons systems failure. of course i wanted to meet qaddafi or his son say for this every journalist did but that was kind of impossible. as you remember one day after a news conference my friend and a turn photographer came to me and pointing at the man. in his suit told me he wants to meet you the next night i got a call the card he said wait someone told me weeks back to them to blindfold us but they didn't do anything like that. you know the option of hold the line to the room

and no one paid any attention to. what he was different when he entered we all noticed we all knew that he is right now in the room. there was an injury common knowledge from him very powerful man. he invited me to follow him in a separate room and grill me with questions many questions like what do you think about what do you think about the uprising hey and maybe what do you think about me what do you think about my father but i was calm and confident. and then he suddenly stopped and looked at my shoulders high heels. and he went. sweetie what about your questions and you know he looked like he didn't take me seriously. charlie and i looked at my notes and among the first questions there was

did you or your father. give the order to kill civilians. but i didn't tell him that and i was like smiling just ordinary questions. and he said ok let's go and that interview was one of the past interviews in my life if not the best interview safe was very sincere. very open and he thought always before answering that was really literally electricity and that troops. were left next morning and i had a feeling that i would never see this country again. i didn't go back six weeks later. but that was a different country already with new faces new heroes new everything. the country i had traveled in the summer of two thousand and eleven it is now just

a part of history for good. the european union has restricted the sale of drugs used in the u.s. to execute convicts more than forty death row inmates have been killed by lethal injection in america this year alone and some activists say that in many cases the chemical used is far from humane it actually could be torturing the condemned to death but artie's iver bet it explains the restrictions could actually cause situations to take a turn for the worse. they've tried hanging electrocution and most recently a drug used to euthanize animals but now american jails will find it much harder to kill prisoners on death row the main supply line for its lethal injections has been cut off after the e.u. slaps new restrictions on drug exports i really think this will make a difference and we will see the effects of this this control order in the coming months that the the u.s.

allies on european drugs for use in executions and without them they're going to be stuck and lives will be saved specifically execution drugs aren't made in the e.u. but several american states have been importing sedatives instead drugs designed to help being used to hurt. exports of drugs like sodium thiopental will now be controlled to stop their use in a three part lethal cocktail the interstate it was being used to put the condemned inmate to sleep as another drug paralyzed before the final heart stopper was administered without that initial numbing stage lethal injections are unconstitutional under u.s. law the usual supply for these drugs has been dwindling since the only u.s. manufacturer ceased production last year american prisons though found an alternative source right here in west london at this fairly unassuming driving school the buildings also shared by dream farmer

a british firm exporting british drugs the us prisons to kill people the u.k. government soon found out and banned its use so american prisons searched elsewhere r.t. reported in may how some states have begun using pen to bar but the drug normally used to put pets to sleep that's never been tested for human executions its primary use for humans is to treat epilepsy but it has no pain killing properties many feel its use on death throes tantamount to torture this can cause excruciating pain if something goes wrong and because we have no test we cannot guarantee that nothing will get around to people at risk of not being killed being tortured to death following our report danish manufacturer impose their own restrictions to prevent chills misuse the new e.u. embargo covers eight barbiturates in total including painted by. us stockpiles will eventually run dry but many fear it's only a matter of time before prisons try again with something else unfortunately the

death merchants in the us can sometimes be creative in terms of what they put to use in order to put people to death and so i think what we need is a clause which said if other drugs should appear on the market and we discover the u.s. is misuse. those we can quickly have a quick procedure to add those to the list without going away to another year aside from lethal injection other methods like hanging and firing squad a still sanctioned in the us but are now rarely used these new restrictions may not choke off the drug supply completely but it will certainly tighten the noose on america's controversial death penalty. by the bennett artsy london. turning now to some other stories making headlines across the globe beginning in nigeria where two blasts were heard in the northern city of democracy making five blasts in total since the morning a radical muslim sect has claimed responsibility for a bomb attack that rocked

a catholic church in the capital killing at least twenty five officials say there's a shortage of every alliances in the region and more the number of casualties could rise the blast follow a wave of violent clashes between military forces and members of the boko haram sect which have killed at least sixty people in the last few days. yemen's capital security forces opened fire on protesters killing nine people this is tens of thousands marched to president saleh is palace demanding he be tried for months of violent crackdowns on anti-government activists and estimated seven hundred people were killed in clashes since the uprising against sali started in february has signed a power transfer agreement ending his thirty three year rule and giving away to his deputy to take charge. of. a suicide bomber in northern afghanistan blew himself up during a funeral killing ten including a member of the national parliament the attack happened at the end of the ceremony as the mourners were preparing to leave there was no immediate claim of

responsibility for the attack a local official suspect the taliban suicide attacks are rare in the province which is considered one of the calmest regions of the country. with christmas trees lighting up let's take a look now at how some people are celebrating the holiday in different parts of the world in bethlehem the west bank's christian minority gathered with tourists to commemorate the birth of jesus thousands of palestinians from inside the west bank also converged on the town during midnight vasant knocks at the vatican pope benedict rounded on the commercialism of christmas urging followers to look past the superficial glitter and concentrate instead on the holidays tree meaning and in taipei the capitol of taiwan people flocked to see a christmas parade in a colorful display including acrobats at a marching band. and santa once again following his annual trek around the globe you can track every step at r. t. online north america's a big brother norad watching over santa claus

a special website is launched monitoring progress around the world. and you also find a snippet of history in our reso p.d.f. section this day twenty years ago the soviet union's first and only president mikhail gorbachev announced his resignation in a live t.v. address. stay with us here on r t headlines coming your way in a few moments. well

journey into the future thank you new year's wishes on technology updates next generation playfields made from super strong cultural lightly gilby materials good health with the help of nuclear isotopes cleaner planet seems to the revolutionary way to get rid of our growing man fields and a long list of those in the russian innovators. he's got a potential. here in bygone days

dogsleds were vital to get around. but today they're more leisure than lifeline. 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 nose discover the arctic circle on r.t. .

five thirty pm in moscow these are the week's top stories here on our team tens of thousands rally peacefully in the russian capital demanding a rerun of the parliamentary vote while president dmitry medvedev that was bold reforms promising an overhaul of the country's political system. international pressure mounting on the syrian regime to end its crackdown on protesters has violence intensifies across the country and people struggle under a set of western sanctions soaring prices and food shortages have already hit impoverished people.