six pm in moscow i mattress or bring you today's top stories and a look back at the week's news here on our team tens of thousands rallied in central moscow saturday in another peaceful protest over the results of this month's parliamentary election thirty thousand people turned out in the capital according to russian interior ministry organizers say the true number was more than one hundred thousand protesters were calling for a revote of the election that they claim was a raid the rally echoed an earlier one two weeks ago when thousands took to the streets to have their say president medvedev addressed the protesters in his annual state of the union speech promising widespread political reforms some of which are already underway in the newly elected state duma parties that are pissing off 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 speeding and 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 he wants to change the rules for the registration of political parties as well as for taking porting elections in fact a total ground up rebuild of the whole electoral system today governors in russia are up for him to directly by the president they used to be elected in the ninety's but this was cancelled to thousands now the meeting with 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 political 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 state duma which will include two hundred. and

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 canceled russia has enormous potential enormous human capital physical capital and has the potential to become a world leader and they would like the pressure 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 but with him when you know it's going to then that 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 media to finance to 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 it 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. is going to have already moscow. 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 head over to you to travel and while you're online you also check out our twitter feed for the latest firsthand impressions from our correspondents and of course catch up on the full background of the protest at our main website or t dot com. more news today violence has once again flared up. these are the images the world seen from the streets of canada. shortly before asians rule the day. activists in syria say the opposition held city of homs is under heavy fire from

thousands of government troops and tanks there calling on arab league to dispatch observers to the area at once and advance party of moderators flew 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 gunned down in the recent days twin suicide blasts in damascus targeting government buildings also killed forty four on friday the regime is under a set of heavier sanctions from the u.s. and the e.u. but as a fourth reports it's the syrian people who may be 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 fights in the bustling side and so it seems like it's business as usual but as one says sets in the winds of change have begun to blow a little stronger the arab league's impose tough economic sanctions the effects of which have been felt even head in

a poor area in the damascus interacts and her family is struggling to make ends meet because sony has learning difficulties for all 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. the economic sanctions. there are less 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. financial transactions. blackouts become the. fifth they could be even

the financial times ahead. because of the economic sanctions people. people are a little bit afraid of the fact that water or gas might run out this is when you see these queues this in place by the arab league it was 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 being punished economic sanctions still. taking. one hit. have become part of the daily life of many people here in syria and it's from the arab league will be paving the way you can observe the mission to at the end of the month much opposition they remain skeptical about whether that too will bring about any change. in the west of the conflict areas change can come in they meant to

seeing some parents of teeth families like. finding life under the sanctions increasingly desperate search. damascus. the u.s. and e.u. say their stance against damascus is a reaction to the regime's crackdown on peaceful protesters but they're refusing to recognize the opposition is also armed and fighting to bring down president assad some analysts believe it's because the west wants to see a revolution in syria here is one perspective. 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 interest 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 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 would drew troops

from iraq to some of those were relocated to the border of syria from jordan and in preparation of arming this conflict and possibly engaging in it as well and i think that these terrorist attacks are part of that or part of maybe a justification to say hey there needs to be a stronger military presence from abroad in order to prevent further military conflict internally in the country that could result in the deaths of so-called innocent civilians. later this hour the insiders try the inside track on this year's most momentous events. they to use when a journalist. but we couldn't stop thinking. what if the make and the state later on our team or if the notion of shares her firsthand reflections on reporting from the nato strike zone in order for libya. but first north korea is still mourning the death of its leader kim jong il who passed away

last saturday from a heart attack at age sixty nine his death was announced on state television 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 five 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 is standing ready independent journalist james corbett things north korea is being used by china and the u.s. as a pawn in political games. the north has always been the sort of madwoman in the attic when it comes to east asian politics and it serves i think a useful function for a number of parties in the region not only as a sort of proxy for china which has been really propping up the regime

internationally by giving it its support on the international skip stage which can then use the menace of north korea and to be seen to be keeping north korea in line but it also serves a sort of strange function on these two stage for for example the united states which one would think would be interested in disarming north korea but in fact in every single stage of north korea's nuclear armament even united states has been deeply involved with that the arming of the north korean regime with two light water reactors back in the one nine hundred ninety s. under clinton and it it plays and it's very interesting counterpoint to the hysteria that we see going on over the possibility that iran among one day develop a nuclear weapon well here we have a nuclear arms state that's been a law being missiles over our head here in japan for years now and threatening the entire region and yet they've just walked away from those talks for the last two years so it plays a very strange role in the stage and relations right now libyans are celebrating their liberation from colonial powers for the first time in forty two years

independence day was banned under the khadafi regime who was ousted with nato assistance and moammar gadhafi was killed in october but the revolution has so far failed to bring peace with tribal violence on the rise artie's acts on a boyko has more from tripoli oh my god this is what it's like to look down in the face a group of man the young and old captured after the nato propped rebels overran get off his hometown of sirte there was behind the camera delivers a verdict you did you work for gadhafi did you. and the captives then sound seemed back to about what's coming next. and it seems like these where you know that possibly be as the rebels assisted by western powers so to liberate the country from gadhafi i've been longines 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 where god 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 a very elaborate in their rating get back his ferocity here in hatred still reside in this neighborhood. obviously is a poor area in southern tripoli where more margot duffy 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 down least of a legit good office supporters can turn to for how my comment form piece and your earlier this year it's investigate the fate of those who disappeared and get off its prisons he's now primarily dealing with people who went missing on daily beast new leadership it's usually mothers who come here and. 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. mohamed and his friends have been taking photos of unidentified bodies that have been popping up across lee bear in recent months this naturists are probably the

relatives 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 banjo. 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. artsy tripoli. the libyan uprising that began in february and ended in october is one of the top ten events that shaped almost a whole year of programming here on our team the civil war there saw a nato led coalition intervene with thousands of deadly air strikes that frequently lead to civilian casualties artie's worry if an ocean to cover the revolution from inside libya and looks back on her experience there.

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 may turn qaddafi. could both blame each other if journalists got killed. when our first night in tripoli we got a very warm welcome to 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 dig 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 nato knew best where journalists or what we couldn't stop thinking. what if they make a mistake the residents of secrecy with this search here in three really have been woken up by a strike in the middle of the night and several moms 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. where she couldn't see that but

is themselves. because they were just wrapped up in blankets. lifeless bundles. in the morgue we heard that they were three little babies among the dead. they were lying there. in the cold that's all tables still in pampers. and next morning nato confirmed. it had made a mistake intended target during last night's airstrike in tripoli was a military mis offside. from our initial assessment of it appears that one weapon did not strike an 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 will one day after a news conference my friend and a turn for tiger for 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 a very powerful man. he invited me to follow him in a separate room and. group me with questions many questions like what do you think about what do you think about the uprising here 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 actually and i looked at my notes and on 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 it's not the best interview safe was very sincere. very open and he thought always before answering that was really literally electricity and

that true. will left next morning and i had a feeling that i would never see this country again. i did 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. every day right up to the new year we'll bring you more personal reflections and insights from our correspondents who cover the biggest stories of two thousand and eleven first hand in case you missed any you can catch them all again on our web site r t dot com well stay with us here on our t.v. still to come this hour the ups and downs of space exploration the failed launch of a russian military satellite closely followed by a successful man trip to the i.s.o.'s aboard a soyuz rocket we'll tell you about but. but first iraq has been

heading deeper into political crisis since the final u.s. troop withdrawal earlier this week the country's been iraq by a massive bombing in baghdad that claimed at least seventy two lives thursday it was the worst attack in months in iraq and its leaders engagement to her tat blame game over the latest wave of violence fears have been growing of a return to the sectarian conflict of two thousand and seven that left thousands dead as the u.s. made good on its promise to pull out troops it insisted it had left behind a stable country but former u.s. diplomat peter mark ben dear and thinks the current situation in the country is a direct result of the occupation. the united states unleashed a lot of demons in iraq when we invaded in two thousand and three the most significant of which was the ethnic and religious tensions between the sunni the shias and the kurds that was an issue that plagued the american occupation for all of its long desperate nine years and even though the united states troops have pulled out as of last week that doesn't change the equation those tensions still

exist in iraq and will have to resolve themselves one way or the other i'm afraid that the resolution will likely involve violence hopefully not at the levels that we saw in two thousand and five and two thousand and six but politics in iraq is very much a full context sport it's a dangerous game to play there and people often do die in the course of political resolutions. turning now to some other stories making headlines across the globe first to nigeria where a radical muslim sect has claimed responsibility for a bombing that rocked a catholic church in the capital of abuja killing at least twenty five to other explosions reported in other cities but no information yet about any injuries at fish will say there's a shortage of ambulances in the region and warn that the number of casualties could rise the blast followed a wave of violent clashes between military forces and members of the islamist boko haram sect which killed at least sixty people in the last few days. in

yemen's capital security forces opened fire on protesters killing nine people this is tens of thousands marched to president saleh 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 signed a power transfer agreement ending his thirty three year rule and giving away to his deputy to take over. a suicide bomber in northern afghanistan blew himself up during a funeral killing ten people including a member of the national parliament the attack happened at the end of the ceremony as mourners were readying to leave there was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack a local official suspect the taliban to blame suicide attacks are rare in the province considered one of the calmest areas in the country. shifting gears now with christmas trees lighting up across the planet let's take a look at how some people are celebrating the holiday in different parts of the

world in bethlehem in the west bank's christian minority gathering with tourists to commemorate the birth of jesus thousands of palestinians from inside the west bank also arrived at the town's during midnight mass at the vatican pope benedict rounded on commercialism for christmas urging followers to look past the superficial glitter and concentrate instead on the true meaning of the holiday and in taiwan's capital people flocked to see a christmas eve parade in a colorful display that included acrobats and marching. as sent is once again following his annual trek around the globe you can track his every step r.t. reports on why father christmas is on the radar of the north american aerospace defense command also called norad again maintaining its annual watch over santa claus setting up a special web site monitoring st nick's progress on his round the world delivery run. and a snippet of history in our row so pedia section this day twenty years ago the

soviet union's first and only official president mikhail gorbachev announced his resignation in a live t.v. address. finally in this news block a russian military satellite meridian came crashing back to earth in siberia friday without ever breaking up in the atmosphere experts say a technical malfunction in the rockets third stage caused the failure a fragment of the satellite crashed into a house as it fell back to earth punching a hole in the roof on the lighter side though another russian soyuz spacecraft did launch excess believe bringing a crew of three to the international space station they'll spend about five months in orbit before being replaced by a new team of crew members. will be back to recap the week's top stories in

a few moments but first a short break stay with us. here in bygone days sleds were vital to get around.

today the lifeline. one drives people to quit their modern lives and settle in remote. one finds them up to survive in the freezing cold. beginning in russia's new discover the arctic circle on r.t. . explore areas. on display for. you.

we're taking a look back at the. tens of thousands of. people struggling under.