seven pm in moscow as a bid to have you with us as we bring you today's top stories and a look back at the week's news tens of thousands of people rallied in central moscow saturday another peaceful protest over the results of this month's parliamentary vote thirty thousand people turned out in the capital according to the interior ministry the organizer 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 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 reform some of which is already underway in the newly elected state duma are he said or piskun know as 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 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 but 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 of pointed 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 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 state duma which will include two hundred. one

to 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 would 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. was a sore have 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 potential enormous human capital physical capital and has the potential to become a world leader and they would like the rest of the educated people would like to

play a part in that the president praised the legal right to express opinion warrant any attempts to manipulate and provoke the people who will not be accepted up 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 that 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 that's 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 you get

a. presidential vote in morning. it's going to moscow. remember you can go online to get more coverage of the massive protest in the russian capital through video direct from the site of the rally you can always head over to our youtube channel online you can also check out our twitter page for the latest from first hand impressions from our correspondents how to remember to catch up on all the background for the protests on our web site r t v dot com. more news today violence is once again flared up. these are the images. from the streets of canada. for asians to 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 the arab league to dispatch observers to the area at once and advent and advance party of monitors flew into damascus this week preparing for the arrival of primary arab observers the mission is to oversee a peace plan that guarantees the regime and its crackdown activists claimed hundreds of civilians have been gunned down in recent days twin suicide blasts in damascus targeting government buildings also killed forty four people on friday the regime is under a set of heavy sanctions from the u.s. and the e.u. but as our reports from damascus it's the syrian people who seem to be feeling the squeeze. 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 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 struggling to make ends meet. has learning difficulties 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 by i sat . there last products available and the prices are pushed higher there's 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 that had been seen to be making progress be it . for a population that it started seeing the results of economic opportunity look financial transactions. have blackouts become the. they could be even

the financial times ahead. because of the economic sanctions people rushed to stop fuel and gas just. 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 hit the sanctions with the government hand when it came to ending the violence in the country because inside syria at the moment many feel it every day people are looking upon it economic sanctions so it's just like taking. the one hit that must have become part of the daily life for 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 parity of families like. finding life under the sanctions increasingly desperate search. damascus. u.n. security council faces mounting pressure to act on syria but its members are unable to agree on a resolution friday washington is european allies blocked a statement drafted by russia supporting the arab league observers mission to syria moscow's envoy to the u.n. said western states are not being cooperative this is straightforward text. of a commendation and support and appreciation of the efforts of the out of. it pretty straightforward to the expression of attention that the it will help to do well and unfortunately i can tell you that to the number of members of the security council objected to hold up this is a little strange one of the difficulties we encounter in working with the security council because i would try to do something positive with inevitably the met with

all sorts of concerns about balance why didn't you do this why didn't you do that and it brings us to two to square one in the entire conversation. later this hour the inside track on the year's most momentous events. thanks to you this way turn this way but we couldn't stop thinking. what if they make and the state. later on our team or if they go to the shares her first hand rebuttal is on the morning from the nato strike zone in war torn libya. but before we get to that 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

president's body is lying in state in the capital pyongyang has in the capital pyongyang as north koreans continue to pay their final respects with a funeral planned for december twenty eighth news of his death but the country's neighbors on high alert japan called a special security meeting fearing instability in the region south korea says its military stands ready independent journalist tim thinks that the successor will need time to shore up his position as leader. he's only been around for three years in the public light he went to school in switzerland apparently he knows a lot about how the internet works and he knows a lot about social media but beyond that we know very little except he's been appointed a four star general he has no military training very very next to zero military experience but i think what these two leaders this closely held leadership in north korea once is a symbol of their regime and this is a clear you know successor symbol they can they can use to continue their power and

i think that the fact that it took two days to announce his death and they announced one hundred fifty personnel funeral committee means that they have the people lined up behind them have been you know on this decision and they're getting ready to move forward on whatever was going on before in terms of any kinds of discussions with the united states south korea with other countries that did take kim jong il who just passed quite a few years to actually gain total acceptance with the power structure there with the powers that be there in the in the party in the government to actually you know take firm control so i think that's an open question. libyans are celebrating their liberation from colonial powers for the first time in forty two years independence day was bad under colonel gadhafi 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 reports in tripoli. this is what it's like to look down in the face

a group of men the young and old captured after didn't need a prop to wrap us over around gadhafi hometown of sirte that was behind a camera delivers the very day did you look for gadhafi did you. and the captives didn't sound seeing. 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 lodgings about he said to stick tendencies growing 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 gadhafi is ferocity is here in hatred still reside in this neighborhood. obviously is a poor area in southern tripoli where more margot duffy had strong support prior to his fleeing the district also and his name to the tour is present 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 their families are too scared to talk about. this is probably the only place in all the beer with families of a logic get out his 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 at first they are scared to tell me that this son or husband was with the gadhafi 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. for. mohamed and his friends have been taking photos of unidentified bodies that have been popping up across li bit in recent months this snapshot it's 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 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 broadcasting here on r t the civil war saw a nato led coalition intervene with thousands of deadly airstrikes that frequently cause civilian casualties artie's where if an ocean a covered the revolution from inside the country and now 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 the tunisian 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 john 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 doors firmly closed. my bed was just beside a glass wall i moved dick were 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 nature knew best where journalists order but we couldn't stop thinking. what if they make a mistake the residents of secrecy with this search here in three fairly have been woken up by a strike in the middle of the night and all several bombs landed 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 the butt 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. they were lying there. on. the cold mats hold tables still in pampers. and next morning nato confirmed. it had made a mistake the intended target during last night's best strike in tripoli was a military missile. from our initial assessment of us it appears that one weapon did not strike the intended target due to a weapons systems failure. of course i wanted to meet khadafi 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 time 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 a very powerful man. he invited me to follow him in a separate. group. with questions many questions like what do you think about what do you think about the prize in hand 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 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 truth. will 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. every day right up to the new year will bring you more personal reflections from our correspondents who saw the biggest stories firsthand of this past year in case you missed it you can also catch them on our website our team dot com will stay with us here on r t still ahead the ups and downs of space exploration the failed launch of a military patients satellite closely followed by a successful mad trip to the s.s. aboard a soyuz rocket we'll tell you about both. of them. but before we get to that 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 was the worst attack in months in iraq and its leaders and gauging the took her tat

blame game over the latest wave of violence here is have been growing over a turn 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 a stable country had been left behind but joseph shore a writer for the world socialist web site thinks the latest flare ups in the region are a product of the us occupation. you know securing iraq and giving it freedom it was about securing resources and in the process. so every intentions devastated the entire society and this is really the product of that you have different factions of the iraqi elite who are battling over power over control over resources including particular oil contracts. and drones to unravel into a civil war that conflict the violence in iraq is very much a product of the occupation itself and you know that's really the source of the

christ is facing your own keep politics in iraqi society i mean look at what what this occupation has produced over one million people killed by some estimates thirty five percent of the children. living now is orphans destination of infrastructure the entire society has been scarred by this occupation by this war. it's been a week of mourning in russia as merman screeching for the victims of last sunday's oil rig disaster the platform mostly manned by a crew from was sunk in a storm while being towed to port in the country's far east sixty seven people were aboard fourteen of them were immediately saved after the platform went down thirty six remain unaccounted for and listed as missing with the search and rescue operation over there's little hope of finding any more survivors the bodies of seventeen victims have so far been recovered investigators suspect a breach of safety procedure is to blame for the tragedy there was no fuel spill

though it's the late it's the deadliest oil rig disaster in russian history. turning now to some other stories making headlines across the globe first in nigeria where a radical muslim sect has claimed responsibility for a bomb attack that rocked a catholic church in the capital and killed at least twenty five people for other explosions were reported in other cities but no information yet about injuries officials say there's a shortage of ambulances in the region and warned that the number of casualties could rise blast follow a wave of violent clashes between military forces and members of the islamic boko haram sect which has killed at least sixty people in the last few days. a suicide bomber in northern afghanistan blew himself up during a funeral killing one thousand people including a member of the national parliament the attack happened at the end of the ceremony as mourners were preparing to leave there was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack but local officials suspect the taliban suicide attacks are rare in the province considered one of the calmest regions in the country. and shifting

gears now to lighter news with christmas trees lighting up let's look 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 mass at the vatican and pope benedict this rounded on the commercialism of christmas urging followers to look past the superficial glitter and concentrate instead on the holidays true meaning in the capital of taiwan people flock to see a christmas eve parade in a colorful display putting acrobats and marching bands. as set is once again following his annual trek around the globe you can track his progress every step. father christmas is on the radar of the north american aerospace defense command also known as norad again mounting its annual watch over santa claus and set up

with a special website monitoring st nick's progress around the world on his delivery room. and a snippet of russian history in our reso p.b.s. section on this day twenty years ago the first and only president of the soviet union. announced his resignation in a live t.v. address. finally in this news block a russian military communication satellite dubbed the meridian came crashing back to earth in siberia friday without ever breaking out of 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 though there were no injuries reported however though another soyuz russian another russian soyuz craft did launch successfully that one

delivered a crew of three to the international space station which will spend five months in orbit before being replaced by a new team of astronauts and cosmonauts. made headlines coming your way next stay with us.

year in bygone days dog sleds were vital to get around. but today they're more leisure than life line. one drives people to quit their modern lives and settle in remote woods. one finds them up to survive in the freezing cold. beginning in russia's mills discover the arctic circle on r t.

m m m a. and. was. coming. seven thirty pm in moscow we're taking a look back at the week's top stories on our team tens of thousands rallied peacefully in the russian capital demanding a rerun of the parliamentary vote while president dmitry medvedev that was told reforms promising an overhaul of the country's political system. international pressure mounting on the syrian regime to end its crackdown on protesters as violence intensifies across the country for the people struggling under a set of western sanctions soaring prices and food shortages.