and sweet sound stories from r t tens of thousands rally peacefully in central moscow against the results of the recent parliamentary vote while president dmitri medvedev of val's bolton's political reforms. the head of the arab league mission to syria rods in damascus amid fresh claims of violence. and a new era as north korea mourns the death of its ruler kept his youngest son steps into power. thank you for joining us three o'clock here in moscow to your top story right now tens of thousands gathered in the russian capital on saturday and

a second peaceful rally protesting over the results of this month's parliamentary election protesters were calling for a rerun of the election which they claim was rigged the russian interior ministry says thirty thousand people showed up but organizers say the true number was over one hundred thousand meanwhile president medvedev gave his annual address to the nation promising what spread political reforms some of which are already underway in the newly elected state duma we're going to so no reports. the time for change has come. people are tired of not being able to promptly solve the most personal 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 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 four

electoral system today governors in russia are up pointed directly by the president they used to be elected in the ninety's but this was canceled to thousands now the meeting with wants to bring the vote back as part of the move to vertical ice 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 twenty five deputies each independently elected within their own territorial 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 were 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 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 you not be accepted up with him when you know it's going to be in the middle 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 is doing. but getting back to the

before. 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 as 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 need to mediate if he's aiming for the prime minister's if he wins the upcoming presidential vote in morning. is going to moscow. the head of the arab league's observer mission to syria arrives in damascus general mohammed ali the same is to check the country's compliance with an arab peace plan aimed at halting the nine month long unrest a further group of fifty arab league monitors should reach syria on monday according to estimates more than forty thousand have been killed since march the

monitors visit coincides with fresh claims of violence in the city of homes and twin suicide bombings on friday that killed forty four but as artie's sara firth reports with western sanctions strangling the country it's the syrian people who are bearing the brunt. 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 sand say it seems like it's business as usual this one says so and the winds of change has begun to flow a little stronger the arab league's imposed tough economic sanctions the effects of which would be felt even had in a poor area in the damascus grass and her family struggling to make ends meet. learning this fall the beans for a living that he barely makes a hundred and fifty three and a day three dollars to support him and there's one. now the fuel for his vending

cart has become harder to get hold of with the economic sanctions i'm 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. being fame to be make. for a population that it started seeing the results of economic opportunity a. financial transactions. have blackouts become a little. bit they could be even with the heads. of the economic sanctions people. people are a little bit afraid of that part of. this is when you see these queues this in

place by the arab league it was fake the sanctions which the government had and when it came to ending the violence in the country is inside syria the name and many feel it every day people being punished economic sanctions so it's just taking. the one hit that. has become part of the daily life of many people here in syria. from the arab league will be paving the way of the 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 in they meant to seeing is imperative to the families like. finding life under the sanctions increasingly desperate search. damascus. the arab league's observer mission to damascus follow syria's membership of the organization being suspended

but jordan professor and journalist. should not be lecturing another arab country. talking about reforms in syria especially when this kind of talk is coming from out of gulf states where. even a constitution yet on top of. our freedom of the media or the are that i to organize and political parties or organizations so this is this is just nonsense i mean when when someone who lacks the very basic tenets of democracy is preaching to syria or other arab states that are in the pendant or somewhat untie imperialist about democracy well that's what the senators seem has said we are going along with all our reforms on our agenda and our time and we need to see what those states have in the way of reform before they start preaching to us about reform this is obviously. an sos and see that has been instigated by night so and it's

cronies and the world. and later this hour the inside track on the nearest most monumental surveillance. major news. journalist. but we couldn't stop thinking. what if they make a mistake one of artes team of international correspondents mario shares her own experience and the nato strike zone and war torn tripoli. north korea is mourning the death of its later kevin jahleel who passed away from a heart attack at the age of sixty nine his death was announced on state t.v. on monday in an emotionally charged public statement the former world body is now lying in state in the capital pyongyang as north koreans continue to pay their final respects with millions of people being in the streets a funeral is planned for december twenty eighth news of the leader's death put

neighboring states on high alert japan called a special security meeting fearing instability in the region while south korea says its military is on stand by kim jong il's youngest son kim jong un has been proclaimed the new supreme commander tim beal and asia specialist who's written extensively on the korean region says it's still hard to predict the impact kim's death will have on events on the peninsula. the americans i think at the moment not moving forward because they want to. contain china so i would read. whether they will decide to do it they won't come back. we don't know if we have a smooth. in the north most likely. we will move forward. to following this new government in seoul we may

get. to be in the. previous. five years ago. if on the other. some sort of turmoil and. if the. opportunity. we may get from the start then. who knows what. after the fall of the gadhafi regime in libya revenge killings have become a common occurrence in the country stability peace and freedom from persecution are just a dream as tribal violence is on the rise has more. 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 gadhafi is home town of sirte there was behind a camera delivers a verdict would you work for gadhafi. and the captives themselves seem dat certain

about what's coming next. and scenes like these playing out a costly be as the rebels assisted by western powers so to liberate the country from gadhafi urban legends 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 our guard 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 more market afy 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 the doctors for all cities fear and hatred still reside in this neighborhood. obviously is a poor area and solved in tripoli were more margot had strong support base prior to his fleeing the district also has his name in a tourist prison a scene of torture and arbitrary killings but while gadhafi is gone the human rights abuses still remain valid from this area are still disappearing without a trace of their families are too scared to talk about that. this is probably the only place in all the beer with families of a logic get out his supporters can turn to for how mohammed formed and your earlier this year to investigate the fate of those who disappeared in good office prisons he is now primarily dealing with people who went missing under libya's 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 and 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 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 his in hospital maybe he's lost his memory or has no way of contacting us. they say hope dies last only bit it's still alive even if many people are going to boycott artsy tripoli. and it's believed that up to thirty thousand people were killed in the libyan civil

war that's a story that's dominated headlines and stay in one and has become one of the top ten world events that shaped the year here on our tea parties maria covered the revolution from inside libya and now looks back on our time 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 nato and qaddafi. could both blame each other if the scope killed. when our first night in tripoli we got a very warm welcome rixos hotel we stayed was just. away from.

his residence. and that was bombed that night as it had never been before and would never be wards. it was literally shaking in our rooms were moved even with the doors firmly closed my bed was just beside a glass wall i did to her into the room because i was scared that an explosion could destroy literally. my western colleagues explaining that. rixos hotel at the time was the safest place in the 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 some old 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 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. they were lying there. the cold tables still in pampers. and next morning nato confirmed. it had made a mistake intended target during last night's best strike in tripoli was

a military missile site. from our initial assessment is it appears that one weapon did not strike intended target due to a weapons systems. of course i wanted to meet khadafi or his son safe. every journalist did but that was kind of impossible. as you remember one day after a news conference my friend and a ton 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 enter 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 all it's all. 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 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 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 it's not the best interview safe was very sincere. very open and he thought always before answering that was really literally electricity in that truck. 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 two thousand and eleven which is now just a part of history for good. every day right up to the new year we'll bring you more personal reflections from our correspondents who saw the biggest stories of two thousand and eleven firsthand in

case you missed any you can see them all on our website. still ahead this hour christmas tragedy five separate terror attacks in nigeria dining stream the second half killed at least forty with the e.u. slamming restrictions on the sale of drugs used in the u.s. tax you convicts american officials are running out of options. iraq has been having deeper into political crisis since the final u.s. troop withdrawal earlier this week the country has been rocked by a massive bombing in baghdad which claimed at least seventy two lives on thursday it was the worst attack in months in iraq and its leaders in that 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 its promise to pull out the troops and insisted a stable country had been left behind but joseph a writer for the world socialist thinks the latest flare ups in the region are

a product of the u.s. occupation. this was not about you know securing iraq and giving it freedom it was about securing boil resources and in the process. tensions devastated the in our society and this is really the problem that you have different factions of the iraqi elite who are battling over power over control over resources including particular oil contracts and threatens to unravel into a civil war conflict the violence in iraq is very much a product of the occupation itself and you know that's really the source of the crisis facing your people with their in iraq uses light i mean look at what what does argumentation is produce. over one million people killed by some estimates thirty five percent of iraqi children. living doll is orphans just

a sort of infrastructure would be entire society has been scarred by this occupation by this war. on christmas day nigeria was rocked by a series of blasts targeting christian worshipers leaving at least forty dead most started on church doorsteps after attending christmas mass authorities acknowledged a lack of ambulances in the area and warned that casualty numbers may rise the radical muslim sect boko haram has claimed responsibility for the attacks the group was involved in prolonged violent clashes with military forces that have killed at least sixty in the past few days stephen leatherman a radio host and author from chicago says april's election results contributed to the unstable situation in the country. both will have the room may be an extremist islamic sect but the issue is our very political corruption crowing here zoom of asia your money. last equals the lections

were immersed in freedom here. still yonathan with the way he represents the christians about their for their eight year a year is a muslim here in the north they were marginalized eight year here they are being totally shut out of the system and in john it is a close western characters close to washington ties close big oil in the east their near east their mere entering the country or the big oil and let them just so the wealthy out of it if the people vets the agere the striving these arabs. the us commonly uses drugs to execute convicts but the local manufacture cease production last year and now the european union has restricted supplies of the fatal compound but some activists saying that the chemical used is far from humane

u.s. authorities may have difficulties finding a new source but as artie's ivor bennett explains the shortage could actually be making the situation 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. relies on european drugs for use of executions and without them they're going to be stuck and lives will be saved specific 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 they use in a three part lethal cocktail the end of it was being used to put the condemned inmate to sleep as another drug paralyzed before the final heart stopper was administered without batton 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. manufacturers ceased production last year american prisons though found an alternative source right here in west london that is fairly unassuming driving school buildings also shared by dream farmer a british firm exporting british drugs the u.s. 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 bob a 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 rows tantamount to torture this can cause excruciating pain if something goes wrong and because we have no tests we cannot guarantee that nothing will get around to people who are at risk of not being killed being tortured to death following our report danish manufacturer imposed their own restrictions to prevent printed barber tools misuse the new e.u. embargo covers eight barbiturates in total including. u.s. 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 that the us is. misusing those we can quickly have

a quick procedure at those to the list without going away to know that you saw it from lethal injection other methods like hanging in foreign squad a still sanctioned in the us but in now rarely used these new restrictions may not choke off the drug supply completely but it will certainly talk in the noose on america's controversial death penalty. might have been its london. coming up party special report about the people of both paul and india who decades on are suffering from the effects of one of the world's worst ever industrial disasters that's after recap of our main stories in just a couple minutes.